Net result: Ajit literally punches Byomkesh's lights out. 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. As far as Byomkesh is concerned, there's no mystery here. When his father can't be found for two months, Ajit (Anand Tiwari) approaches Byomkesh for help. In the middle of all this is a young detective, working on his first case. The second World War and the threat of Japanese bombs threaten the colonial city.
Shadows loom large here and a hundred shades of darkness haunt its streets.
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.Ī gorgeous mix of fantasy and reality, Banerjee's Calcutta is as pretty and delicate as a watercolour painting, but with accents of noir. In the foreground of the frame is Byomkesh (Sushant Singh Rajput), out of focus, with his back to the window. One simple, unremarkable tram ride through Calcutta is all Banerjee needs to establish the world in which his new film is set. The two-and-a-quarter-hour running time feels longer than a prison sentence, and the beautifully framed shots and impeccable production seem like smoke and mirrors designed to keep viewers from clocking the fact that, sadly, not a great deal of effort has gone into the storytelling.Within the first few minutes of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, you understand why Dibakar Banerjee is widely regarded as the best director in Bollywood. Occasionally music thunders in the background, meaning Bakshy has solved something, and you sit up straight thinking the pace will pick up, but all such wishes are frustrated. It meanders from one unsatisfactorily resolved complication to another, crossing the line between a slow-burning thriller and one that entirely fails to ignite. The mystery, which begins with the search for a missing person and ends with matters of world peace, is fantastically convoluted and moves at a painfully sluggish pace. It’s so intoxicatingly lovely you almost forget you’re supposed to enjoy a good plot to go along with the visuals.Īnd that’s where Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! falters. There is a moment when Bakshy places a cigarette between the burgundy lips of femme fatale Anguri (Swastika Mukherjee) as her Clara Bow face fills up the frame. The darkness always smoulders glowing shafts of light sit like prison bars across characters’ faces curlicues of smoke rise deliciously from cigarettes. The cinematography is nothing short of dazzling, and the interiors alone speak volumes about a now-defunct way of life. It’s impossible not to warm to the detective as he hones his method and learns to harness his genius, going from cocksure, naive and endearingly squeamish to canny and unflappable. The cast is strong, with Sushant Singh Rajput in complete command of his role as Bakshy. It’s set in a spectacular 1940s Calcutta meticulously recreated by Banerjee – a pulsating hub of gangsters and political activists that is a world away from the customarily stately and strangulated Raj-era period drama. But adventure fails to permeate the listlessness of this overlong, self-indulgent would-be thriller.ĭirected by the much-lauded National film award-winner Dibakar Banerjee, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is an origins story for Bengali author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s hugely popular gumshoe. H as there ever been an exclamation mark as misleading as the one in the title of this film? Exclamation marks mean urgency, excitement, exuberance – think Mars Attacks! Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Hello, Dolly! If you see an exclamation mark, the understanding is that this way adventure lies.
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