Byomkesh Pawrbo (Byomkesh Episode)

This is second in my series of Byomkesh Bakshi’s stories turned into movies. First one was Sujoy Ghosh starrer Satyanweshi. Byomkesh Pawrbo is based on the story Amriter Mrityu by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.

This came as an episode “Amrit Ki Maut” in the Rajit Kapoor starrer TV series. You can find it on youtube https://youtu.be/UR7Vcm1G9P4.

Directed by Arindam Sil, Byomkesh Pawrbo stars Abir Chatterjee in the role of Byomkesh and Ritwick Chakraborty as Ajit Bandopadhyay.

Unfortunately, Indian cinema has not been successful in promoting its regional movies to the entire country. It’s quite woeful that aimless Hindi movies find mass market but good content from regional players never reaches an audience. With advent of Amazon Prime and Netflix, this is changing. According to this Forbes article,  Bengali movies have found an international audience – “Writer-director Arindam Sil’s Byomkesh Pawrbo, the latest in a series of films featuring cerebral Bengali sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, has been acquired by Amazon for international markets, not just its soon-to-launch Indian service, in a multi-title deal with the producer Venkatesh Films.”

Hotstar while not advertised like the two above also has impressive regional content with subtitled movies.

Coming back to Byomkesh Pawrbo…

The movie starts with Byomkesh rescuing a minor girl from trafficking in Kolkatta while his wife Satyabati (Sohini Sarkar) believes he is giving a speech as a function organized by the writer’s guild. Soon Byomkesh is invited by the government to look into some smuggling of illegal arms, left by the British after WWII at Dooars. Byomkesh sets out to Dooars accompanied by Ajith and Satyabati.

The suspicion is on four prominent businessmen with the money and power to carry out these dealings namely Nafar Kundu, Badrinath Das, Biswanath Mallik and Jamuna Das Gangaram. Sukhomoy Samanta (Sumanta Mukherjee), the local head of police is to help them in their quest.

Once they reach the destination, Byomkesh and Ajith find the police head very unwelcoming and he also broadcasts the news of their arrival to all and sundry. This irritates the duo. Soon Byomkesh meets all the businessman and is unable to put his finger on the real culprit. All of them have something to hide. Amidst all this, a simpleton from the village Amrit is shot dead in the jungle. Amrit’s friends feel guilty as they sent him into the jungle and approach Byomkesh to take on the case. Before dying Amrit had claimed that he had seen a ghost in the form of a black rider atop a black horse in the jungle. Amrit dies near the house of a local quack Sadanand Sur and Byomkesh finds horse’s hoof prints near the back wall of his house. While he is investigating the area Sadanand who was away on business to Kolkatta turns up. As he is about to open the main gate of his house, there is a blast and he is killed.

Suspecting a relation between the two murders and the smuggling of black arms, Byomkesh enquires about who owns a horse and learns that all the four businessmen including the police chief owned a horse. This further complicates the matter.

The rest of the story is how Byomkesh entraps the actual smuggler and forces the truth out of him.

Arindam Sil has given a more macho look to his Byomkesh as compared to the original character. Sujoy Ghosh was much more intellectual in his approach, more reminiscent of the arm chair detective. Abir Chatterjee is more muscle and disguises and charm. I guess this makes him more relatable to the masses, my preference of course is the more laid back version 😉

Over all the movie managed to keep the suspense till the end, you can’t say for sure who is the culprit. The stories of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay are more suited for a TV series. And that’s why you will find the TV series faster paced. However, the director has adapted this when well by introducing the various subplots and alternate lines of investigations. Some songs have been added to give mass appeal but they don’t really seem out of place.

I quite liked Ritwick Chakraborty as Ajit Bandopadhyay unlike Anindya Chatterjee as Ajit in Satyanweshi. Also, this version of Ajith was truer to the character and brings clarity for Byomkesh from his reading and writings. Abir Chatterjee as Byomkesh while not the best rendition for me, but still fits the bill. Some more chutzpa would have brought some colour to the more hands-on interpretation of Byomkesh. Sohini Sarkar as Satyabati doesn’t add any significance to the movie, but is unobtrusive and helps in adding precious minutes to the length.

It’s an interesting suspense drama which will keep you glued.

Do Watch.

Satyanweshi (The Truth Seeker)

When a movie is based on a book, how do you review it? Should you watch it just as a standalone movie with an independent screenplay or should you compare it to the actual story? If two people review it, one who has seen the movie directly and one who has read the book followed by the movie then which one to follow. It’s a dilemma.

I recently ended up watching Rituparno Gosh’s Satyanweshi which is one from the Byomkesh Bakshi series. In the Hindi speaking diaspora, this character was made famous by Rajit Kapoor when he starred as Byomkesh Bakshi in Basu Chatterjee’s series aired on Doordarshan.

Originally this detective was created by the Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.

