Madly Bangalee is a Bengali rock band that inspires the film’s title. They rehearse in a dowdy garage of Kolkata, owned by Bobby (Lew Hilt), who owns Bobby’s Garage. Four young boys with stardust in their eyes practise their numbers not knowing what they are really aiming at. But the garage is under threat from none other than the South Kolkata don Baburam (Chandan Sen) whose language is either the muzzle of a gun or a cello-tape stuck to his target’s you-know-where. One morning, an elderly man whose name has been shortened from the Bengali Sandip to the Americanised San (Anjan Dutt), lands up from “America and Paris” with an imaginary cell-phone whose “SIM-card is not compatible to the Indian ambience.” He is Bobby’s peg-sharing friend. He forces himself on the youngsters as manager of the band. But he is no Brian Epstein so their four youngsters can hold a candle that is even remotely close to the Beatles. San is a failure. As self-appointed manager of the band, he creates trouble between Pablo and his girlfriend Tanya (Anasuya) coerced to turn main vocalist by San. She withdraws to fly away to UK on her scholarship, cutting ties forever. Benji’s (Anubrata) girlfriend Joy (Roshni) gets pregnant. Bobby escorts the couple to the nearest nursing home to do the needful. Baaji, (Sumit) the drummer who is a Muslim had to drop out of school. He escapes from the trap of turning a terrorist like his older brother Suleiman. He later becomes a police officer who bashes up everyone who tries to bribe him. Neon (Tanaji) plays the rhythm guitar but, sucked into the world of drugs, he disappears from the face of the earth with his guitar. Pablo, (Kanti), lead singer, bass guitarist and lyricist, leaves for the US and the group breaks up. Bobby dies, Baburam turns into a helpful ally and San ends up where he was - a failure.

Technical Expertise
Madly Bangalee is rendered in flashback like a tale Benji, now married to Joy with kids in tow, looks back on as ‘the foolishness of youth.’ The film is peppered with all that one needs to turn an unusual beat into adult entertainment. It has boozing sessions San and Bobby take together; it has the sad backdrop of fragmented families the boys come from, except Benji, the reasonable among the four; it has disturbed, less-than-perfect parents expecting perfection from their growing, restive children; it captures the seamier lanes and bylanes that entrap the spirit of the city, away from the glamour and the glitz of shopping malls and polished skyscrapers; it has dreams that easily turn into nightmares and vice versa; it has beautiful, magical and memorable music and song numbers by the strapping young Neel Dutt. Chandan Sen bags the top prize in the acting department as Baburam with his brilliant sense of timing and his no-nonsense dialogue, followed by Lew Hilt, a bass guitarist in real life who makes a striking debut as Bobby. One sees more of Anjan than San in Anjan Dutt’s portrayal. Saswata Chatterjee as Neon’s alcoholic father, Sudipa Basu as his flustered mother and Siddharth Chatterjee as Pablo’s father draw the most out of the roles they have been given to essay. Like most youngsters, the Big Six are naturally awkward at some places and arrogant at others. Indraneel Mukherjee’s cinematography is captivating and the same applies to the production designer.

What’s wrong? There are glitches that, if avoided, could have made Madly Bangalee an even better film. One, the lectures on the evil link between rock music and drugs, delivered in talking heads style by Bickram Ghosh, Sid (of Cactus), Rupam and Debjyoti Misra stand out like sore thumbs. Two, San’s long lecture to Baaji, explaining the difference between dharma and politics is out of place. This is a film of passion, music and love so why oratory? Three, San’s telling Pablo that he has a son somewhere who is Pablo’s age, is overly sentimental. Four, San shedding tears when his aunt recalls his unhappy past, is a melodramatic touch one does not generally expect in an Anjan Dutt film.
Verdict
The film deserves one star for acting, one for music and one for direction.