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There are ways in which one follows a different culture, a different set of values, beliefs and mannerisms. It’s all highly subjective, but you do grow to be more inclined towards a particular way of life and less inclined towards the other. Your beliefs keep changing as you move through life. Lessons learnt, and stories heard.

Similar is the case with me. I see Bengali culture as an assortment of colors. Good bad ugly unforgettable, and like that.
Films make sense to me for the most or least weird reasons in the world. But sometimes, films are fun even if they have to scream to reach you. This entire hurdle to the screaming bit sometimes gets more visible while one is reacting to a medium. In cinema, that part manifests in the look of a film, the camera and the likes.

A film works on multiple levels. The story, the way the story is realized on screen, the actors, their mannerisms, what they are on and off screen or at least from what appears to the discerning eye. The world view of the film, the world of the film. The rules of this particular world weaved in the film as a recipe of narrative, dialogues, scenes and how the whole amalgamation feels eventually. The way one reacts to all these constituents of cinema, the formative elements of a film as a structural end-product, varies from me to you to everyone we know.

The Bong Connection, I thought, was a pretty decent watch. For all it does and not, for all it depicts and hides and for all it leaves.

I might be an involuntary outsider where Bengali sensibilities are concerned, but considering that as an excuse for my outgivings, the film rightly captures culture as perceived mostly in the contemporary world, well at least most of the parts.
There are aspirations that the characters are involved in, some as a gift, some as a buck and some as a burden. This very approach works best for the film, which gives it a relatable attribute. Something you can relate to.

Agreed some bits are replete with senseless flourishes and tend to venture the incoherent, but the undercurrent is thankfully truthful in its intentions. And that is where it makes a difference.

The characters in this film say what we want them to say. Nothing esoteric or high-tea philosophical. But what happens prior and after to the time and space in which the decisions are made give the film its own life, its own language, which makes you feel the characters exist in flesh and blood somewhere amongst you.

The troubled wife, the disillusioned man on a mission, the fresh from Houston bong who returns to explore the very roots that inspire him to this day, the assorted potpourri of relatives and nobodies, constitute the rather large cast of The Bong Connection.
I liked the guy who plays the ubercool rich Bengali-but-not-a-bengali(there is three of them in the film – Victor Bannerjee included, should stop hamming now). He had some good stares, and screen mechanics.

Shaayan Munshi is surprisingly good, I really felt he was ‘into’ the film, especially towards the last few scenes, where his character goes in for some revelations and confrontations. The end is a bit hurried though. They could have just ended at Shayan leaving the Calcutta home.
The whole homeless/nostalgia bit gets a little saturating at times. Or at least what I felt. And that is the reason that spoiled the Bangladeshi guy’s character. Though the actor was good, he just got too much ‘into’ it and suffocated the life of the poor character.
Peeya Roy Choudhary has this knack of thinking while she acts, me thinks. And though it might distract you in midst of the goings-on, I thought it was pretty cool. The scene where she reunites with the confused Bong guy is pretty interesting, thanks to Peeya’s distracting qualities.
Raima Sen. Now that’s another interesting actor. She is a natural. She won’t always be the same in a film. You will see her in her full bloom in few scenes while not that ‘into’ in some others. I thought her song bits were lame. She was very impressive though in all her conversational scenes. My pick would be the first and last time they meet.

The guy who gets hyper on the word ‘opportunist’ in the final scene is damn cool too in his transitions. I must say the anger translates well across the screen, and becomes a real true blue live wire Bengali heated argument.

Few scenes I liked more than the others were the first rushing to US scene(family in a frenzy), the Calcutta party with the Ad agency CD guy, the one odd sex scene with Peeya which was not to be, the cross cuts in the Houston Bong party(damn hilarious; I had to see it 3 times), the studio ‘old instrument’ session, and the allusions to Ray’s Apu(the only scene in which Victor Bannerjee is watchable). Bad scenes are galore but thanks to the few good ones and enjoyable too at that, they don’t really spoil the entire film. What also makes the film work as a whole and linger for a while, is its thick undercurrent of the entire US issue. And it’s commendable how it has been looked at from different angles – people who want to go back for good, people who want to buy the illusion for what it gives, people who live in denial, people who can’t make up their mind, and people who are all these and more, in parts.

Since I had a lot to say about Bow Barracks Forever, the last Anjan Dutt film I saw, this film completed the circle for me(thanks to Pratim & Jishnu). Bow Barracks was actually a film that made talking about it a fun exercise for me, I expected a similar excursion in Bong Connection, but it left me a tad surprised. I would say the film stood at its feet in places, a fact that takes away its credentials as a film to remember and leave it at a surprisingly honest and well thought film.