Detective Byomkesh Bakshy: All Reviews Here! - Page 10

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Hindustan Times

Rating: 4/5 Stars (Four stars)

Star Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee, Divya Menon, Neeraj Kabi, Meiyang Chang, Mark Bennington, Shivam, Anindya Banerjee

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

What's Good: A classic whodunit thriller which holds the suspense quite firmly till the end. This is an excellent effort of bringing to life India's detective figure Byomkesh Bakshy and with this film, Dibakar Banerjee forms a strong base for a crime-mystery franchise. Characters are strong and the suspense build-up is bang on.

What's Bad: For those who have enjoyed seeing a much more reclusive and reticent Byomkesh in Rajit Kapoor's TV series, Sushant Singh Rajput seems a little goofy and unsure on his first case.

Loo break: Unless you want to keep guessing what's happening next in the loo!

Watch or Not?: I would definitely suggest Detective Byomkesh Bakshy and especially for those who are not smitten by Sherlock Holmes; for them this is a tight mystery with a top-notch execution. Dibakar's Calcutta of 1940s is bloody, dopey and dark; take a ride of this side of the town.

User Rating:

Calcutta is struggling in the 1940s with the Japanese invasion and smuggling of drugs that is trying hard to put the city to sleep. In this town full of disguises and mysteries, Ajit Bandyopadhyay (Anand Tiwari) approaches an arrogant collegiate Byomkesh Bakshy with a case of his missing father. After brushing him off at first and learning that his lady love is getting hitched to someone else, a broken hearted Byomkesh decides to solve Ajit's case. Thus begins a tale of interlinked stories as Bakshy tries to join the dots.

On his journey he meets distinctive characters such as the seductress Anguri Devi (Swastika), a room mate and drug dealer Kanai, the guest house owner Dr. Guha (Neeraj Kabi) and his second love interest Satyavati (Divya Menon). But the quest remains for the masterplanner of Calcutta's destruction Yuan Guang.

Will Byomkesh be succesful at solving the murder mystery or will he get entangled in an even more warped plan? Watch to Find out!

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Review: Script Analysis

When it comes to whodunits and murder mysteries, the key element is suspense and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy not only masters it but also hooks you to each character. Towards the middle of the film, you will find yourself observing the characters with such precision that you may think of yourselves as detectives. When Dibakar said Bakshy is the Sherlock Holmes of India, I have to admit I was more than scared being compared to something so perfect.

Although after watching Byomkesh Bakshy, I am certain that the director has an eye for detail and his script is as thick as blood. Bakshy is not the perfect detective but this is his learning case. He is a little influential at this point but his strong gut and logic help him look beyond what can be seen. Another best thing that Dibakar does is present us with Ajit's character as a replacement to Holmes' Dr. Watson.

With an excellent backdrop of war torn Calcutta in the peak of World War 2, Banerjee makes sure the dialogues are quirky and even though a few scenes may run long, they never bore you. What is fascinating is Dibakar gives us multiple characters and all have exactly the required space in the film. One of the most entertaining characters turns out to be the domestic help Puntiram (Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty) who is a witness to all that is happening on Bakshy's case. All in all the script is bang-on and forms for solid piece of work.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Review: Star Performances

Sushant Singh Rajput as Byomkesh Bakshy is darn good and after watching the film you may not be able to see anyone else play Bakshy the same way! His body language, mannerisms are perfect and he is apt as a detective who relies on his honed observation skills and is highly logical. This is Rajput's best performance till date and I hope to seem him more as Bakshy if they plan a franchise.

Neeraj Kabi as Dr.Guha is brilliant. His character is highly influential and it is Neeraj's acting prowess that makes it pack a punch on screen. After his act in Ship Of Theseus won him accolades, Dibakar finds him a apt role in this film.

Anand Tiwari as Ajit Bandyopadhyay is someone you really feel for. He is not smart, he has lost a father who is disappointed by him. Tiwari is getting better with every film and he is remarkable in this film too. I loved his camaraderie with Sushant, it looks natural.

