Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!

The story is based on the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi created by the Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.[7] The film stars Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari and Swastika Mukherjee in principal roles. It was released on 3 April 2015 to positive reviews from critics. There will be a sequel of this film where Sushant Singh Rajput will act in the same character.[8]

Plot

In 1942 Calcutta in a vicious fight at the Calcutta docks Yang Guang is thought to be killed.

Some time later, in Calcutta, student Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant Singh Rajput) is approached by a classmate, Ajit (Anand Tiwari), whose father Bhuvan Banerjee, a chemist, has been missing for more than two months. Byomkesh believes that he has been killed and his dead body kept hidden somewhere so that the case remains that of missing person. Initially, Byomkesh refuses to help in finding Ajit's missing father Bhuvan babu and even suggests Bhuvan may be mixed up in dodgy business, at which Ajit angrily slaps him. Byomkesh's girlfriend Leela plans to marry an employed chemistry student instead of him and tells him on the same day. After that Byomkesh finds Ajit and agrees to take a look. He checks Ajit's fathers belongings and is convinced that there is more to it than what meets the eyes. He tries to find out more by going to Bhuvan's lodging home and ask the residents namely Dr. Guha (Neeraj Kabi), Ashwini Babu (Arindol Bagchi) and Kanai Dao (Meiyang Chang) who is an government licensed opium merchant. He also finds Bhuvan's paan box hidden in his room by his roommate Ashwini Babu who seems to be addicted to the betel masala in it. Byomkesh deduces that since Bhuvan did not take his money and other belongings, he was not planning to go anywhere so the most likely scenario is that he must be dead.

Byomkesh finds the factory where Bhuvan worked. There he meets an actress, Angoori Devi (Swastika Mukherjee), who offers him a ride home. During the journey, Byomkesh asks her about Bhuvan, but she seems frightened and tries to hide something in her handbag, which is later found out to be blackmail letters addressed to Gajanan Sikdar, a local politician who is the owner of the factory and also a friend of Angoori.

Byomkesh deduces, with the help of Dr. Guha, that Bhuvan tried to blackmail Sikdar and was killed by him. He goes back to the factory with Dr. Guha and finds Bhuvan's rotting corpse stuffed inside a machine. Sikdar is brought in by police commissioner Wilkie (Mark Bennington) for questioning. Simultaneously Byomkesh finds some clues which prove that Sikdar is being framed. He immediately goes to the police station and rectifies his mistake, where he is also detained afterwards for impersonating a police-officer previously.

Sikdar is freed and Byomkesh follows him home but is stopped by Angoori before entering Sikdar's room. She takes him to another room. He gently rebuffs her but when he goes to meet Sikdar, the latter is already poisoned and dies in front of Byomkesh. Suspicion falls on his rebellious nephew Sukumar who has opened a rival political party and is militant about India's freedom from the British. Meanwhile Dr. Guha manages to vanish but sends Byomkesh an envelope containing the post stamp, indirectly admitting he was blackmailing Sikdar, not Bhuvan Babu.

After that Sukumar's sister Satyawati (Divya Menon) pleads with Byomkesh to help her brother, who's driven off earlier in a cab which Byomkesh used to follow Sikdar till his home. Byomkesh finds the Sikh cabbie who takes him to the point he dropped off Sukumar, which turns out to be a clinic of the Japanese dentist Dr. Watanabe. In the clinic the dentist's secretary says Watanabe is at the temple. Byomkesh and Ajit go to the temple, pretending they have a link with Sukumar's political party, but Watanabe is suspicious. Another member of Sukumar's party recognises them and follows them at Watanabe's orders. Byomkesh and Ajit confuses him by changing their costumes and then follow the student back to the dentist's – where they find both the secretary and student brutally murdered with a shadowy character escaping in a car.

Byomkesh takes a paper out from the student's pocket which they later find out is a map of Calcutta's river route. They return to the lodgers' house where Byomkesh feels low. He tries some of Bhuvan's betel masala, gets high, and makes a wall-painting of the entire crime. Next day he goes to get his blood tested, as well as a chemical analysis of the masala. It is revealed that his blood had heroin presence confirmed by Leela's chemist husband who says this heroin is very hard to trace and made from opium which Dao, who later is revealed to be an undercover police officer, tells Byomkesh has practically vanished from the city. Also the masala is literally clean, i.e. there is no trace of heroine in it.

