Detective Byomkesh Bakshy – Film review
Relive the 1940’s through the Eyes of Detective byomkesh bakshy !!!
Film : DBB
Producers ; Aditya Chopra & Dibakar Banerjee Productions
Director : Dibakar Banerjee
Story : Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay & Dibakar Banerjee
Screenplay : Dibakar Banerjee & Urmi Juvekar
Cast : Sushant Singh Rajput, Swastika Mukherjee, Anand Tiwari, Divya Menon, Neeraj Kabi, Meiyang Chang
Rating : 
Whenever you go and watch any film from Yashraj banner , there is a sense of expectation of something really big, grandiose or different , but this time on the tagline was already proclaiming “Expect The Unexpected”, so when you do sit through the film what you get is more than what you expected. Kudos to Aditya Chopra & Dibakar Banerjee for attempting something really unexpected.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is a fictional detective a creation of writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhayay who collaborates with Dkibakar Banerjee on the story and who in turn joins hands with Urmi Juvekar on the screenplay to create a suspenseful crime drama set in the war torn Kolkata of 1940’s – 1943’s, when Drug Mafia was at its peak, and was not only affecting the youths and the masses but corrupting the heartland at large. Dibakar’s energies are channelised initially on creating the environment, and than merging them with set pieces and henceforth complementing them with some superlative performances from the principal cast. VFX is extensively used as can be seen to sustain and maintain those dark and disturbing times to keep you glued to the seat, taking you back in times when vintage cars, old trams and the one with ShaamBazaar prominently displayed, streets of Lal Bazaar, Bow Barracks, & some Heritage sights all create a surreal feeling of the History & Geography of the place we had heard and read about. Full credit to Dibakar for the painstaking details he has gone into with the help of his extremely talented team of Cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis who has supebly shot and maintained the dark color graph right through out. Cut to cut editing by Manas Mittal and NamrataRao , Art Direction by Vandana Kataria and costumes to depict the cotemporary times by Manish Malhotra has added to the overall impact of the film.
Dibakar Banerjee finally seals the deal with DBB to present a very compact yet extremely dark and gruesome past of the Pre Independence Kolkata through the vision & daring exploits of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy essayed by Sushant Singh Rajput who goes on unfolding the evil designs of a devilish rogue out to destroy the world. Sushant has put in his heart and soul into the character to make it real and endearingly striking given the situations he is confronted with most of the time. Right from looks , hairstyle, to dressings all taken care of. Swastika Mukherjee as Anguridevi looks very enticing and seductive giving her persona a very mysterious feel about her. She carries her role very elegantly lending credibility despite a very limited screen space. Ajit Bandyopadhyay portrayed by Anand Tiwari whose father Bhuvan babu a Chemistry Master has disappeared, approaches Byomkesh to help locate him and around whom the whole drama is revolving is able to put in his might behind the character. In typical Bengali outfit and mannerisms per say does a good job. Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha with whom Byomkeh stays with and seeks his cooperation gives a very powerful performance and very very versatile. Meiyang Chang does his bit with elan and confidence. Divya Menon as Satyawati who is suppose to be the love interest of Byomkesh looks pretty endearing , but still does whatever she could to keep her character alive given the limited scope of exposure.
Lauren Gotlieb’s special appearance with the song Calcutta Kiss has its lasting moments but the real star of the film is undoubtedly the non stop action and the Black & White period of the Life & Time of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy !!!