Swastika Mukherjee as the seductress Anguri Devi is hot but cold when it comes to her act. The dialogue delivery with a heavy breathing did'nt work for me. Although she looks fabulous in the vintage avatar.

Divya Menon as Satyavati is charming with her expressive character. She does this role with quite ease.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay

What can I say? Dibakar Banerjee just decides to wow me everytime he takes up a film. He is full of experimentation and I particularly love his descriptive nature of direction. Each scene is like a canvas and the riddled Calcutta looks brilliant with dingy allies, China town and trams moving along with the story. His characters are dressed perfect and his storytelling does not want you to blink.

The background score is different and it somehow works for the film. I was skeptical about the music blending well with this story but well he proves me wrong, it works like magic.

In a particular action scene, the director lets the background score take the lead as people are being slashed around blood spills on the walls; it is completely mind-blowing and that is what you call contemporary direction for a period drama.

The cinematography and production design have done their jobs well, and it can be seen as the representation of 1940s is life-like. Banerjee needs to keep this up and I am hoping for a franchise of it.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Review: The Last Word

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is a delicious thriller filled with elements that make you rack your brains too. This mystery is the one even you would want to solve. Watch it for an amazing story and its even better execition. Crime mysteries just got better in Bollywood! I am going for 4/5 here!

http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/detective-byomkesh-bakshy-review/

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy review: Stylish, beautiful, but also underwhelming

by Deepanjana Pal Apr 3, 2015 09:06 IST

#Calcutta #Detective Byomkesh Bakshy #Dibakar Banerjee #Movie review




Within the first few minutes of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, you understand why Dibakar Banerjee is widely regarded as the best director in Bollywood. One simple, unremarkable tram ride through Calcutta is all Banerjee needs to establish the world in which his new film is set. In the foreground of the frame is Byomkesh (Sushant Singh Rajput), out of focus, with his back to the window. The city beyond the window is in sharp focus " because the real hero of Banerjee's film is the Calcutta that the director has imagined.

A gorgeous mix of fantasy and reality, Banerjee's Calcutta is as pretty and delicate as a watercolour painting, but with accents of noir. Shadows loom large here and a hundred shades of darkness haunt its streets. Opium and crime lace the wintry air. The second World War and the threat of Japanese bombs threaten the colonial city. In the middle of all this is a young detective, working on his first case.

When his father can't be found for two months, Ajit (Anand Tiwari) approaches Byomkesh for help. As far as Byomkesh is concerned, there's no mystery here. Considering how long he's been untraceable, Ajit's father is not a missing person but a dead man and Byomkesh bluntly says as much to Ajit. Net result: Ajit literally punches Byomkesh's lights out. Needless to say, it's the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

Byomkesh takes on Ajit's case partly because he feels bad for Ajit and because Byomkesh's ego demands he find evidence to prove his theory that Ajit's father has been murdered. The investigation quickly swirls towards danger when it turns out that a local politician, his mistress, a scary Japanese dentist and Chinese drug dealers are all players in this nasty affair. Throats are slashed, blood spurts, vamps shimmy in and out, sirens wail " and in the middle of all this is Byomkesh, trying to piece together a gory jigsaw puzzle.

Those expecting a factually-perfect vision of Calcutta in 1942 will be disappointed as will those who are expecting to see Saradindu Bandopadhyay's Byomkesh. Neither are present in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. Banerjee's Calcutta has none of the ravages of famine and despair that scarred the historical Calcutta of that era. This is not a failing. After all, Banerjee is not making a documentary. He's chosen to go with the imaginary, rather than the factual and more power to him for making that choice. There are few people in Indian cinema " mainstream or otherwise " who have an imagination as rich as Banerjee's. Fewer yet have the ability to translate their visions into reality as beautifully as Banerjee has.

Banerjee's Byomkesh has little in common with the literary Byomkesh. The film credits say the story and characters are based on Saradindu Bandopadhyay's series, but that is Banerjee being polite. He's taken only names and trivial details from the short stories. The blend of history and fiction, the elegant violence and the odes to noir in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy make it uniquely Banerjee's creation. The film has some spectacular moments, like the climax that's shown mostly with shadowplay, which show Banerjee at his most stylish and wicked. Not all the opium in the world would have inspired Bandopadhyay to come up with such sequences.