Byomkesh finds there are two plots together here. The first is the Chinese gang warfare over opium, turned into untraceable heroin by Bhuvan babu's secret formula. The second is of Sukumar's political party being told by the Japanese army that they will land in Calcutta via its river routes and liberate the city from the British. The link between the two deadly plots is the mysterious Yang Guang. Yang Guang is presumed dead in a gang war sometime back, but in light of recent events it is understood that he is very much alive and in Calcutta itself.

Meanwhile, Dr. Guha returns to the lodging house and tells Byomkesh he's a nationalist fighting for India's freedom. He offers Byomkesh a role to play in the struggle and says that the murders were collateral damage. Byomkesh refuses.

Later Byomkesh asks Dao to take him to the Chinese gang which tells him about Guang. Byomkesh divulges some of the facts to commissioner Wilkie and asks him to sound all the air raid sirens of Calcutta at 4 am on Basant Panchami, because he realises that Sukumar and his sister were mere pawns in the plot and they will come in harms way one way or another . He is convinced the Japanese will attack Calcutta through its river routes then and Guang will help them, so that they let him control the hugely rich opium trade, and turn Calcutta into the drug capital of the world.

Byomkesh sends Dr. Guha a letter inviting him to the lodging house. Dr. Guha, Sukumar, Watanabe and Satyawati come there, as does Angoori who told Byomkesh she loved Guang from their days together in Rangoon and has been trying to mislead Byomkesh on Guang's orders. She hasn't seen him recently though and doesn't recognise him – not even when Byomkesh reveals Dr. Guha is actually the dreaded Yang Guang.

Angoori tries to stop Guang from helping the Japanese conquer Calcutta but he brutally murders her. The Chinese gang hidden by Byomkesh in the lodging house then attacks and takes away Guang who got distracted by the air sirens going off. Byomkesh, playing a bluff tells the Japanese doctor their game is up and the British army will crush their forces if they try to attack. Watanabe gives up and leaves in a hurry to warn the Japanese army. Byomkesh then tells Ajit that he would like to believe Bhuvan is innocent. On realising the danger of his invention, he tries to prevent it from falling into wrong hands, and gets killed. Byomkesh then proposes marriage to Satyawati, who accepts.

In the epilogue, Guang manages to kill the entire Chinese gang and – though injured – escapes, promising Byomkesh revenge.

Cast

• Sushant Singh Rajput as Detective Byomkesh Bakshy: a young Bengali detective. He had just passed out from college, and unlike professionals, falters and often makes mistakes.
• Anand Tiwari as Ajit Banerjee: the college-mate and future sidekick of Byomkesh Bakshy. He aspires to become a writer.
• Divya Menon as Satyavati: the niece of a local politician Gajanan Sikdar and later the love interest of Byomkesh Bakshy.^[9][10]
• Swastika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi / Yasmeen: a dancer and spy, the character outline of Anguri is based on famous Frisian exotic dancer Mata Hari.^[11][12]
• Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha / Yang Guang: a physician who also runs a male hostel.^[13]
• Meiyang Chang as Kanai Dao, a hostel resident with Chinese roots.^[14]
• Aryann Bhowmik as a young nationalist revolutionary.^[15]
• Moumita Chakraborty as Leela^[15]
• Mark Bennington as Deputy Commissioner Wilkie^[15]
• Arindol Bagchi as Ashwini Babu, a resident of the hostel who had a penchant for betel.^[15]
• Manoshi Nath as Ruby^[15]
• Anindya Banerjee as Prafulla Ray, an insurance agent^[15]
• Tirtha Mallick as Atanu Chandra Sen^[15]
• Prasun Gayen as a Journalist^[15]
• Peter Wong as the Underboss^[15]
• Prashant Kumar as Factory Watchman^[15]
• Dr. Kaushik Ghosh as Gajanan Sikdar, the local politician.^[15]
• Takanori Kikuchi as Dr. Watanabe, a drug lord who doubles as a dentist.^[15]
• Piyali Ray as Watanabe's Receptionist^[15]
• Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty as Puntiram^[15]
• Sandip Bhattacharya as Officer in Charge^[15]
• Shivam as Sukumar, the nephew of Sikdar, he has difference of opinions with his uncle and plans to form his own political party.^[15]
• Nishant Kumar as Factory Watchmen^[15]
• Shaktipada Dey as Nibaran Da^[15]
• Kanwaljeet Singh Banga as Sikh Taxi Driver
• Lauren Gottlieb (special appearance in the song "Calcutta Kiss")

Production

Development

Dibakar Banerjee expressed his desire to make a film on Byomkesh Bakshi. On 28 June 2013, the co-production venture of YRF and Dibakar Banerjee Productions officially announces its first directorial outing with Banerjee titled Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!^[16] In July 2013, Banerjee revealed that YRF had bought the rights of "31 of Byomkesh novels in all languages outside Bangla".^[17]

