Sunday 26 April 2009

Chowrasta (Crossroads of Love) [2009]


Anjan Dutt’s latest directorial venture Chowrasta revolves around a place that is very close to his heart – a place that featured regularly in his songs when he was a troubadour. Darjeeling may have been the source of inspiration for Dutt, however this nostalgic take on the queen of Indian hill stations ends up concentrating more on her squalor than her beauty, perhaps because Dutt failed to find the Darjeeling that is forever captured in his memory. Consequently, the movie has ended up being a very hazy and ambiguous portrayal of the place and her people. The characters are thus either embittered and lost souls, or like the narrator (a reflection of the director himself, and played with a lot of passion by Victor Bannerjee), incarcerated in a time freeze. The post-production seemed unpolished, and some of the subplots have been weakly done. And though Dutt’s previous movies like Bow Barracks Forever, Bong Connection and Chalo, Lets Go, all boasted of excellent soundtracks, this one disappoints on that count too. Perhaps the only contribution of the movie lay in making me want to visit Darjeeling once again, and feel the poetry on lost love and lost times (told through voiceovers) while enraptured by the majestic Kanchenjungha through early morning mist.








Director: Anjan Dutt
Genre: Drama/Ensemble Film/Romance
Language: Bengali
Country: India

15 comments:

Sthito said...

It also brought about a breath of fresh, unpolluted air, as if from the celluloid itself, in the sublime panorama of the sepia,misty sunsets.

Shubhajit said...

Yeah, that's true... Can't wait to feel it in person...

Bhargav Saikia said...

The promos looked pretty interesting. Is it a bilingual? (Bengali/Hindi)?

Shubhajit said...

It is bilingual, but not Bengali/Hindi. Rather its in Bengali with liberal spattering of English.

Ana said...

I need help! Where can i found this movie?

Ana said...

please, tell me. I want to watch it. Or tell me the name of the movie in your language(hindi,bengali). Sorry for my english :)

Shubhajit said...

This is a Bengali movie. I wouldn't recommend watching this film; but if you're really interested, I guess the only option would be to get a dvd from any of the music stores in Calcutta. I'd watched it in theatre when it had released, so I'm not very sure about the details.

Ana said...

Thank you for your answer. I am not from India. I will wait, maybe television from my country it will brodcast or i will watch on youtube when someone will upload it.

Shubhajit said...

Since you aren't from India, I'd be really interested to know how you heard about this film, and how did you become so interested in watching it?

Ana said...

I am from Romania :) I want to watch to all movie where Naved Aslam act.I don't know it is a good or bad movie but i want to see. In Romania, National Tv brodcasts Pavitra Rishta and there was the first time when i saw his performance. We also have two TV channels which brodcast only indian movies, Bollywood TV and Bollywood Classic. In my country, it is a mixture of tv series( korean series, indian serias, romanian series, south america series, english series and many others.

Shubhajit said...

Ana, great to know that you're from Romania. Know what, since I love East European cinema, someday I'd love to visit some of the East European countries, including Romania.

Do let me know if you have a Facebook account, so that I can add you there.

I'm also mildly surprised that you get Indian TV series & movies on TV there, and that you're fond of Naved Aslam. Thanks a lot for sharing this information about your country - as its indeed a surprise for me.

Just a small clarification, Bollywood (which is the Hindi-language film industry based in the Indian city of Bombay/Mumbai) is not Indian cinema, but a part of Indian cinema. Movies are made in various other cities & languages in the country.

Ana said...

I did not know the difference between movies until now.

I have a facebook account, i sent you a messege. you don't have "add friend" but you can send me a requests

The boolywood movies are especially commercial, Mr. Singh/Mrs. Mehta and 8 X 10 Tasveer are first movies I've seen that is not in bollywood style. Vaada, i think is also a different movie.

Shubhajit said...

I did not get any message from you. The 'add friend' option is also active in my page. I guess you might have visited some other person's page :) Search for the name "Shubhajit Lahiri". Alternatively, let me know your complete name/profile name so that I can search you.

Ana said...

Strange thing. This is your facebook account http://www.facebook.com/shubhajit.lahiri and my account http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004444534442

Shubhajit said...

Yeah strange indeed, as you did get to my account. Anyway, I've sent you a friend request - so hopefully the situation is now resolved :)