Raj Gaurav Debnath: Bada Din

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I was a huge fan of Anjan Dutta ever since his first music album SHUNTEY KI CHAO had released in the year 1994. I used to listen to all his audio cassettes every single day. So when I got the news that he was directing a hindi film then I was really excited. I was really looking forward to this film. I knew from my heart that this film would be totally different from other mainstream films of Bollywood.

BADA DIN released on 23rd January 1998. I was then sixteen years old. The songs of the film had released earlier. The music was by Jatin Lalit and the songs were peppy and had a feel good factor in them. The lyrics were written by Javed Akhtar. The song "Meri Aankhon Mein" was already a hit. The song "Suno Zara" was hauntingly beautiful. The song "Kehta Hai Yeh Safar" was very nice. It had a beautiful line - "Dekhu jaha jau jaha mil jayeghi waha har cheez ki dukaan, Sirf kahi miltaa nahi zazbaat ka nishaa". The song "Betaab Hum Awaara Hum Hai" had a rock song feel to it. The song "Behoshi Tan Man Mein" was seductive. The song "Naa Koi Tera" was very catchy. The weakest song in the album was "Oonche Neeche Parbaton Ke".

The movie was produced by Gramco Films which was a division of HMV. The movie starred Shabana Azmi, Marc Robinson and Tara Deshpande. Tara had already made a name for herself with the film "Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin" which had released in 1996. This film also had Alok Nath and Irfan Khan. In those days Irfan Khan used to spell his name like this only. Later on he added an extra "r" to his name and changed it into Irrfan Khan.

When I first saw this film I did not like it at all. Marc Robinson could not act properly. His acting basically spoiled the film. Tara Deshpande was too stiff and failed miserably in the emotional scenes. Though Shabana Azmi gave a stellar performance. Alok Nath was good. Abhay Chopra was very good. The young boy Sanjay Pathak was good too. The feel of the songs did not go well with the general feel of the film. The storyline was indeed different from other mainstream Bollywood films of that time. I personally feel that it would have been nicer if Anjan Dutta himself was the music director of this film. And I also did not like the name BADA DIN. I think the film should have been called MERRY CHRISTMAS because of the last scene.

Marc Robinson was playing the character of David Dawson who was an Anglo Indian singer and musician. Shabana Azmi played the character of Lilian who was also an Anglo Indian and she was David's landlady. Over all these years Anjan Dutta has said in many interviews that he loves making films about the marginalised communities of Calcutta.

In 1998 Anjan Dutta launched his sixth solo music album called CHOLO BODLAY. This album had a song called DUSHTU GAAN which literally means a naughty song. This song is about a film producer forcing the director of the film to insert a naughty song in the film just to titillate a certain section of the audience. Interestingly in the film BADA DIN too there was a titillating cabaret song called "Behoshi Tan Man Mein".

This film was shot mainly in Calcutta. Recently I again watched this film on Youtube after 23 years. I loved seeing the old Calcutta in the film. Loved seeing the yellow and black taxis.