Before shooting, workshops were held for the cast.^[18] In an interview Rajput said, "I have taken leave for two to three months for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! after the release of Shuddh Desi Romance. A lot has to be done for the film like the look of the 1940s' hairstyle, body, accent, but all after this film".^[19] The costume was designed by the designer Manish Malhotra.^[20]

The sets were designed by Vandana Kataria and, accordingly, the set up will showcase the lifestyle of the people who were living during the turbulent times of World War II.^[21] To give the look of 1943, the heritage zone of B. B. D. Bagh was transported back to the pre-Independence era with vintage cars and old trams back on the streets.^[22] As reports suggest, a lot of VFX will be used to reflect old world charm.^[21]

Casting

After Khosla Ka Ghosla, Dibakar Banerjee wanted to make this film and he approached Aamir Khan to play the villain. Eventually the deal was cancelled because Aamir chose Dhoom 3 over it.^[23] Sushant Singh Rajput was roped in to play the role of Byomkesh Bakshi in mid-2013.^[24] Earlier reports suggested that fashion designer Sabyasachi's assistant, Divya Menon, would be making her debut as an actress in this film as Rajput's character's wife.^[9]

Initially Rani Mukherjee was considered to play the female lead. However, Rani refused the role since the heroine's character had a few bold scenes.^[25] The role was later offered to actress Swastika Mukherjee. On 6 November 2014, Banerjee stated that Mukherjee's role is sketched along the lines of Mata Hari.^[11] In March 2014, reports suggested that Meiyang Chang would be seen in the film in an important role.^[14] In May 2014, it was revealed that Neeraj Kabi is also part of the film.^[13]

Filming

Shooting for the film began in early 2014,^[26] and ended on 12 May 2014.^[27] A part of the movie has been shot in Kolkata and Mumbai. Some scenes were shot in an abandoned mill in Mumbai's Byculla region.^[13] Shooting locations in Kolkata were finalised in February 2012.^[28] Shooting took place in Lalbazar, Presidency University, Coffee House and Bow Barracks.^[29] The cast was reportedly seen shooting for the film in Agarpara in January 2014.^[22]

Music

Early in 2014, Banerjee and his production team set out to find artists whose music would fit into the story, shortlisting about 200 songs from non-Bollywood artists across the country. From the seven tracks on the OST, four tracks are remakes of previously written material – PCRC's "Pariquel" off their 2011 debut album Sinema, now has Hindi lyrics by frontman Suryakant Sawhney, BLEK's 2012 song "Fog + Strobe" includes thumri vocals by playback singer Usri Banerjee, Madboy/Mink's "Taste Your Kiss" includes verses in Hindi from vocalist Saba Azad and Joint Family's "Life's A Bitch," stays true to its original 2007 version from their album Hot Box.

Amongst the artists in the album, Sneha Khanwalkar is the only musician who had composed for a soundtrack before this.^[30] The track used in the teaser, titled "Life's a Bitch", is composed by the New Delhi band Joint Family. The full song of "Bach Ke Bakshy" was published in a music video featuring Sushant, dancing in a parking lot, on 16 March 2015 in the official YRF YouTube channel.^[31] The next day, YRF uploaded all the songs in an audio jukebox format.^[32]

Marketing and promotion

Banerjee says he changed the 'i' at the end of the protagonist's surname Bakshi to 'y' for "typographical balance", stating that the 'i' felt "too thin" and that 'y' was a "stronger alphabet".^[33]

The teaser was released on 21 October 2014 attached to the film Happy New Year^[34] and features the tagline, "Expect the Unexpected".^[35] The teaser was released on Vine and marks the first film to do so.^[36]

The first motion poster of the film was released on 20 December, in Kolkata.^[37] The official trailer of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! released online on 21 January 2015. The production team made a special documentary to celebrate the birthday of Howrah Bridge and did a flash mob on the bridge to the song "Calcutta Kiss" on that day.^[38]

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! team promoted the film in Mumbai College, where a fashion show was inspired by it.^[39] A second trailer was released on 10 March 2015.^[40][41] Sushant Singh Rajput promoted the film in India Poochega Sabse Shaana Kaun? and Comedy Nights with Kapil.^[42][43] Rajput also promoted the film in the TV series C.I.D. on 30 March 2015, where he appeared as Byomkesh with Anand Tiwari as Ajit.^[44]

Products

A mobile version game named Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!: The Game, has been launched by Games2win (G2W), which is currently available on the Google Play Store. It is a hidden objects game.^[45]

The game, launched with Yash Raj Films Licensing (YRFL), the licensing division of Yash Raj Films, is based on the film, which features Sushant Singh Rajput in the lead. On completing all the levels, a 'Detective Certificate' is awarded to the players, who can post it on social media.

