Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Movie Review

For people who know their films, Dibakar Banerjee is a director who doesn’t compromise with his vision. He builds his films up from the ground and eventually makes gripping cinema. His past record goes to prove that. So when he joins hands with a major production house like Yash Raj Films and decides to cinematically tell the story of Saradindu Bandopadhyay’s famous sleuth and also takes a rising star in the form of Sushant Singh Rajput in the leading role, he has our attention. And how! Do all these things combine into making terrific cinema? Let’s find out!

Story: 1942. Calcutta. Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant) is a Maths genius and all of 24 years. Ajit Banerjee (Anand Tiwari) has heard somewhere that Byomkesh is the man to go to for a bit of help when in trouble. Ajit’s father has been missing for about 2 months now and Byomkesh decides to take this further. He unravels complex narratives which changes him from a bumbling unsure aspiring detective to a confident and self assured one by the end of the film. There’s the Japanese and Chinese rivalry which is somehow intertwined with Ajit’s missing father. The case delves deeper and deeper and the mere existence of Calcutta in the future comes into doing. Byomkesh saves the city. Of course he does. And the way in which he solves the mystery and all the mysteries and plotlines are given a due ending is something to behold.

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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Review: Dibakar Banerjee proves his mettle once again by bringing into life the iconic character of Byomkesh Bakshy. Bengali purists might have a problem with Byomkesh being prefixed with “Detective” since the author Saradindu Bandopadhyay refused to ever call him a detective. Byomkesh has always been the “Satyanweshi” or the seeker of truth for Saradindu and for Bengalis all over the world. The writing and adaptation is spot on with all the twists and turns in the film having a meaning and the logic is sublime. There’s not one loose end. Urmi Juvekar and Dibakar Banerjee have nailed the milieu of 1940s cosmopolitan Calcutta which was considered to the gateway to East Asia.

Also Read: Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Critic Reviews

Yes, the first half is unfamiliar territory for the Hindi film watching audience because of the intricate detailing and the building up of the characters and the story. But if you stay with the film in the first half, the second half and the climax will leave you wanting for more. The climax gives us a very cool villain, and the strangest one yet, of Hindi cinema. Dibakar makes his film feel like a noir comic book with moving and talking characters who all have their own histories and quirks.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is such a terrific film mainly because of the technical finesse in almost every department. The cinematography by Nikolas Andritsakis is too good to be true. Especially in the climax sequence, which is done through shadow play, Nikolas has done a wonderful job of capturing it so well. The production design is the hero of the film. The Calcutta of the 1940s that has been brought together piece by piece, the audience is literally transformed into the world so effortlessly. The editing is alright but the film had no right to be 150 minutes long. The music by Sneha Khanwalkar is terrific with her use of contemporary. Indie music and the song choices are awesome. Dibakar uses the unconventional songs in some conventional scenes and makes them shine.

Acting: The casting by Honey Trehan deserves an A grade. Sushant Singh Rajput shows his class and talent as Byomkesh Bakshy. He doesn’t play it like the literary Byomkesh and instead follows the vision of his director. His character is aided by the acting which progressively charts the change in his character’s confidence. It would be a delight to see him play Byomkesh again and again. Anand Tiwari is very assured in his role and his chemistry with Sushant is terrific. We may have just found our own Sherlock and Watson in the form of Sushant’s Byomkesh and Tiwari’s Ajit. Swastika Mukherjee looks very good but doesn’t do anything extraordinary with her role. Neeraj Kabi is the surprise package in the film and steals a few scenes with his glances and laughter. Chang is decent and the others provide excelling support to the leads.

Conclusion: It takes special vision and an extraordinary director like Dibakar Banerjee to create the world of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy and then to tell such a complex narrative around the eclectic world of characters and mysteries. 1940s have never looked this cool. Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is worth a watch just for its climax, where it transcends genres. But to enjoy the delicious dessert you have to go through the underwhelming starters that Dibakar serves. If you stick with the first half, you might just become a fan of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. But if you fail to identify with the milieu and the genre, then steer clear of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. It demands your full attention and after the climax, it can be said that it earns the said attention. Go and get yourself a slice of this multi-layered opium cake called Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.

Reasons why you should watch the film:

• The extreme levels of detailing that have gone into making this period murder mystery makes the film stand out!
• The technical aspects have all been handled with an assured hand and everything feels like a perfect fit.
• The casting and the acting is spot on with all characters being portrayed by terrific regional actors
• Sushant and Anand make up an enticing and believable crime solving team and their chemistry is sumptuous
• The way in which the unconventional music has been shown is uber cool!

Some minor negatives

• The first half is slow and takes its own sweet time to build up
• You have to understand and identify with the milieu of the film to truly get why it works
• The Satyawati and Byomkesh unification wasn’t very convincing.

Rating: