Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Hindi Movie Review

There are many cinematic representations for Byomkesh Bakshy, the Indian detective often referred to as our very own Sherlock Holmes but unfortunately I haven't watched any of those movies. But the serial adaptation that our National channel Doordarshan used to show in the 1990's that had Rajith Kapoor playing the central protagonist was something that I used to watch regularly and from that perspective the new movie directed by Dibakar Banerjee is evoking nostalgic memories in me about those days of watching the series in the channel.

It seems Dibakar has adapted a difficult and complex of the investigative series written by Sharadindhu Bandyopadhyay for his movie. The making side is good with good cinematography and production design suited for pre-independent India where the story happens but the film is too slow and confusing as well thereby making the cinematic experience a disappointing one. Thats what I felt after watching Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.

Set in the early part of the 1940's in Calcutta, at a time when World War 2 is in full swing, Private detective Bakshy gets to investigate a man missing case that is much more than what he expected and the film narrate how Byomkesh Bakshy crack this case leading upto further developments.

"Expect The Unexpected" says the tag line of the movie and the film has done justice to that by the way revelations are shown in the end but the biggest drawback is the narrative part that lags and with a running time of two and a half hours, it was more of boredom than excitement for major part of this slow thriller.

Technically the film is high with good use of cinematography and colour tone. Costumes were designed well matching the period during which the story happens. The sets designed for shooting along with the VFX for the same was also impressive and matched very well with the real Calcutta of 1940's from what I have seen from various magazines and pictures.

Sushanth Singh has definitely done his homework well and the guy has emoted his part in a controlled and convincing way. Anand Tiwari as Bakshy's assistant, Swasthika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi, Divya Menon as Satyavathi, the guy who acted as the doctor and a central character in the film and all other supporting casts were equally good.

Overall, I could not sit patiently for the entire running time and did not enjoy this work from Dibakar Banerjee. We know how Detective Byomkesh Bakshy cracks his case but even then with such a slow pace in narration, the movie could not impress me. The rating for me is two out of five.

Rating - 2 / 5