When I made Bong Connection, I had faced severe criticism from many Bengali quarters that I ( the serious arthouse actor of Mrinal Sen) was getting into extremely frivolous and irresponsible cinema. The hand-held, gritty camera work was labelled as shoddy. The continuous jump cuts, jarring. Neel Dutt’s Oo la la refrain slapped onto Tagore’s pristine Pagla hawa, shameful… I was guilty of not telling a sensitive story in a neat fashion. But a huge number of audience loved it. And so did many young, aspiring movie-makers. Mainak Bhaumik happened to be my associate director at that time. A rather cheeky and argumentative Bong boy from New York, who steadfastly supported my so-called irresponsible adventure. I found him not only extremely well-versed in American New Wave (my passion) but also in Bengali art cinema….

Watching Aami Aar Amaar Girlfriends directed by the same boy, who has grown up to become a somewhat sought-after director today, I recalled my adventurous self of the early 2000. I wept, despite uncontrollable laughter, ’cause I realised I’m almost 60 and my time’s running out. You guys out there need to know that ‘popular’ cinema or music cannot be practised by those who are aged (in mind and spirit). It’s all about being in sync with the times. Lamenting the past is easy, if not passe, but to be with the times needs not only balls but boobs that don’t give a damn to the traditional. AAAG does exactly that. It literally forces you to celebrate the Bong women of Today in today’s terms.

I decided to write this because I can see many of you raise your shoulders, eyebrows and nose and call this film not wholesome, simply because you are still prudish when it comes to sex in cinema. You still like to believe that feminist cinema is still about a ‘social realist’ stance and not a ‘sexual’ one. You still would laugh your guts out when men say ‘gandu’ but curl up when females do. You still would like to ‘forgive’ females for their sexual irresponsibility and not say ‘Hey, you too have the right’. After many years, here is a film about women which is not at all ‘apologetic’. That’s what makes it so brave. It has a voice of its own. A voice and visual that is unabashed and unpretentious. Beneath the garb of huge wit and humour, AAAG is truly nouvelle vague. It gives a damn to the outdated, middle-class, chauvinistic prudishness that still many of us cling on to in the name of ‘good taste’.

Three great girlfriends are trapped in their sexuality and continuously squabble about their male fantasies, drown it all in beer and the sea, to go back and start squabbling again to suddenly find their true selves. Despite being bitchy, blabbering, foul-mouthed, confused, crazy and irresponsible, they all turn out to be such adorable human beings that you can’t help but fall for them.

Here is where Mainak wins as a storyteller. A story that teases, flirts, disturbs, shocks but grabs your heart. His sense of wit is his strength. As you get knocked around while watching, you are actually laughing all through. The hand-held, unsettling camera, the ceaseless jump cuts and raunchy pop rock songs succeed in making this perhaps the first Bong ‘flick’ and not the usual ‘film’, that earlier Mainak’s work or even Birsa’s (Dasgupta, with all his abilities) couldn’t quite achieve. Though, despite my reservations on Jaani Dyakha Hawbe, I am still pinning my hopes on Birsa’s Obhishopto Nighty. Though I immensely love Quentin Tarantino or our very own Kanti Shah, I will never try to attempt a ‘flick’, ’cause my roots are too deep into Billy Wilder, Robert Wise or Vijay Anand. But that my two younger colleagues are driving towards the true ‘urban pulp’ in Bangla excites me immensely. Mainak gets away like a candy in a coffee ’cause he is totally unabashed about being ‘hip’ and makes no attempt to sugar-coat it with safe Bengali sentiments. I don’t know who the colourist is but the constant use of green and blue filters comes terribly handy.

Now, if you guys are wondering what the heck I’m blabbering about, no sweat. All I’m saying is that it’s time we all open our pants and arms to ‘having sheer fun’ and not nag about the age-old tradition of ‘bhalo Bangla cinema’ and its equally outdated socio-cultural relevance. ’Cause times have changed, bud. ’Cause no matter whether censors call it healthy or right, any teen with the flick of their finger can watch porn, soft or hard, on their computer today. ’Cause there are a lot of sexy brand ambassadors on TV but no sex education. So, let’s admit that we are undernourished in terms of what is intellectually sexy. We don’t even know how to identify it. So, here is Mainak offering you the chance to see yourself as you are and laugh at yourself, male/female. Yes, AAAG was to me a very intellectually and sexually stimulating movie. If you have issues with the word ‘intellectual’ here, check out Woody Allen.

Swastika (Mukherjee), Parno (Mittra) and Raima (Sen), the three main actors, prove that they not only have great boobs but balls as well! Exactly in that order, I want to celebrate their skills. Swastika as the sexually starved wife, Parno as the clumsy, ugly duckling desperate for a date and Raima with her wig that does not hide her sensitive heart make mincemeat of all the male actors in this movie. Somehow Biswanath (Bose), as the confused loner in search of true love with his laptop, manages to float. Swastika’s simply outstanding and outrageous Sreemoyee makes her one of the bravest actors in Bangla cinema today. Her foul-mouthing coupled with her sad eyes reminded me of Jennifer Lawrence. Parno’s shameless performance made me wonder why she could not deliver this punch in my own Ranjana.... Raima, for the first time ever, proves that her acting is more stunning than her looks. My only bone of contention is that Mainak could have made Anubrata act more innocent and improve on Neel Mukhopadhyay’s atrocious hamming. You have to be careful as to who you are pitching Swastika against these days. Her lazy intensity butchered Shauvik in Maach Mishti & More. Now her comic timing simply kills Neel. Vikram showed some promise but a crazily sexy and phlegmatic Parno simply whacks him out of the field. The scene where Parno attempts to kiss Vikram reminded me of Param (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) and Piya’s (Rai Chaudhuri) clumsy kiss in Bong Connection. But Mainak’s strength is that he pulls off the scene. Parno rattles her best lines and walks away without her heels in the night, lit by passing car headlights, making it one of the best sequences in the movie.

Since this movie is all about being unabashed, I would like to give a big hug to Neel Dutt for all the songs in the movie. Let’s not be squeamish folks and allow a father to salute his son in public. I only wish he would give my films such heavy dose of pop rock. Though I felt Ure ure jachhe cellophane was the best-written song, Keno hochche erom wins hands down because of VFX used very successfully by Mainak, as Swastika and Anubrata smoke a joint. However Ichhe hoy tai simply steals the show in the end. The background score, however, is not on a par with the songs (which the duo Mainak and Neel brilliantly achieved in Maach Mishti & More).

Now Rik Basu, I know you are flashy, you are young and desperate to break rules. But being just flashy is not what movie business is all about, bud. You could have clipped many parts (say 30/40 frames here and there, throughout) and the movie would have been so much tighter, more effective. But you really did a fantastic job with the first scene where the girls are dressing up ceaselessly. Salute to Mainak for ending the movie with Raima and Biswanath refusing to dress up.

So folks, I guess I have been able to motivate you to go for AAAG and have a ball. Go for it right now, ’cause it’s the first two weeks that make a huge difference to the fate of any film. If you want to be ‘in’ and not a wannabe, go for it today. As for me, even Farhan (Akhtar) couldn’t make me want to revisit Dil Chahta Hai. But after AAAG, I’ve already started writing a script called Garam Garam Galpo.

Having watched AAAG, do you agree with Anjan? Tell t2@abp.in