Detective Byomkesh Bakshy: All Reviews Here! - Page 19

Ratings :

Expectations:

As a kid, I used to be a great fan of detective based T.V series like 'Karamchand', 'Bhim Bhavani', 'Tehkikat', 'Suraag' and even 'Byomkesh Bakshy'. This fascination introduced me to the short stories based on 'Byomkesh Bakshy', 'Feluda' and 'Prof.Shonku'. The detailing and the pattern of solving the crime used to be highly engrossing. Sadly, when it came to films there were none to be found. Though we did witness films like 'Detective', 'The Perfect Murder', 'Apradhi Kaun?', 'Gumnaam', 'Kaun?Kaise?', 'Khoj', 'Plot No 5' and many more, which were mostly on lines of crime thrillers inspired by the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Maria Corelli, James Hadley Chase, Suhas Shirvalkar or Surendra Mohan Pathak. Thus, right from the announcement of 'Byomkesh Bakshy' being converted into a full-fledged feature film to it being made followed by the promo and now its release, my curiosity and expectation level was at its peak. So, let's find out whether 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy' will finally give us an out and out proper detective film in our Hindi cinema or might be on lines of last year's debacles like 'Samrat & Co' and 'Bobby Jasoos'.

Story:

'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy' is the story of a private detective Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant Singh Rajput), who is approached by Ajit (Anand Tiwari) to investigate the disappearance of his father. Byomkesh starts investigating the case from the lodge where Ajit's father used to stay and befriends Dr.Anukul Guha (Neeraj Kabi). The clues Byomkesh gets, leads him to an actor Anguri Devi (Swastika Mukherjee), a politician Gajanan Sikdar (Dr.Kaushik Ghosh) and a few more, along with a drug kingpin. How does Byomkesh solve this mystery is what the film is all about.

Screenplay & Technicalities:

The story is as we know, based on the fictional characters created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and has been brilliantly transformed into the big screen by Dibakar Banerjee and Urmi Juvekar. Right from the first scene of the film the movie is set on its right course without wandering even for a minute into the unwanted territories. Every scene is important and full of detailing with the script of the film. There are no sidetracks to dilute the flow of the film. However, the slow narrative pattern might not go well with the normal cine-goers, but is apt for such type of slow detective genre, which gradually grows on you with every scene of the film. There are some great scenes like the whole credit title sequence followed by Sushant meeting Neeraj Kabi in the guesthouse, Sushant-Anand Tiwari being followed in the streets of Kolkata, the whole opium track followed by Sushant-Swastika scenes, the revelation towards the finale followed by graphic based end credits. Nevertheless, more than the scenes, what makes 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy', is the minute detailing attached to the film. It has one of the finest artworks in our Hindi cinema, the brilliant set up of Kolkata from the early 40's era is something worth watching for sure. The makers and the setup (trams, posters, newspapers, hoardings, transportation, costume, magazines, accessories, etc) transform you into the world of 1942. The movie might not appeal to the people who need spoon-feeding and who are die hard lovers of escapist cinema, as there is a lot of things happening in the film, leaving not a single breathing space for such type of cine-goers. Nikos Andritsakis's cinematography is outstanding, as the sets and whole feel of the film looks real and believable.

Music & Direction:

Music is good, but fails to gel with the flow of the film. It is more international, thus misses the connect with the film. 'Jaanam' is brilliantly presented. The background music is outstanding and does full justice to the feel of the film.

Director Dibakar Banerjee gives us probably the true dark detective film with 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy'. He will satisfy all his fans and all those who love to see artistic films or are big admirers of proper detective films. His vision and detailing enhances the film to international standards and sets up a benchmark for Indian cinema. He might not be as real or simple in comparison with the films made by Satyajit Ray, Ritupo*no Ghosh, Anjan Dutt, Manju Dey and few more Bengali film makers, but has his own unique style and matches up to the true level of this genre. How we wished he would have presented it in a bit moderate manner in order to appeal the normal cine-lovers. In addition, the finale part should have been hard-hitting rather than being simple and creative.

Performances:

Sushant Singh Rajput is cute and charming. He adds the much-needed innocence to his character with help of his pure smile and soft dialogue delivery. He might not be as appealing as Rajit Kapoor (from Byomkesh Bakshy T.V series), but will still set its own identity. Neeraj Kabi is brilliant in his role. Anand Tiwari is good and adds up as a good support to the lead character. Swastika Mukherjee looks charming and does her part with total grace. Meiyang Chang and Divya Menon needed more detailing.

Final Verdict: So bol meri "FILMI KHOPDI" iss film mein kitna hain Dum?

Dum??? Well, the movie has all the dum needed for a dark and slowly enthralling detective based film. It is one of the good films we have recently witnessed in our Hindi cinema. Though, the masala film lovers will be highly disappointed with this movie as they might find it slow, boring and will fail to understand the plot line of the film. As for all those who love reading good detective stories, 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy' is an arty case of mystery, which is worth solving for sure.

• Ratings - 3.5*/5

If Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's thrilling series about the lovable 'truth seeker' detective was a page turner for you (in any form - book, film or television), then this Dibakar Banerjee adaptation may leave you wanting to keep your book aside and take a couple of bathroom breaks, a stroll around the park and return to find that you didn't miss much. There is no doubting the fact that inspite of small filmography, Banerjee is one of the best filmmakers of the modern generation. And the fact that inspite of this being far from his best work, it still gets a half-baked thumbs up from me, is testimony enough to his genius. So without completely writing off our own Bollywood version of the age-old sleuth, this Detective Byomkesh Bakshymay leave you mildly awe-struck by its sheer beauty, but highly underwhelmed by its lack of depth.

