DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY
I was
looking forward to this film and so booked my tickets in advance and went alone
for the 0230PM show at Jagdamba Vizag today. It could be that I had high
expectations from the film or whatever but it did not excite me and all along
together with the quiet audience I was looking and searching for something to
take home but returned subdued. I had to pep up myself with a hot cup of coffee
and onion Uttapam at Sai Ram tiffin .
The film is set in the early forties of
Kolkata when the world war 2 is in full swing the Japanese have captured Burma
and are making plans to capture India and Kolkata. Against this backdrop there
is a Chinese gang operating in Kolkata dealing in opium smuggling. Arrives a young man to meet Byomkesh Bakshy the
renowned detective to request him to find out the whereabouts of his father who
has been missing since last two months after initial hesitation and
altercations he accepts the case and the complex plot unfolds and as the movie
progresses it becomes complicated and murkier and murkier. Many
characters are introduced ; from seductive siren to shaky roommate to Japanese
Doctor to student leaders and politicians but no novelty emerges. There
are murders and betrayals and a plot to capture power with the help of the
opium dealers .The end is the usual
Bollywood style with the villain showing his true colours and characters and
scenarios influenced by Torantino. Loud western music unrelated to the theme
and period keeps blaring in the background; the sweetness of Bengali music as
seen in so many detective movies and short films of Ray seem untapped. In trying to do
something new Dipankar Bannerjee fails to kindle excitement among the audience as
he did so well in his initial three films- Khosla ka Ghosla, LSD and Oye Lucky.
I also felt that the director perhaps was
too busy creating the period of early forties of Kolkata that he failed to
ignite the story or present the story in an interesting way. I have this
impression that an Indian audience is not prepared for many twists and turns, a
single but solid twist is enough to steer the story . Dipankar was too
enamoured of presenting the ‘Period’ and
may have thought that to be the USP of the film but he was mistaken ; the
backdrop is just a ‘prop’ the life and blood is the story and screenplay.
Notwithstanding my disappointment with the film what goes to the credit of the
director is creating good characters , making them perform in a subtle and
effective manner. Sushant Rajput the main protagonist has worked on his gait
and speech and little style and is likeable similarly is his client Bannerjee
played by young Tewari; he has imbibed suitable mannerism less speech toward
his performance. There are two main female characters contrast to each other
and have emerged fairly fine, the seductive ‘Angoori’ does create interest
among the audience. Kabir the soft spoken Dr Guha is the surprise packge and
has come a long way from his ‘Ship of Theisus’ days in which he played a jain
monk brilliantly, he will benefit the most from this film and commercial
Bollywood roles would open out for him.
After his last film ‘Shanghai’ failed to
impress the audience it was expected that this time Bannerjee would perhaps not
indulge in unnecessary complexities of plot and make a simple detective story
lucid, but in order to be different yet again he seems to me to have missed the
mark. I am labouring here to convey my disappointment with someone whom I like
and who arrived with some small but sweet cinema and won many admirations and
so the expectations were high. He is not run of the mill director , I therefore
would say that ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ was an experiment with cinema which
missed the mark. Maybe the film may surprise me by becoming a hit on the
strength of the principal character who has a good following since his TV days,
but it will remain a small consolation for Bannerjee and me for we were looking
for a yet another ‘small wonder’.
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