An apparel line titled NOIR 43 was launched at the Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW), New Delhi, on 26 March. Since Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is set against the backdrop of Kolkata during World War II in 1943, elements from the film have influenced the fashion line of contemporary clothing. The collection will be exclusively available on Amazon.in.^[46]

Reception

Critical reception

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! received generally positive response from critics.^[47][48]

Hindustan Times Rohit Vats gave it four stars out of five and stated "The action in the film starts taking place from a distance and the director slowly involves the audience into it. Pre-independence Calcutta serves as the backdrop in the opening scenes, but it soon turns into a character. The attention to detail is obvious in almost every frame."^[49]

Koimoi Surabhi Redkar, gave it four stars out of five and said: "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is a delicious thriller filled with elements that make you rack your brains too. This mystery is the one even you would want to solve. Watch it for an amazing story and its even better execution. Crime mysteries just got better in Bollywood! I am going for 4/5 here!"^[50]

Mid-Day Surabhi Redkar, gave four stars and said: "Don't miss it. Even if just to go back to the magical world of nostalgia created so beautifully and earnestly by Banerjee and cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis."^[51] Kusumita Das from Deccan Chronicle rated the movie 3.5 stars out of five and noted "The film follows the core structure of whodunit --- the chase, the red herrings, the slow cooked suspense leading up to a grand reveal. There's a generous spray of blood too, that underlines just how violent those times were."^[52]

Srijana Mitra Das of The Times of India reviewed and gave 3.5 stars out of five and wrote "Byomkesh Bakshy is an iconic Bengali character brought to life by Sushant Singh Rajput with great elan – Sushant pulls off a role full of wry liveliness (a Sardarji cabbie nervously noting, 'Ye babu ka nut dheela hai,'), fitting the character, from flowery dhoti folds to furrowed-forehead frowns, beautifully. He's matched by dramatic Neeraj Kabi and calm Anand Tiwari who, after a Chinese gang leaves a courtyard strewn with corpses, tells caretaker Putiram (shakily precise Pradipto Kumar Chakrabarty), 'Khoon rehne de...bas chai bana de."^[53]

Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta gave it three stars out of five and mentioned "When it switches to explicatory mode, it flattens. The tension, which is on a slow-burn, leaches out, and the film ends as less than it could have been. And that's a disappointment. But by then, you have seen a film, a real, bonafide film, not bits and pieces of nonsense masquerading as one."^[54]

IBN Live gave it three stars out of five and mentioned "It's the snail-paced plotting, and the surprising lack of urgency and imminent danger that cripples the film. Story strands and characters are abandoned arbitrarily, only to be revisited later. The big reveal isn't too hard to guess – stick with your gut, don't let the red herrings distract you, and lo, you've figured it out. The climax too is a mess of hammy acting."^[55] Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost gave it eight out of ten.^[56]

Box office

Revenue could hardly cross its budget on box office. On its first day Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! collected ₹4.2 crore (US$650,000) nett in India.^[4] On its second and third day the film collected ₹4.5 crore (US$700,000) and ₹5.36 crore (US$840,000) respectively, and made a total weekend collection of ₹14.1 crore (US$2.2 million) in India.^[5] As of 3 May, the film collected ₹27.05 crore (US$4.2 million) in India.^[4]

As of 12 April, the film collected ₹8.12 crore (US$1.3 million) from international markets.^[3][4]

Awards

Sequel

Before the film's release, Dibakar Banerjee expressed interest to make Byomkesh Bakshy as a franchise, if the first film does well.^{[40][60][61][62]} After its release, Banerjee stated that he had the sequel ready and was hoping to start soon.^[63][64] Banerjee said that Byomkesh's adventures will continue with the upcoming instalments of the series exploring his relationship with his sidekick Ajit, his love interest Satyawati and his nemesis.^[65][66] On July 2016, actor Sushant Singh Rajput confirmed the sequel is happening very soon.^[67]A month after the actor's confirmation, director Dibakar Banerjee confirmed he will start shooting of a sequel (despite being disappointed with the box office collection of the first film), after completing another film.^[68]

References

External links

• Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! on IMDb
• Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! at Bollywood Hungama
• Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official website