Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

not as good as all the hype

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

An excellent tale of war torn Calcutta where there is a mysterious drug dealer planning to do something dangerous and our own Satyanweshi somehow gets to save his city. Dibakar Banerjee's imagination is worth taking note. Nikos Andritsakis's canvas justifies the mood and soul of 1942 Calcutta. The additional visual effects give this film a status of a neo-noir.Now the story. The story is based on Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's characters. Although there is a whole new flavour to the film but still it retains the soul of Byomkesh Bakshy. The plot is full of suspense and twists which helps the audiences to remain with the film. Though there are moments when the screenplay seems to be dragging but still one would not want to leave it in the middle. The background music gives the film a contemporary feel which contrasts itself to the time-line in which the story is based. Again these things gives the film edge over other Byomkesh Bakshy encounters.A big thumbs up to the acting department. It is evident that right from the supporting actors, the second leads everyone pour their talent in this film. Swastika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi / Yasmeen was a delight to watch, Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha was witty and fun to watch and equally evil during the climax. Talking about Rajput and Tiwari, they compliment each other very well.Overall it is a film which has its flaws but still it would be remembered as one of the finest detective films of Bollywood.

Murder mysteries or 'Whodunit' detective movies have never been 'The Box-office favourite' in the history of Hindi Cinema (particularly post the 70s). But being the first Hindi film made on the immensely popular Bengali sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, created by the renowned writer Saradindu Bandopadhyay, the project did have the excitement factor going in its favour despite the extremely mixed responses to its trailer. However beginning with an explanation for the tag line stated above, firstly this is another SHANGHAI kind of product delivered by one of my favourite new-age directors Dibakar Banerjee. And by the statement I mean, a film that certainly would get much appreciation from a certain section of viewers looking into the technical and other finer aspects of film-making, but not from the masses who actually turn a project into a big box office success in real terms.Secondly, here you cannot draw any comparison between the Byomkesh we know from the original books /Bengali films (serials) or the famous Hindi TV series and the one depicted by Dibakar in his film, since they both surprisingly turn out to be completely contrasting personalities to say the least. For instance Dibakar's Byomkesh is not a brave person at all, who easily throws up seeing blood, open wounds and rotten dead bodies. He gets slapped by a unknown possible client in their first meeting itself, is not able to save himself from the attacking goons with his sharp presence of mind or reflexes, can easily get seduced and also gets caught by an old man within seconds for the few lies spoken about his false identity. It begins impressively showing the Calcutta of 1942 and the very first thing that makes an instant impact is the splendid recreation of the era having a very fine detailing in the backdrop with people, clothes, trams, shops, boards, posters and streets presented beautifully with the collective effort of its art director and the cinematographer. The reference of World War 2 and Shanghai-Burma- Japan in the build-up sets a fine premise of an exciting journey. And then the mystery of a missing father begins with a sex and political angle thrown in to add some extra spice to the big case taken up by the known Detective.Having said that, the overall pace and excitement level in the narration remains extremely low and it goes into an even more dull phase post intermission when many dark secrets get slowly revealed heading towards a quite over the top and hamming climax (clearly inspired from the west), not expected from the director like Dibakar Bannerjee. Putting it straight, in the final hour, he takes the movie into a completely different phase with few boringly long sequences, un-required action, exaggerated expressions and an open climax minus any thrilling moments making no impact whatsoever on the common man willing to see an exciting ending expected from a murder mystery.In fact it's quite shocking to see such a slow paced, uninspiring detective movie without any enjoyable high points from the director of entertaining films such as LSD, OYE LUCKY! LUCKY OYE and KHOSLA KA GHOSLA. Probably the SHANGHAI hangover of making classics for only a certain section of viewers is still there with the director moving far away from the masses. In the writing department, the sequences begin to drag pretty badly in its second half and the dialogues or language also remains inconsistent. For example, at one end you have a fabulous line 'Sach Ke Aaspaas Wala Jhooth Pakadna Mushkil Hota Hai' and on the other the sacred river Ganga is strangely referred to as 'Ganga Maiya' by a Japanese drug dealer too. Also in the background score, where the naturally added sounds excel, the westerns arrangements and rock tracks keep disturbing a lot. Moreover its always confusing to see the creative team working too hard on recreating the gone era in a period film with all those fabulous sets, costumes, special effects and spoken language. But they repeatedly forget or deliberately ignore to recreate the music of those times too coming up with a similar sound and arrangements using the relevant musical instruments. Incidentally that reminds me the last time, music actually took me back in the late 40s was in HEY RAM composed by the maestro Illaiyaraja or in the latest YRF's Dumb LAGA JE HAISHA too reminding us of the musical 80s and 90s.No doubt here we have a worth praising production value adding a lot to the film's overall look and feel, a splendid cinematography (though many might find it too dark) and 'an appreciable risk' taken by the courageous director, post his unsuccessful venture SHANGHAI. But if only Dibakar had made it entertaining enough for the end user instead of getting lost in his own creation, the film would have provided a great viewing experience to all Byomkesh Bakshi die-hard fans for sure.Coming to its weakest point dealing with performances, though Sushant Singh Rajput tries hard and his level best to portray the iconic role, he simply couldn't deliver due to the badly written character largely deviating from the original persona of the detective as known to the (Hindi) viewers who still remember Byomkesh as Rajit Kapoor with his innocent sweet smile dressed in a simple white attire. On the other hand, Anand Tiwari plays his role with a comfortable ease along with Meiyang Chang and more posing as the co-residents of the lodge. In the female lead both Swastika Mukherjee and Divya Menon get nothing much to do, whereas Neeraj Kabi impresses a lot if only you can ignore his loud acting towards the end.In all, as was the case in director's last venture SHANGHAI, this too has its technical excellence right there as an impressive merit. But the film stumbles a lot in its overall execution, a feature we do not usually associate with the name of Dibakar Banerjee.

