mumbai madhur bhandarkar is getting used to the wages of mistaken celebrity director of the powerful justreleased chandni bar starring tabu he says people come up to ask tabu for autographs then if im standing beside her they ask me for my autograph as well nobody recognises me no so if im wearing dark glasses they think im the hero he grins theres a downtoearth marathi manus quality about bhandarkar no blond streaks in the hairat least not yet but already his attention span works in fidgety bursts between answering calls on his mobile he banters in a disarming minglish arre tabu has no hangups only we were always joking and talking bhankas on the sets arre when i saw this man only i said lock kar do isko when finalising the casting for the film haila you got the wrong mobile number for all that chandni bar packs a mean punch not in the way ram gopal varmas satya did bhandarkar once assisted him but it is a most convincing paean to mumbais beer bar dancersand the dignity and fighting spirit of women who are exploited that is rare in mainstream hindi cinema tabu is simply fabulous as the beer bar dancer mumtaz and its dialogue by mohan azaad and masud mirza crackles with the whitehot embers of mumbais underbelly patois but what will be the fate of a film that breaks four commandments of the mainstream boxoffice in one fell swoop it has no hero it persistently puts down men as total el creepos it holds out no hope at the end it has no new songs phew but bhandarkar is cool i played it safe with my first film trishakti with action comedy and songs but now i wanted to show reality as it is ultimately men are like that people may think it is downmarket but when they see it they will choke it is very emotional disturbing and will change their perspective so does he expect his film to recover its cost from the tapori crowd and hope for an overflow from the feminists and intellectuals no i think the indian audience is mature enough for a womanoriented film across classes in fact he is convinced it will work even without new songs his horrified friends had warned him bewakoof dochar gaane dal do audio kya bikega fortunately for him he says when he told his producer r mohan of shlok films that he did not want songs in his film as they would hamper the tempo he stood by him it all started when bhandarkar first visited the dasi ladies beer bar in andheri east i was fascinated by the ambience the smoke the lighting the jarring music the women dancing and whispering into the customers ears after visiting two to three bars i decided to make a film on these women my friends said pagal ho kya aur kuch nahin mila but id made up my mind and i did more research