3 Review(s)

CHANDNI BAR Mumtaz (Tabu) is a young village woman whose family is killed in communal riots. She moves to Mumbai with her uncle, the only family member she has left. They are desperately poor and her uncle persuades her to become a bar girl at Chandni Bar. This is merely temporary, he promises, until he gets a job. Mumtaz is shy and loathes the work, but she forces herself to dance and flirt. However, the uncle doesn't keep his promise; he lives on her earnings, drinking them away, and never gets a job. He adds one final, unforgivable crime to the list when he gets drunk and rapes her. By this time she has caught the eye of a gangster called Potiya Sawant (Atul Kulkarni). When she tells Potiya what her uncle did to her, Potiya decides to "defend her honor." Potiya kills the uncle and marries her. She lives with him for several years and gives birth to a son, Abhay, and daughter, Payal. She wants Abhay and Payal to be educated and stay far away from her world of dancing girls and Potiya's gangsters. Potiya gets in the bad books of other gangsters, loses his connections, becomes a target for the police, and is killed in a planned encounter, leaving Mumtaz to return back to dancing at the Chandni Bar. PAGE 3 Madhavi Sharma (Konkona Sen Sharma) arrives in Mumbai and soon lands a journalist job. Her boss Deepak Suri (Boman Irani) gives her the task of reporting celebrity news. She begins her journey in the glitzy and glamorous world of celebrity lifestyle working on Page 3. Her roommate Pearl Sequiera (Sandhya Mridul) is an air hostess and wants to marry for money. Gayatri Sachdeva (Tara Sharma) later joins them. She is an aspiring actress and gets involved with a leading actor Rohit Kumar (Bikram Saluja). When she tells him she is pregnant he suggests she have an abortion. Depressed and shattered, she unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide and in the process loses her unborn child. Meanwhile, Pearl marries a wealthy old man and moves to the United States. Madhavi plans to expose Rohit (by writing an article on his relationship with Gayatri), but her editor kills the article and she is forced to apologise to Rohit. Madhavi finds out that her boyfriend is gay when she finds him in bed with her best friend Abhijeet (Rehaan Engineer). As soon as Madhavi begins to get disillusioned with her job, she declares that the party is over for her. She soon realises that the glamorous world of celebrity life is not as glamorous as it seems. Gayatri, who supposedly returned to Delhi, sleeps with a director and gets cast in a movie. TRAFFIC SIGNAL This film is about the lives and travails of people living around a fictitious traffic signal in Mumbai. Anybody who drives in Mumbai has experienced the 2-odd minute wait at a traffic signal. But do you know that you contribute to the economy at that signal The traffic signal includes a microcosm of people who derive their daily livelihoods from it. There are beggars (kids and adults), prostitutes, tricksters, eunuchs and others who sell clothes, flowers and trinkets. They speak quickly, act fast and operate somewhat honorably (with each other) to eke a meager living out of the harsh Mumbai street life. They owe allegiance and hafta (weekly "protection" fee) to the Signal Manager, Silsila (Kunal Khemu). Silsila grew up at the signal. He ran various trades at the signal before he became the Manager. He is an ideal manager: sensitive and caring of his workers yet ruthless when it comes to delivery. Silsila reports into a mid-level don, Jaffar, who in turn reports to the big boss Haji bhaijaan. Life is well at the signal. A gentle young girl, Rani (Neetu Chandra), arrives at the signal to sell ethnic clothes. The initial fireworks blossom into deeper companionship with Silsila. Everything proceeds normally.