There is a moment when Bakshy places a cigarette between the burgundy lips of femme fatale Anguri (Swastika Mukherjee) as her Clara Bow face fills up the frame. The darkness always smoulders glowing shafts of light sit like prison bars across characters’ faces curlicues of smoke rise deliciously from cigarettes. The cinematography is nothing short of dazzling, and the interiors alone speak volumes about a now-defunct way of life.
It’s impossible not to warm to the detective as he hones his method and learns to harness his genius, going from cocksure, naive and endearingly squeamish to canny and unflappable. The cast is strong, with Sushant Singh Rajput in complete command of his role as Bakshy. It’s set in a spectacular 1940s Calcutta meticulously recreated by Banerjee – a pulsating hub of gangsters and political activists that is a world away from the customarily stately and strangulated Raj-era period drama. But adventure fails to permeate the listlessness of this overlong, self-indulgent would-be thriller.ĭirected by the much-lauded National film award-winner Dibakar Banerjee, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is an origins story for Bengali author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s hugely popular gumshoe. H as there ever been an exclamation mark as misleading as the one in the title of this film? Exclamation marks mean urgency, excitement, exuberance – think Mars Attacks! Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Hello, Dolly! If you see an exclamation mark, the understanding is that this way adventure lies.
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