Chowrasta (Crossroads of Love) [2009]

Anjan Dutt’s latest directorial venture Chowrasta revolves around a place that is very close to his heart – a place that featured regularly in his songs when he was a troubadour. Darjeeling may have been the source of inspiration for Dutt, however this nostalgic take on the queen of Indian hill stations ends up concentrating more on her squalor than her beauty, perhaps because Dutt failed to find the Darjeeling that is forever captured in his memory. Consequently, the movie has ended up being a very hazy and ambiguous portrayal of the place and her people. The characters are thus either embittered and lost souls, or like the narrator (a reflection of the director himself, and played with a lot of passion by Victor Bannerjee), incarcerated in a time freeze. The post-production seemed unpolished, and some of the subplots have been weakly done. And though Dutt’s previous movies like Bow Barracks Forever, Bong Connection and Chalo, Lets Go, all boasted of excellent soundtracks, this one disappoints on that count too. Perhaps the only contribution of the movie lay in making me want to visit Darjeeling once again, and feel the poetry on lost love and lost times (told through voiceovers) while enraptured by the majestic Kanchenjungha through early morning mist.





Director: Anjan Dutt
Genre: Drama/Ensemble Film/Romance
Language: Bengali
Country: India