Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee and Neeraj Kabi
Whodunits are like lost treasure. There was a time they were abundant, but with moving times, the best were left behind in the golden eras. If anyone could dig deep into the stretches of time and pull out a murderous and mysterious rabbit out of the hat, its the talented Mr Dibakar Banerjee. His retelling of the Detective Byomkesh Bakshy saga is like a trip in a time machine. You’re taken back to the Calcutta of 1940s, literally. It’s the most authentic and detailed recreation of that era. The storytelling doders a wee bit, it ends up a bit too gory at the end but the filmmaker’s vision is just spectacular. This is the perfect example of flawless execution.
The setting is quite intense. Calcutta is jostling with the nervous air of World War II. But that hasn’t stifled the ambitions of a young private detective called Byomkesh Bakshy. He sets out on a regular missing person’s case only to stumble into something deeper, deceitful and totally treacherous. Yes we’ve seen and loved the recent Sherlock Holmes blitz in the West, but to watch the wily Byomkesh unravel mysteries in an age when Google and smartphones were firmly locked away in Da Vinci’s diary is fascinating. The way his seemingly ordinary case turns into a complex web of crime is fascinating. The story pulls you in. Every step of the way, with every new development you feel a sense of tension. You’re mind starts thinking ahead, you want to second guess what’s about to happen. And yet, Banerjee and co-writer Urmi Juvekar’s screenplay keeps surprising you. There are plenty of twists here to bamboozle your brains out.
Great writing is half the battle won. But what about phenomenal production? Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is a glorious example of great production design. The costumes, the locations, the props, the vehicles and everything that comes together to make the visuals of this movie is faultless. Its as if Banerjee’s team travelled back in a time vortex, shot their movie in 1942 and hopped back 73 years in a jiffy. The detailing is beyond brilliant. Same goes for the cinematography by Nikos Andritsakis. The play with lights, shadows and silhouettes is a nostalgic throw back to the cinema of the forties. Dibakar does well to sneak in those Hitchcock and Kurosawa influences.
Having said all that, one has to acknowledge the movie’s audience unfriendly nature. Not that the movie is too complex or not well thought out. The logic at work in this script is perfect.
