I love it how during a film festival in every city, everyone becomes so articulate about film vocabulary. Even the most rasta-chaap (street-side) person starts to eloquently use words such as protagonist, antagonist and Cinéma vérité. Quite funny how the most simplest conversation turns out to sound so loaded and intelligent. :P

The Bong Connection (2006)
The Bong Connection, directed by Anjan Dutt, produced by Joy Ganguly (Moxie Entertainments)

The story revolves around two boys and two girls – Peeya Rai Chowdhary is an NRI settled in the US, Raima Sen stays in Kolkata, Shayan Munshi (Jhankaar Beats) comes to Kolkata to commercialise folk Bengali music, while Parambrata, who has no respect for his native place, flies off to join a software company in the US. The story unfolds to paint a delightful ( yet sometimes esoteric) picture of the trials and tribulations that a bong faces in and outside India. (sourced and edited from Rediff)

Before i start writing my two paise’s worth, its imperative that i tell y’all that ‘BONG’ is an urban term used to refer to ‘bengali’ and does not only refer to our thumb happy cannabis inhaler utility :P )

I thought Anjan Dutt’s tribute to Satyajit Ray was appropriately poignant. The fact that he named one of the lead actors Apu was delightful. Whereas Apu ( from the original Ray classics of Apu’s trilogy ) travelled from the village to the city, it was super-refreshing to see the modern day Apu in a similar situation.

… and oh yea !! i totally pissed myself laughing at the Bangladeshi Cabby and his ‘at times’ overacting tendencies. This fella was so obviously influenced by the likes of Al Pacino and De Niro that he simply had to squeeze in a testimonial to them as well. :) Hilarious!

All in all, i enjoyed the film and felt that the depiction of Kolkatta in all its bongness was portrayed in much better light than the NRI counterpart of the film. Perhaps thats only because there were far more compelling characters on one side than the other. The overzealous cabby and the hispanic hooligans leaves a bitter aftertaste only to be sweetened up by the rather amusing speil about the variety of ilish mach (hilsa fish) in Kolkatta. Nonetheless, an enjoyable film that does tickle a few bong bones in my body. Check out the website: The Bong Connection

( gosh.. raima here looks a lot like a moose i once used to know :| )