Satyanweshi is based on the story “Chorabali” or Quicksand. So, I saw the movie first, then I saw the Rajit Kapoor episode and then I read the translated story in English. Humphhh…a tad obsessive you might say.

Consequently, I have seen two versions of the same story before writing the review and have also read the original story. Now, I can’t quiet decide what road to take for the review.

Let me try.

First, the Rajit Kapoor episode is a word by word reproduction from the story. When I read the story, I could hear Rajit kapoor’s voice in my ears. Hence, we can bundle up the two for the purpose of this review. Very scientific eh! A=B.

The movie Satyanweshi, follows the basic plot of the story. It is set in much earlier times though, of kings and queens and not just Zamindars. Himangshu is the king of Balbantpur and invites Byomkesh Bakshi and his companion Ajit for a hunting holiday. On reaching the estate they immediately realize something is grossly wrong. They learn that the librarian, Harinath has disappeared and the queen blames the king.  We see, there are many divergent plots which are not there in the original story. First, two conditions by Himangshu’s father for him to fulfil, if he is to inherit the kingdom - Himangshu cannot marry a non-Hindu girl, and must produce a legitimate heir within three years of his marriage. Second, while Dewan is kali worshipper Kaligati in the original story, here these are two separate characters. Kaligati is the family physician and has a young daughter. He is initially shown fleeing with two daughters from some other kingdom and one of the daughter mysteriously dies on the way. He lands up at Himangshu’s father’s doorstep and asks for shelter. Himangshu’s father realizes that Kaligati belongs to special sect of people who can mimic any animal and gives him special place in his palace. Third is introduction of the queen and one of the motive’s for Himangshu to harm Harinath. Alka, Himangshu’s wife and the queen is very close friends with Harinath. Harinath was particularly erudite in literature and was an accomplished vocalist. Alka, herself a singer and an aspiring actress in her single days greatly admires Harinath and finds solace in his company. Another angle to the whole plot is the mystery surrounding the name Balbantpur, which very frankly was a little far-fetched for me.

Unfortunately to write anything meaningful about the movie I will have to reveal the plot. So, if you haven’t seen the movie, proceed with caution.

In the original plot, Harinath who is the math tutor for Himangshu’s daughter, has supposedly disappeared with some account books and some cash. Byomkesh over the course of his investigation realizes that Harinath has succumbed to some evil plot and is dead. Kaligati is the old dewan of Himangshu who can mimic various animals. There is an old hut near the edge of the estate, it has the jungle on one side and a sand towards the backdoor. As luck would have it, Byomkesh and Ajit discover that the sand is actually quicksand. Byomkesh lays a trap and Kaligati is killed by Himangshu. It is revealed that Kaligati was embezzling from Himangshu and when Harinath discovered his treachery, Kaligati lured him to the hut and he drowned in quicksand.

In Satyanweshi, there is a completely different twist in the plot. Alka, has sexual aversion and has no interest in consummating her marriage and as a result cannot provide an heir to Himanghu to fulfil his father’s conditions. She sends Leela, Kaligati’s daughter with Himangshu for a hunting trip resulting in Leela getting pregnant. Kaligati hides the pregnancy from everyone and sends Leela away. Harinath is in love with Leela. One day he follows Kaligati and ends up at a dilapidated hut in the jungle. To his surprise, he finds Leela there with a newborn. He decides to marry Leela there and then. Kaligati arrives and is surprised to find Harinath with Leela. He learns of their marriage and promises to get Leela to the temple the next day. He directs Harinath to follow a path so that no one knows of his meeting Leela (to safeguard her honour) and Harinath falls into the quicksand and dies.

Kaligati wanted to live his last days as kings’ son’s grandfather instead of just a commoner and hence this deception.

Overall the movie had me glued to the screen. For someone who doesn’t know the story there is enough suspense. I quite liked Sujoy Ghosh, as Byomkesh Bakshi. He looks intellectual and a thinker but quick on his feet. Anindya Chatterjee as Ajit very frankly looked like a baboon. Apologies for such a harsh critique, but he smiled and acted like one too. Indraneil Sengupta as Himangshu looks the part. However, his portrayal of a worried husband, falsely accused by his wife was very one dimensional. Some shades of grey, which made you doubt his innocence would have added some much-needed gumption to the movie. There were no hair-raising moments and while you couldn’t pinpoint the motive, Kaligati remains the only suspect throughout. Arpita Chatterjee as Aloka as frail hopeless wife played the part. I wish her character was better defined. There was no real need for her to be frigid. It served no purpose in the movie. Similarly, the fact that Kaligati could mimic a tiger and a mould of tiger paw is found in his suitcase again remained a loose end.

This movie was the last movie directed by Rituparno Ghosh before his death. While he had finished most of the shooting, the remaining parts and post production was done by his team. I am not sure if the movie would have looked the same if it was released in Rituparno Ghosh's lifetime.

Just for that.

Can watch.