Chaman Bahaar Movie Review

Heartbreak with a dash of comedy

Chaman Bahaar is the story of Billu (Jeetendra Kumar), whose father and grandfather have been forest guards. He too wanted to carry on the tradition but an encounter with a bear scarred him for life. He decides to open a paan shop but to his misfortune, the road where the shop is situated starts seeing less traffic as the district headquarter gets shifted. But his fortune changes when the family of a high-ranking government officer comes and stays in the bungalow opposite his shop. They have a teenage daughter Rinku (Ritika Badlani) and soon all the young men in town develop the hots for her. A rivalry plays out between the son of a local politician Shiladitya Tiwari (Alam Khan) and a rich businessman Ashu Bhaiya (Ashwani Kumar) -- which is milked to the hilt by Somu (Bhuvan Arora) and Chhotu (Dherendra Kumar Tiwari), two slackers who survive by fooling people. After a while, Billu doesn’t like the fact that young men keep coming to his shop in order to catch a glimpse of Rinku as he too has fallen for her.

Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann, who has both written and directed the film, has kept a realistic hold on the proceedings. The film doesn’t have a Bollywood treatment, where the girl and the boy overcome class differences and run away together. Don’t expect a David Dhawan formula here. He doesn’t suddenly become the hero and makes the girl go gaga over him. The romance takes place in Billu’s imagination. He’s a simple, semi-literate paan vendor, who does get a serious bout of infatuation but nothing happens beyond that. He employs divide and rule tactics to get rid of the opposition but that’s his naivete at play here. He hasn’t yet grown up to the realities of life but learns a lot through his experience of falling in one-sided love. He gets physically sick when he finally understands that Rinku is leagues above him. It’s a sobering moment for him and easily the best scene of the film.

The director hails from Bilaspur and the film has been shot in Chhattisgarh. The setting is just right and the use of real locations lends it an air of authenticity. The small-town stalker behaviour has been captured correctly. On the minus side, we don’t get to see Rinku’s reaction to the constant fleet of stalkers she has been attracting. She seems to be oblivious to it all. We don’t even catch a glimpse of her feelings when she unwittingly becomes the focus of malicious gossip. We aren’t shown what her parents must be going through and all this that leaves a glaring gap in the story. The film is a tad slow, especially in the beginning. It takes a while to get going but keeps you engaged after the initial hiccups.

Jeetendra Kumar has sort of perfected the role of a small-town guy in his various comedy shows. He totally looked the part in his hit series Panchayat and aces the look here as well. In Panchayat, he played an educated young man forced by circumstances to become an administrative assistant to a sarpanch. Here, the lack of education is the main cause of angst. He’s forced to open a small shop as he has no other means to support himself. The actor takes us through Billu’s journey through denial, heartbreak and acceptance of his lot in life. Jeetendra essays the role with the natural finesse he’s known for. The film’s screenplay lacks the flair we have come to expect from his projects. Despite the flaws, the film does offer you a fresh take on unrequited love. The director should be lauded for not going for a Bollywood ending.

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