When watching a whodunit at the cinema, there's always one character in the audience who hisses their predictions rather vehemently. I suppose such people cannot stand the thought of a mere film getting the better of them. And as far as I am concerned, I find this talent commendable only when they accurately guess the line dialogue about to follow a minor plot development.
There was a young bloke sitting in my vicinity who possessed this aptitude. Or maybe, he was simply voicing out loud what every single one of us in the audience were mulling over in our heads. It was just so predictable.
I admit, I'm a huge fan of Banerjee's cinema, but there is something a little off in his new film, but it is something ever so slight, I can't put my finger on it. One of the country's most promising talents in the film sphere, Banerjee has delivered four consecutive great films of which each one merits an earnest tribute. But here, he fumbles a bit. And it's such a shame because Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! frequently hits the right spots, but still remains an oddly unsatisfying mystery.
And a substantial portion of the blame should be plonked down on the largely predictable unwinding of the story. The other portion of the blame ought to be directed toward Alfred Hitchcock, who ruined whodunits for us for all eternity.
It's twisty, pulpy, moody and morbid enough to spawn a cracker of a mystery, but each revelation carries a distinctively--and frustratingly--familiar look. That is why I also abhor whodunits to an extent: we can easily evade being made fools of by them as a result of relishing many.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, even if it makes a critical mistake, is a wondrous film. Right from the reassuring opening sequence which meets the brief for an opening sequence only too well, through the opening credits that erect the world we are about to set foot in and lap up till the talky and prolonged denouement, it gets very little wrong. Not a single scene is wasted on tiresome frills or slack thrills. Like a surgeon sewing up a sprawling enigma, Banerjee toys with lights and shadows, characters and glorious details to paint a colorful, crowded and engrossing mystery in Calcutta of the '40s.
There was a young bloke sitting in my vicinity who possessed this aptitude. Or maybe, he was simply voicing out loud what every single one of us in the audience were mulling over in our heads. It was just so predictable.
I admit, I'm a huge fan of Banerjee's cinema, but there is something a little off in his new film, but it is something ever so slight, I can't put my finger on it. One of the country's most promising talents in the film sphere, Banerjee has delivered four consecutive great films of which each one merits an earnest tribute. But here, he fumbles a bit. And it's such a shame because Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! frequently hits the right spots, but still remains an oddly unsatisfying mystery.
And a substantial portion of the blame should be plonked down on the largely predictable unwinding of the story. The other portion of the blame ought to be directed toward Alfred Hitchcock, who ruined whodunits for us for all eternity.
It's twisty, pulpy, moody and morbid enough to spawn a cracker of a mystery, but each revelation carries a distinctively--and frustratingly--familiar look. That is why I also abhor whodunits to an extent: we can easily evade being made fools of by them as a result of relishing many.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, even if it makes a critical mistake, is a wondrous film. Right from the reassuring opening sequence which meets the brief for an opening sequence only too well, through the opening credits that erect the world we are about to set foot in and lap up till the talky and prolonged denouement, it gets very little wrong. Not a single scene is wasted on tiresome frills or slack thrills. Like a surgeon sewing up a sprawling enigma, Banerjee toys with lights and shadows, characters and glorious details to paint a colorful, crowded and engrossing mystery in Calcutta of the '40s.
It's a hazy and seductive world of carnage and discreet secrets of muddy politics and drug peddlers. To set a whodunit right at the nub of it is the stuff dreams are made of, and that is exactly what Banerjee does. He constructs his world so carefully and authentically (courtesy Vandana Kataria's tasteful and ornate art design that gives the film its bragging rights), spraying it with such ambition and menace that it is futile to resist. Nikos Andritsakis captures the pastel city in all its nourish glory, feeding our imaginations with doleful visuals that signify the murkiness of the events about to unfold.
Till the intermission, the film hoards enough intrigue to pledge an exceptional second half, but it never arrives. The story takes a confounding turn post the interlude, with a sub-plot involving a conspiracy slowly coming into the picture. It's aggravating to be a part of this, for there is no edginess to excite us. And how can a mystery film function without vim and vigor? Banerjee delivers a surprisingly mellow detective film, and it cannot be surmised if this was intentional or not. Spare for the last few minutes of high theatrically and sprays of gore that tarnished my experience a tad, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is mostly an underplayed venture made with great finesse. And great music.
But there is something so charming about it all that I could digest it with its occasional blemishes. My favorite moment in the film involved a bearer who is asked to make tea after a short battle, and he crosses the foyer littered with corpses while the survivors chat casually. It's a moment of sudden dark humor, an ingenious bit of detail that provides ephemeral relief and reaffirms why Banerjee is the Hindi film industry's God Of Details.
The performances are excellent, save for Swastika Mukherjee's rendition of a femme fatale that is as bland as cardboard. Neeraj Kabi, the newfound wonder whom we last saw in Ship Of Theseus, is flat-out fantastic, altering between gentle and lunatic like a seasoned veteran. Anand Tiwari, always a valuable secondary actor, keeps him company with a restrained performance that is tough to ignore.
I had always envisaged Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's Byomkesh Bakshi to be a worldly character, but Banerjee's version of him is a brusque bugger who happens to be endowed with an acute sense of judgement. His shamus is someone who walks around with a certain amount of swagger but has a childlike charm to boot. The oddity works. This sleuth is here to stay.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is a divisive film. It's not a flawed picture per se, but it is a flawed whodunit.
