Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Updates: IN CINEMAS NOW! - Page 5

In Byomkesh's college life, Banerjee also found the anchor for the story he was seeking. A young man of 23, Byomkesh is unsure about himself and what he wants to do " it is an aspect that Banerjee could relate to and one that helped him craft the narrative. It made him look at Byomkesh beyond the stereotype of a detective and view him as a character. "Detective is what he does but who he is adds to how he does it. Is he shy and hesitant? Or confident and a show-off? These aspects will make him relatable to the audience as the film will also be Byomkesh's coming-of-age story," said the 44-year-old director.

To do so, it was important, Banerjee said, to shed the baggage of nostalgia that most period subjects come with. Rather than a rose-tinted view of rajbaris and beautiful Bengali women, the film is about a young man exposed to the crime and desolation rampant on the streets of Calcutta in the 1940s. The filter they needed to use was noir. "Traditional noir films were made around the time of WWII and were either pulp literature or detective stories. They emerged from the sense that the world wasn't such a great place; they were essentially pessimistic. They were based on the Oedipus tale, where the hero, while trying to resolve a problem, becomes a part of it without realising it.
In the process, he faces his first fear and re-experiences his traumatic past," said Andritsakis, who said he would use camera techniques of classic noir films for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! Through Banerjee's detailed discussions with Andritsakis during the recce, followed by extensive storyboarding, a template for the film's lighting and angles emerged. The Greek cinematographer, who worked with Banerjee in both Love Sex Aur Dhokha and Shanghai, said, "Noir films are usually set in a gritty and transitional environment where different kinds of people are pushing their own agendas so the play of light and shadows is used to good effect. We can do the same with this film and allow the viewers to experience the same fear that Byomkesh is going through."