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Sugar and acid

Suparn Verma

Tara Deshpande in Bombay Boys

Bombay Boys is the latest of the upcoming low budget independent films being made by a new generation of directors. And the novelty -- and the rejection of the accepted -- shows up everywhere in the film.

The film begins with three lads arriving at Sahar airport. Ricardo Fernandes (Rahul Bose) from Sydney is searching for his brother, Krishna Sahni (Naveen Andrews) from NYC is searching for stardom and Xerxes Mistry (Alexander Gifford) from London is searching for himself.

The pre-paid cabbies that line up outside the airport learn that all the three NRIs are all searching for digs in the city and cut cost by bundling them together in one cab.

Andrews quickly lands up in the clutches of Mastana (Naseeruddin Shah), a psychotic B-grade movie producer, who wants to make a flop film to write off the profits from his other businesses. Mastana is delighted with the terrible screen test Krishna gives and picks the reluctant young man to play the hero for his film, Mumbai Banditos.

Ricardo, who spends his day trying to find his brother, by evening is smitten by Mastana's moll, Dolly (Tara Deshpande), who he meets at a party thrown by Mastana to announce the discovery of Krishna.

Naseeruddin Shah in Bombay Boys

Meanwhile, Xerxes runs into a group, The Bombay Boys (Luke Kenny, Randolph from Pentagram and Tarun Shahani), who, he is told, are "big in Bangladesh" and are the "coolest band since Antarctica". This group, which takes reductionism very seriously, puts together some thought-provoking lyrics, with words like 'Yeah' and 'Hey' comprising the entire song.

Alexander tries to render professional his passion for the violin and spends the rest of the pondering whether he is gay or straight. Pesi (Roshan Seth), his gay landlord, tries to woo him, but finally loses him to a good-looking stud.

Things come to a head for Ricardo when Mastana learns of Dolly's affair with Ricardo. Quite natural, considering Ricardo spends a lot of time singing Waltz in Matunga to Dolly, shopping in Fashion Street with her and, finally, getting beaten up by her bodyguards.

In Ricardo's case, you are reminded of his earlier film, English August, particularly when he is escorted by the police inspector to a room full of files, described as the "missing persons department". Maybe the déjà vu feeling has much to do with the fact that there too Bose was in a babu borough.

Tara Deshpande and Rahul Bose in Bombay Boys

Andrews is hilarious as the trained actor who gets totally involved with the film's storyline, one that involves his lover being forcibly married off to a man who she has never met and who has raped her sister, and murdered her mother to boot.

His big scene is when he speaks in accented Hindi to his screen lover about how much he loves and adores her, comparing her to the skies and the moon. But he looks lost beyond a point when he looks at the stand-in for her, a bald and bearded man.

Alexander has the vulnerability about him that his role demands. He performs with earnest enthusiasm, and his performance is a treat during a Bombay Boys session at a music shop. They are performing there because that's the only place they can get free the instruments they can't otherwise afford.

Bose's character is a bit of a spoof on the Hindi film hero, who faces all odds to woo his love.

Deshpande does a commendable job, with a performance that blends sensuality, street-smartness and vulnerability. One scene involving her that stands out is when Mastana tries to get her to be photographed with him and when he begins to kiss her forcibly and tries to get her to say she loves him.

Rahul Bose in Bombay Boys

The best performance comes, perhaps naturally, from Naseeruddin Shah, who is a sheer delight right from the first scene, where he pins a lizard on the wall with a knife. He delivers his tongue-in-cheek one-liners, and toys with the other characters on the screen. He is scary when he throws a violent tantrum and pathetic when he collapses at the thought of losing his moll. He is particularly chilling when he kills the director of the film. After the murder, he innocently inquires why a director was necessary at all, wouldn't a loudspeaker suffice? And then he hands the loudspeaker to a spot boy, making him the director of the film.

There is also a scene where the three protagonists run out of money and so do a striptease before a bunch of rich housewives whose husbands are away.

The women grab, fondle and generally have a great time. While such stripteases do happen in Bombay, the culture police active in the city could object to it being portrayed on screen.

The film has attitude and is fun, but, with an excess of one-liners, tends to dwell more than necessary on the foibles of the Hindi film industry, the underworld, and specially preconceived notions of foreigners about India.

One such scene is when a state official serves notice to the Bombay Boys, stating they will now have to change the name of the band to Mumbai Boys. Another is the one wherein Krishna watches the song Sarkilo khatiya in a theatre to understand Hindi films better.

Pesi, the gay landlord summarises a lot when he says, "We are the emotional dumping ground for the West, the world's cheapest shrink."

There are bits in the film where the storyline slackens and then picks up. But the hiatus can be a little trying.

The music, which involves a variety of artists, is "cool", keeping in with the general light-heartedness of the film. Trouble is, it is so easygoing that it's difficult to empathise with Ricardo when he finally finds his missing brother, or for to even to get emotionally involved in the love life of Ricardo and Dolly.

Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys is about overriding ambition, about a city "in extreme close-up", a place where love is a disposable tissue, a place that's a melting pot for every culture and opinion, where everyone tries to exist in claustrophobic space without treading on too many toes.

The writer clearly doesn't taking life too seriously and seems to satirise the lives of Bombayites, who take the most bizarre experiences in their stride. The film is a few rungs above its predecessors in the genre, Nagesh Kukunoor's Hyderabad Blues and Dev Benegal's English August.

The film isn't great, but it's fun. It doesn't elevate you, but it does hold a mirror, even if a distorted one, before the face of every Bombayite.