If you are familiar with our World Eclectic Radio website WBRiMedia.com, you know that Kolkata is not in any way lacking in talent as far as world-class independent bands are concerned. There is uncanny similarity between the fictitous band "033"in this latest Bangla Film of the same name, and the bands like Pseudonym & Glass Onion from Calcutta. 033 continues the recent trend of music band based movie making in India, perhaps aspiring to emulate the social movement called Rock & Roll half a decade ago primarily in the United States.

Actually, Calcutta has never been lacking in modernism as far as global music is concerned. I grew up with  a 33 1/3 RPM Vinyl LP Record that had Ananda Shankar playing the Rolling Stones classic "Jumping Jack Flash" and of  the iconic Jim Morrison's Doors classic "Light My Fire" on the Sitar - this was in the early 1970s when Mohiner Ghoraguli was aspiring to reach heights similar to the west. That record was also my first introduction to the revolutionary Moog synthesizer - and Robert Moog who passed away last year remains one my heroes.

Then came along Chandrabindoo, a "band" I particularly am disinclined to call a "band" - mainly because I find their attempts at social satire pretty patheitc and laughable, lacking the depth and the intellect found in songs by cerebral song writers like Gautam Chattopadhyay, America, Van Morrison et al. Every Chandrabindoo attempt has, for some reason, caused me to recall the famous insurance agent Jolyon Wagg in Tintin comics.

Hence, it is entirely unfortunate that the first Bengali movie with a central theme around a Bangla Band should have music directed by Chandrabindoo. There are seven Bengali Film Songs; ironically - one of them - Shohorer Ushnotomo Dine - is a Mohiner Ghoraguli cover by Chandrabindu. Sadder still, Rupam Isalm, who has a rock singer's voice rarely heard in Benaglis, is a full-time actor in the movie "033", and would have been a far better music director than Chandrabindoo.

By the way, as you probably know, 33 is the STD Code (Subscriber's Trunk Dial - a remnant of old direct long-distance trunk switching days of telephone exchanges) of the city of Kolkata, and the prefix 0 is the long-distance access code, hence "033" is what one dials if one is trying to reach a number in Calcutta from outsde the city's (now considerably vast) Local Calling area.

Since it is fashionable to invoke the might of the United States in a Music Band themed movie, a lady by the name of Mrinalini living in Philadelphia (one wonders why not Brooklyn or Detroit or New Orleans which are obvious choices) shows up in Kolkata for the first time in her life, and wants to produce a music video of the song 033 which is a big hit from the band 033.

About the band 033 -  an elderly Santiago (Sabyasachi) (intended to invoke Carlos Santana, you wonder ?) who owns a guitar store calle "G-Minor" as their god father, female vocalist Ria (Parno Mitra), Arnab (Rupam Islam) on vocals & guitars, Voodoo (Dhruv Mukherji) on drums, Rudra (Rudranil Ghosh) on keyboards, and Shom (presumably Sayan Munshi) as the lead guitarist / occassional vocalist / acoustic guitarist.

Shom & Mrilnalini (Sahana Goswami, who is a Probashi Bangali from Delhi) fall for each other,  it turns out they have the same Father, social and moral issues step in as is required in a Bengali movie, and so on and so forth.

033 (2009) 

Lead Cast: Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Swastika Mukherjee, Mumtaz Sarkar, Rudranil Ghosh, Shaheb, Dhruv Mookerji
Director: Birsa Dasgupta (the first feature film from the tele-film maker)
Music: Chandrabindu

If you have comments on the Bengali Film Songs of 033 or the new Bangla film itself, please post them below.