The Bong Connection - 2007

Story

This is the story of two young men trying to achieve their dreams in a foreign land. Both For one, Kolkata is dying and stagnant. For the other. Kolkata is still the Mecca of culture and arts. Two stories that run parallel, erratically, never quite merging, yet colliding. A warm hearted, hilarious, yet deeply touching drama about two men in this crazy, global world.

Apu?s (Parambrata) story is a socio-comic adventure in Houston from Kolkata, amongst second-generation youths who are not at all Indians, who befriends this Bengali girl called Rita (Piya Rai Chaudhary). He shares an apartment with his office colleague Chris, who is a gay and whom Apu finds difficult to adjust to and his boss Garry (Victor Banerjee) an immigrant of Bengal but now has turned a typical Republican American.

The streets of Houston at night are too violent and he is mugged. U.S. is not at all like the Hollywood dreamland that he had imagined to be. It is a ruthless world and Apu has to undergo sheer physical pressure that he never faced in his secure, pampered home in Kolkata.

Andy (Shayan Munshi) is a 26-year-old second generation Bengali, born and brought up in New York. He is a brilliant guitarist and has a tremendous inclination towards Indian classical and folk music, specially a typical Bengali folk ?baul?. He sets off to Kolkata. Andy?s story is about his various attempts to come to terms with Kolkata?s reality which is completely alien to him. At this point Sheela (Raima Sen) gets friendly with him and shows him around. He neither can adjust to the growing non-Bengali disco culture of ?Tantra?, nor can he empathize with the pettiness and mediocrity of the traditional Bengalis who are eventually losers.

The film is essentially on a comic vein. Serious, important issues regarding globalization are dealt through comic, humorous scenes. The style is wacky, neo and never verge on old-fashioned melodramatic sentiments. Yet very touching, very moving moments will hold the humour and comedy in tact. There will be a constant shift between the ?funny? and the ?touching?. The songs will all be the new age Bengali rock/folk
Kolkata, in its own way, makes Andy release his inner self. Houston makes Apu a tougher, more adventurous Bengali. Andy and Apu return to their lands to pursue and better their dream.

Both Andy and Apu needed to find themselves. They find their identities and their strength in foreign lands. Kolkata, in its own way, makes Andy release his inner self. New York makes Apu a tougher, more adventurous Bengali.