The hero of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is less like his namesake and more like Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat's Sherlock " awkward, socially inept, often foolhardy and somewhat egoistical. He's not a satyanweshi, or truth seeker, like the literary Byomkesh but a puzzle-solver. He doesn't have the literary Byomkesh's razor sharp intelligence. He misses details and takes his time to figure out rather obvious connections. There are also shades of Hercule Poirot and even Inspector Clouseau in Banerjee's Byomkesh. Still, because Banerjee is a wittier storyteller than Bandopadhyay, there are some delightful sequences in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, particularly the ones that show Byomkesh with Ajit, which add a touch of laughter to a largely humourless film.

On paper, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy sounds fantastic. The mix of history and noir is both ambitious and exciting. Unfortunately, it's in the telling that the film suffers. For all its aesthetic wins, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is felled by one critical flaw: it's a whodunnit in which you don't really care who's done it. And if you've read your share of murder mysteries and watched a lot of CSI (like this reviewer), then you'll figure out who's done it well before Byomkesh does, which is quite a letdown.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is slow and lacks tension, which is criminal for a thriller. The lazy and inept editing makes the entire film suffer and exposes the weaknesses in Banerjee's story. Characters like the vamp and the Chinese drug dealers conveniently disappear and reappear. Bad guys are incredibly open to sharing information with Byomkesh when he needs them to do so. A man goes underground and then it turns out that the neighbourhood taxi driver knew where he was all along. Loose ends are tied up very unconvincingly. There are matrimonial ads with more chemistry and romance than Byomkesh's love story in the film.

For all the beautiful production design, the clever use of contemporary indie music as the soundtrack, and the stylish cinematography, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is Banerjee's most underwhelming film so far. It's still significantly better than the average Bollywood fare, but the standards that Banerjee has set with his past work are high and this film just doesn't meet some very basic expectations.

The other critical failing in the film is in the acting department. Swastika Mukherjee as the vamp is intent upon setting a record for how many times an actress can make the audience roll their eyes. Debutant Divya Menon has a barely-there role and fails to make any impression. The cast includes some excellent actors and two of them deliver superb performances. Neeraj Kabi is fantastic as Byomkesh's landlord, Anukul Guha. In one long scene, all he has to do is laugh manically, again and again " it's a testament to Kabi's acting talent that he's able to keep braying with laughter without making his character seem like a over-the-top lunatic.

Anand Tiwari as Ajit is a delight. Whether it's a serious scene or deadpan comedy, Tiwari's timing is superb. It's also impressive that he convinces us that he's the brawny one, given Tiwari is about half of Rajput's height and width.

Rajput has the weight of the film on his shoulders and while his performance isn't bad, the actor struggles to be the star in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. Part of this may be because Banerjee's Byomkesh lacks consistency. He's a patchwork of character traits taken from other famous fictional detectives. Rajput has shown a lot of promise in past films but here, he lacks charisma and isn't able to hold the audience's attention, especially when he's got actors like Kabi for company.

Also, for reasons best known to Banerjee, there's an attempt to downplay Rajput's looks by giving him a unibrow that looks like it's been coloured in by a toddler with an eyebrow pencil. The actor also looks like he was dunked in brown paint and then rolled in bronzer before each shot. Rather than turning him into an average looking man, this unnatural getup just emphasises the artifice. We never forget that Rajput is in costume and playing a part.

At the end of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, Banerjee dangles the possibility of a sequel, which is an uplifting thought. It would be wonderful to return to the world that Banerjee created and perhaps the next time round, there won't be the flaws that pockmark this film.

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Detective #ByomkeshBakshi is a must watch to see Kolkata of 1940s and brilliant act of #SushantSinghRajput amid suspence and thrill.

better to sleep at home that much better to watch or if you have time than watch F7

Originally posted by: Lighthearted

better to sleep at home that much better to watch or if you have time than watch F7

Have you seen both already??

If not then here is a little spoiler. F7 is bound to be crap. Much better to catch DBB (it can turn out to be bad as well but at least it will better than F7).