"Chaman Bahaar" | Heartland whiff

Debutant writer-director Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann’s effort harks back to the way tele-films used to be made for ‘Doordarshan’ once upon a time. ‘Chaman Bahaar’ unfolds at an unhurried

pace to narrate a story of old-world simplicity, a trait personified by the film’s hero Jitendra Kumar with understated ease.

Kumar plays heartland boy Billu, who refuses to obey his father’s diktat and takes up a ‘sarkari job’ in the forest department.

So much to his father’s annoyance, Billu sets up a ‘paan dukaan’ along the highway in their sleepy town of Raipur. Reality bites soon enough, for business in that part of the town is no longer what it used to be.

‘Chaman Bahaar’ tries giving that familiar picture of struggle in small town India a spin seeped in bittersweet humour and irony. The ‘Billus’ of the world, dozing half their days off in desolate wayside kiosks, are not supposed to moon over a luxury emotion as love. Yet, that is precisely what happens to Billu one fine day, when a flashy car draws up in front of the empty house opposite his shop and a huge truck starts unloading goods.

The narrative tries creating its humour and irony with what happens next. It seems Billu is not the only guy in town who is floored by the girl. Suddenly, his shop is milling with young male customers. All of them want to take as much time as possible at his shop, to catch a glimpse of the girl. Business booms, but Billu is disgusted. He is quietly in love with the girl, after all.

For Jitendra Kumar, the journey from his ‘TVF’ stint via ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’ to ‘Chaman Bahaar’ has been highlighted by a steady progress as an actor and is evident in the way he brings alive the emotions of the normally shy Billu, despite not being accorded many dialogues. His act would seem like the primary fulcrum that holds a film that doesn’t seem to have much of a story to tell.

Badgaiyann’s debut directorial feature struggles all along to find a solid enough USP that may act as click-bait, jostling as it will be for attention on the ‘Netflix’ home page among nearly 200 films. The tack of setting up a plot around a small town dream, to mirror random slices of ordinary life, has been tried out before. Badgaiyann dwells on caste and class divide that blatantly dictate societal decorum in a town as Raipur.