Loads and loads of hit-and-run masaalaa bollywood films have created a sort of aversion to bollywood cinema. For me, there is a psychological barrier which I've to cross before I can actually muster up effort to go and watch a bollywood movie. This barrier is usually broken down with help of strong recommendations from close friends, good ratings on aggregator websites and positive reviews from selected sources. 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy (with an exclamation)' happened to be the film which I watched and thoroughly enjoyed.This film belongs to top percentile in the corpus of films produced by an otherwise banal and shallow Bollywood. The film delivers on both abstract and practical level.* Abstract Level:> 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' (DBB henceforth) has a healthy component of escapism, which is essential for any cinematic experience. The ingenuity of its script lies in flawlessly welding actual historical events to fiction which gives rise to an entertaining narrative. Indian history - ancient, medieval and modern - is one of the most under-represented areas in bollywood cinema. We do have several films on revolutionary nationalism and freedom struggle but not a single one of them is half a match for 'Saving Private Ryan'.> This film duly locates India among the contemporary nations II World War period. This is a novel and appreciable attempt. There are Chinese, Japanese and Burmese connections in the script. Indian popular culture usually shies away from integrating India into global affairs. We either have films like 'Chandni Chowk to China' or the ones which caricature Indians as subservient to westerners. Recently 'Airlift' is a good attempt in this area but as Indian MEA said, "Airlift takes too much artistic liberty". > DBB is an elegantly made period drama at a time when there is sincere dearth of period dramas in Bollywood. There is no film on Mundhra scandal, for instance or a veritable story on emergency period. In DBB there is a genuine effort to capture the cultural undercurrents of the 1940s' Bengal.> The film gives due importance to female presence on screen. Calcutta was the hub of Indian feminism for several decades in pre- and-post independent India. Women also participated actively in revolutionary nationalism. 'Chittagong' is another film which captures this aspect.* Practical Level:> The depiction of period of 1940s' Bengal is meticulous. I really liked it. Bollywood is maturing towards elegant period dramas. The Calcutta tram, vintage cars, the costumes, the contemporary popular culture - all are given due importance.> Acting is elegant. I highly laud the role played by Neeraj Kabi (Dr. Guha). His character resonated of antiheros of the likes of Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men). It's high time that Bollywood start developing its pantheon of adorable antiheros which could replace Amrish Puri and Ranjit of yesteryears! Anand Tiwari (Ajit) was spot on as the faithful sidekick. He was close to Dr. Watson played by Martin Freeman in TV Series 'Sherlock'. On the critical side, I would point out following shortcomings in the film.* As the Indian version of Sherlock Holmes, the lead character certainly needs to have more oomph. Sushant Rajput did a good job but something seemed to be missing. I can't put a finger on it but the vacuum was all over the place. I don't know if Sushant was involved in script writing or not but it seemed that he was not. Character development of the lead was also missing. We get to know the pedigree of Byomkesh in one small conversation (in front of chemical mill). Romantic life of Byomkesh boils down to yearning looks at old photos. It has to be better than that.* Things are made too explicit at times. Let audience run their imagination. Indian audience are literally spoon-fed the story by directors. In a crime thriller leave an elbow room for connection of dots. Leave the top spinning a la 'Inception'.* Inject a bit more situational humor. I didn't have one hearty laugh throughout the movie. Make the dialogs a bit more informal without transcending into vulgarity. Byomkesh need to have a funnier component in his personality.* Last but not least, we can all do with a little less gore and little more of instrumental background score. Keep the bloody scenes to the essentials. Indians did not lead gory crusades in distant past and nor we have a fundamental right to carry guns. So, stop emulating Quentin Tarantino. As a liberal film-maker, appreciate Gandhiji's thought. Also the background score can do without English hard rock. India has gifted musicians who can easily liven up thriller chases and fight sequences. Use them liberally.In the end, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is a refreshing experience - escapism, entertainment and thrill, all bundled into one. I'm eagerly waiting for the sequel.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshi attempts to create a suspense thriller and that with the old age sincerity. The movie was never going to do well, the promos had clearly stated that, but the movie's attempts to blur the line between art and bore have failed miserably.The performances are brilliant no doubt. But is Sushant Singh Rajput a winner? Not really! His fine acting ability was more conspicuous in Kai Po Che than this flick. The film tries so hard to create suspense that it gives everything up to someone who is a lover of fiction. It's high time that Indian directors realize that creating the vibe of a classy film is not sufficient, you need a tight script and well executed performances too.