Resurrected, but to what effect

The experience of watching a Bengali film can be disappointing these days. Watching a few of them in a row will help you grow a steady conviction that while Bengali filmmakers have the advantage of new technologies and marketing tricks, most of them lack two very basic virtues: guts and seriousness. Last month's Shukno Lanka was the odd entry; it only helped bolster the old belief that the exception proves the rule.

So, did we expect Anjan Dutt's Byomkesh Bakshi to be an exception? I did. Because, I still consider him one who knows a thing or two about his subject and the vacillating pulse of Bengali moviegoers. He never made the sort of movies that win dubious awards at obscure festivals, and chose to cater to the svelte taste instead—making sure that his audience get an adequate dose of entertainment, his producer the returns and he himself more projects to go forward with.

It was no surprise then that he went to grab the film rights of Gangtokey Gondogol and was subsequently refused; Feluda is still Tollywood's safest bet, the reigning king of box office. The refusal drove Anjan to a natural decision—putting up another franchise on a popular character that cuts across age groups and tastes. Another sleuth still holding on to his old school charm, waiting to be plucked out of oblivion and irrelevance.

And what exactly did his efforts, after Satyajit Ray and Basu Chatterjee, achieve?

One, Uttam Kumar's Byomkesh may well have been forgotten by now, but Rajit Kapoor in Basu Chatterjee's Doordarshan series is still vivid in our memory. Anjan pruned Abir Chatterjee of all his gawkiness to make him look credible; probably his is the closest to our imagination of the sleuth. Abir, surprisingly, pushed limits and will probably do better if Anjan ever makes a sequel.

Two, the wait was also for seeing how Anjan Dutt fares in filming an indigenous concept which has nothing to do with the Anglo-Indian community, hyper-anglicised youths or rock music—components that supposedly dominate his comfort zone. As long as the discussion concerns the retrieval of sixties flavour, he achieves to a certain degree. But one can't tell further, largely because his DoP (Indranil Ghosh) decides to stick to frames and angles patented by Bengali telefilms and the movie's irritatingly unidimensional narrative doesn't offer much of the old city in its backdrop.

To be precise, it's the timing of the story dragged forward to the start of the sixties from the eve of the Independence that causes the film to falter along its length. First, the context of the communal clash fails to sweep up the events described. They never meet. Second, Anjan's art department keeps making silly mistakes such as showing multi-colour offset printed Abol-tabol or a computerised black-'n'-white photo print of Satyabati, Byomkesh's wife. I doubt we had been that advanced technologically back then.

Such mistakes are not considered serious in a Bengali film given its screenplay and acting have enough to offer. But Anjan doesn't seem to get a hold of the intense drama hidden inside the exquisite literary construction of Adim Ripu, the story his film is based on. He narrates the film from Ajit's (I hope he doesn't need an introduction) perspective, dittoing writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's style, and kills its cinematic prospects.

As for acting, Saswata as Ajit is wasted, Swastika looks amateurish and Rudranil is not at his best. Kalyan Chatterjee, Biswajit Chakraborty and Chandan Sen look credible though. One performance that strikes a chord is of the actor who played the bit role of the hotel owner.

One and a half years ago, Byomkesh caused a ripple in Tollywood's tepid water when three directors eyed the 'Satyanweshi' (the truth-seeker). Of them, Rituporno Ghosh retracted considering the domain "too crowded". Director Swapan Ghoshal's film released and sank without a trace. Anjan was thought to be worthy of the challenge. But he perhaps didn't perceive any challenge.

And we all film buffs followed how Warner Brothers and Guy Ritchie had resurrected Sherlock Holmes and the prospects of a dead franchise.


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