A famous fictional superhero once didn't tell me that 'with great money comes great responsibility.' For the first time, Banerjee has the backing of film factory Yash Raj Films (ironically whose last two successful films were both small-budget content-driven stories) and it shows. DBB is an aesthetic delight. A lot of clear painstaking effort has gone into creating a fantastical fictional war-struck Calcutta, with such impeccable attention to detail that you might drool at the sight of even the most inconsequential lamppost, or conspicuous billboard. It's a massive task for a massive film to have the audience convinced that they are living another era for the next couple of hours. Keeping the obviously postmodern usage of score and soundtrack aside, every tram ride is real, every dhoti fold is right. But perhaps so much though has been given to keep the scale large and the production value high, that the main task at hand goes off-track. This is one detective mystery, where we might find ourselves attaching a bit to the characters but we never invest enough to the grand issue to really care if the culprit is found, arrested, attacked, murdered, whatever. Many murders and far too many unnecessary twists and turns later, you may take a look at your watch and say, "that's all?"

The visuals of DBB are practically flawless and undeniably impressive. And I reiterate this because this element of the film makes it pathbreaking in many ways. However, the zany usage of sound that is something obsessively Tarantino-esque, the comic book feel that you may have collected in the posters and the trailer dies soon after the film begins. Both these elements promised you a fun-filled joyride that never truly comes. If the attempt is to give a contemporary twist to a classic detective a la Sherlock Holmes, the idea is lost somewhere in translation, mainly because Byomkesh is no Sherlock. In his first mystery, Byomkesh is thrust into a grand scheme to take over Calcutta. It's 1943, the war is on, sirens go off as bomb scares are frequent. A man goes missing, three are murdered, a femme fatale is involved. Some talk about drug cartels and opium mafia, a notorious international deceased druglord comes alive, and hell breaks loose.

Byomkesh takes on the case as a distraction due to heartbreak. On the way, he is thrown off-track mutliple times and inturn the story becomes far too complicated, tedious and boring. He steers across Calcutta to solve this story as we are busy admiring the old-world charm of the antiquities and buildings, as no one pays attention much to the story as they do to the costumes and signages.

I haven't read a single Byomkesh Bakshi story, nor seen any of the previous film adaptations (mostly in Bengali), so my knowledge of the character comes from repeated viewings of the DD show starring Rajit Kapur. Having said that, Sushant Singh Rajput might just be the 'good enough' choice to play the detective for our Hindi franchise. Byomkesh is clearly a passionate being, someone who knows when to devour a case as it hits him in the eye. Deliciously arrogant when we first meet him playing carrom all by himself in the recreation room at Vidya Sagar, we're automatically intrigued. Unfortunately, as his future sidekick Ajit asks him to search for his missing father, Byomkesh's arrogance is gone with a sharp 'must be dead' line. As much as we want him to take the case on, which he inevitably does, he is no longer as charming a character as we wanted him to be. Not to blame Rajput, this is a writing flaw. But the actor excels with the material he has to play with, not much but a vulnerable novice with sharp deuction skills and a thirst to learn, an eye for a mystery and a joy in solving it. Rajput embodies a character we haven't seen portrayed in this way before, down to the glint in his eye when he knows he's cracked the code to the frustration of meeting a road block, to the unsightly discomfort of being within inches of dead bodies.

Thankfully, Byomkesh is never portrayed as the quintessential 'hero' and we may find out how he develops as one if the forthcoming films of the series are made smartly. In fact, Anand Tiwari as the goofy and bewildered sidekick comes across with more machismo. He's also given better lines, funny one-liners and you want to spend more time with him. Unfortunately, the camaraderie between Byomkesh and Ajit isn't half as striking as their western counterparts as not much has been written for it anyway.

The romance between Byomkesh and future wife Satyavati is also simply skimmed over. Which adds to the issue - we love the small characters and we don't get enough of them in a one hundred and fifty minute movie because we're spending too much time invested in a convuluted mess of a mystery which takes even a smart detective like Byomkesh too long to decipher. The audience is already at the end point asking Byomkesh to get there faster. And if the audience is solving your mystery faster than you, that's pretty much murder for a character who intends to tell us thirty two more stories where he emerged as a genius at solving crimes.

As the 'explosive' climax approaches, Banerjee takes on a more risque style of filmmaking, starting off with the more traditional Christie route, bringing all the principal characters in one room with a slow revelation, and then suddenly he goes randomly eastern-insane. As the frames close, the actors present a most tacky, melodramatic and hammy rendition of an ending. And it stops being fun. In fact, it never was too fun. DBB is dark, and midly edgy, but it is never joyful or fun.

Dibakar Banerjee spends most of DBB trying to make a convincing Calcutta for Byomkesh's future adventures as opposed to actually making his current one an interesting and fun experience. Its overindulgent, unexceptionally edited, and slow-paced. Even though danger looms on the characters, it is definitely not fearful or unsettling till the wee minutes of closing, at which point it's already time to go home.

For all its flaws, and there are many, a lesser director would probably never be forgiven. But it's Dibakar Banerjee - a man who gave us gems meant for repeated viewing. This might be his most painful product yet, but the cinmetography, production design, interesting palette, treatment and general visual appeal of the film make it soar above even the most average of Bollywood fares. Inspite of an incoherent plot and the random in-and-out of characters, this two hour long setup that results in a flatulent culmination still deserves a watch as it has the potential to grow on you as the franchise progresses, with the hope that it comes without its major imperfections, due to the likability of its underdeveloped characters (thankfully the unlikable ones are killed off). However, if you're already a mystery junkie, you may not find that Banerjee tells you anything new, while others may be more lenient.

Rhea Srivastava