Banner: Yash Raj Films & Dibakar Banerjee Productions
Producer: Aditya Chopra & Dibakar Banerjee
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee, Divya Menon, Neeraj Kabi, Meiyang Chang, Aryann Bhowmik, Moumita Chakraborty, Mark Bennington, Arindol Bagchi, Manoshi Nath, Anindya Banerjee, Tirtha Mallick, Prasun Gayen, Peter Wong, Prashant Kumar, Dr. Kaushik Ghosh, Takanori Kikuchi, Piyali Ray, Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty, Sandip Bhattacharya, Shivam, Nishant Kumar, Shaktipada Dey & Lauren Gottlieb
Music: Various Artists
Cinematographer: Nikos Andritsakis
Editor: Manas Mittal & Namrata Rao
Pro: Spice
Director Dibakar Bannerjee in his latest offering namely ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ has knowingly treaded on a dark & mysterious genre. But was it necessary to take the plot, shrouded in deepening mystery, to the extreme level of confusion confounded. Seriously speaking it ultimately bores you to death to the point of no return. Incidentally speaking the film is based on the fictional character of a detective named Byomkesh Bakshi which has been created by the famed Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.
The scenario of ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ opens in Calcutta, present day Kolkatta, in a British-ruled India, where a student Byomkesh Bakshi (Sushant Singh Rajput) is approached by Ajit Bandyopadhyay (Anand Tiwari) whose father Bhuvan Banerjee has been missing for more than 2 months. Byomkesh firmly & strongly believes that he has been killed and his dead body has been kept hidden somewhere. And he was so right as they discover Bhuvan’s corpse in a broiler of an abandoned chemical factory. During the investigations, he finds that Bhuvan Banerjee’s murder is part of a bigger mystery involving the local Political leaders, the Chinese drug smugglers & the Japanese army, fighting the war against the British in South-East Asia.
Director Dibakar Bannerjee has aptly presented the war torn Calcutta of 1943 with a backdrop of a mystery & a Detective. In fact ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ is entirely based on the early exploits of India’s 1st ever true-blue detective, created by Bengali bestseller writer Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. Dibakar Banerjee, has set the film in the 2nd World War torn Calcutta during the 1940s and follows the 1st adventure of Byomkesh Bakshy, fresh out of college, as he pits himself against an evil genius who is out to destroy the world. Using his wits against the most villainous arch criminal the world has ever seen, in a world of murder, international political intrigue & seduction. The director deserves full marks topped with brownie points as far as the minutest periodic detailing, of the war torn Calcutta of the 1940’s, is concerned but only to be bogged down by his own script in lieu with Urmi Juvekar. Hats off to Aditya Chopra and his Yash Raj Films banner for backing such an offbeat subject strewn together in a most clichéd manner, not to forget the sleep walking editors Manas Mittal &
Namrata Rao. And lastly a special well deserving mention goes to cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis for his brilliant presentation of such a dark & mysterious war torn Calcutta of the 1940s era.
Performance wise all the actors can be analyzed in just one word for instance Sushant Singh Rajput as & in an author backed title role of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy: a young Bengali private detective is “Perfect”, Anand Tiwari as Ajit Bandyopadhyay: the sidekick of Byomkesh Bakshy, also an author is “Charming”, débutante Swastika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi: a dancer & a spy looks “Confusing”, Divya Menon as Satyawati: the silent love interest of Byomkesh Bakshy is “Disappointing”, Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha is “Excellent”, Meiyang Chang as Kanai Dao alias Chang Lee is “Interesting” and then Aryann Bhowmik as Clinic Boy, Moumita Chakraborty as Leela, Mark Bennington as Deputy Commissioner Wilkie, Arindol Bagchi as Ashwini Babu, Manoshi Nath as Ruby, Anindya Banerjee as Prafulla Ray, Tirtha Mallick as Atanu Chandra Sen, Prasun Gayen as a scribe, Peter Wong as the Underboss, Prashant Kumar as Factory Watchmen, Dr. Kaushik Ghosh as Gajanan Sikdar, Takanori Kikuchi as Dr. Watanabe, Piyali Ray as Watanabe’s Receptionist, Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty as Puntiram, Sandip Bhattacharya as Officer in Charge, Shivam as Sukumar, Nishant Kumar as Factory Watchmen, Shaktipada Dey as Nibaran Da & Lauren Gottlieb in a special appearance in the song titled “Calcutta Kiss” are all “Adequate” and they all try their level best to carry the “Snail’s Space” almost dragging storyline forward.
Tail Piece: ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ may be a hardcore critics & multiplexes elite cine goer’s delight but on the contrary it will be hardly appealing for a film goer who frequents a single theatre.