Detective Byomkesh Bakshy

            It would need me more than a few months to know and understand The Byomkesh Bakshi created by Sharadindu Bandoppadhyay in the decade of 1930s and 42 stories written for the character. 

            It would take another month to watch and understand the films and series made on this fictional character by various film makers. It started with the great Satyajit Ray in 1967 by a film called 'Chiriyakhana' (adaptation of one of the stories in 1956). The films made on Bakshi also includes a trilogy by Anjan Dutt and a film directed by the national award winning Director Rituporno Ghosh, a few recent examples.

            And now as if it is the duty of every Bengali film-maker to give a little something from his/hers own side to the Character of Bengali blood Byomkesh, Dibakar Grabbed his chance this time.

            It is a thriller and thus I am not going to reveal any part of the story except that it starts with Ajit Banerjee (Inspired by Sir Author Cannon  Doyal's, Dr. Watson's character of Sherlock Holmes, as a narrator in the stories) comes to Sherlock...sorry Byomkesh with a case of his missing father. What happens after this is gripping and thrilling.

            It was Dibakar Banjerjee's (the Director and Producer of this film) decision to keep the direction of this film particularly NOT like anything done before. In an interview I read that he showed Sushant Singh Rajput, the young chap who played Byomkesh Bakshi, 'Chiriyakhana' and other adaptations and said - This is what I don't want to do.
And likewise, Dibakar has done what he said.

            The film looks amazingly well made. It is set before 1950s and the feel is kept just right for us to make it believe. Sushant has done a very good work as Byomkesh. Not being a Bengali there are a few character sketching limitations in his acting which is natural. However, he has pulled it off pretty well. Anand Tiwari as Ajit has done a nicer job. Though there is a character fault in the unfolding and emoting to certain events, Anand is still the one that puts some impression on us, with his straight face confused look humour. Rest all are also satisfactory for their part of work. Swastika Mukherjee seemed little out of the role. Divya Menon who played Satyawati (Byomkesh's wife in the stories) was good on the other hand; only she would have been better if her character had a gradual flow. It is too abrupt in changing its decisions.

            Nevertheless, The story grips you so well that you hardly start thinking if they should have casted someone Bengali for Byomkesh. Honey Trehan, the casting and associate director for Vishal Bharadwaj has done a convincing casting.

            Screenplay is just superb. Otherwise this film would have been a mess. As it is the film goes too fast and grasping it might become a problem to the spoiled viewers who had been made a habit of being spoon-feed. Plus to add it up, volume level of dialogue is kept low to give a touch of real place conversations. Sushant Singh, with the husk in his voice makes it tougher for us to grasp each line of his dialogue. Sound Designing is very skillfully done and the film does sound authentic.

            Vandana Kataria's Production Design is the film's one of the best input. The Huge set of 1940's Bengal is marvelously designed & built. It is very well utilised during the opening titles.

            Cinematography is the key element of the film. The very talented Nikos (Nikolaos) Andritsakis showed his out of the box skills with Love, Sex aur Dhoka, Ugly and Shanghai. He gives the film more than real look. This one especially is credible and to be praised a lot. The film looks amazing with the lighting he has designed.

            Editing had some flaws. Atleast I felt so. Maybe to match the production flaws of continuity or numerous things, quite a few cuts had to be ignorant and ruthless.

            Direction in this one lies in the detailed way of expressing the story. Being a Detective Thriller, Dibakar had to show and had to hide a few things in a single frame many a times. The story demands some particulars to be hidden but the screenplay needs to mention it to fit itself in the correct language of cinema. All this, is backed by the - over the top & out of the class - Music, by Sneha Khanwalkar and Imaad Shah's band and other Indie-music bands. The choice of music is horribly different and it suits just right, maybe more than right, in the film. Though no song is used in the film and only music is played back, it does its job to throw us in the feel which Dibakar wants us to get into.

            The places where movie fails to convince us thoroughly, they have played it clever to keep our mind engrossed in something else. Most of the times you have to let a few references go, so that you do not miss the ones that are happening now.

            Overall, 'Byomkesh Bakshy' is definitely different from the 'Byomkesh Bakshi' ever made. Right from the fact that Sharadindu's Byomkesh never used to like himself to be called as Detective; Dibakar started changing this with naming the film as Detective Byomkesh Bakshy - adding the same prefix before Byomkesh and changing the last letter in the spelling of character's Surname. This film is a small time revolution breeze, a start of the coming storm to make better looking cinemas, visualising the films differently and executing them the way maker wants.

            I am sure Dibakar wanted the film to look even different in his head, but then I am also sure that he must be happy with what he has got.

            I rate this film 8/10. 

1/2 mark cut for editing, 1 mark cut for character flaws and 1/2 mark reduced as my heart doesn't want to rate it as nice as '8.5' for some reason unknown to me.