Review: Detective Byomkesh Bakshy

Let’s first get the pink elephant out of the room – Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is not for purists. If you’re a raging fan of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s classic character, you will find a billion things that don’t match your expectations. This Dibakar Banerjee film is a new take on the character. If you can’t accept that, exit this review and go back to your VHS tapes. For the rest, let’s get to the good stuff.

The opening scene of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is iconic. It’s a wintry 1940’s Calcutta night, a boat moors along the coast and we see a pack of Orientals up to no good. A hooded figure emerges from the darkness, its shadow cast on the wall in a sinister outsize. The figure warns the Orientals that it wants Calcutta back, guffaws terrifyingly and slits everyone’s throats open. It’s spine tingling. Hair raising. Mouth frothing. It plunges you into the euphoric trance of a film buff getting the most potent possible cinematic fix. At this point you know you’re about to see something special.

Cut a few days later straight to the case – the Chemical engineer father of Ajit (Anand Tiwari) has gone missing, so he enlists the help of a certain Mr Bakshy. Often times a movie about a larger than life hero showcases the protagonist’s entry in a bombastic manner. Banerjee’s Bakshy, however, makes an unexpectedly subtle entry playing carom and getting knocked in the face. It’s one of the several instances where Banerjee’s direction subverts your expectations. There isn’t much time to waste - Bakshy gets cracking on the case rather quickly. Clues begin flooding in and he begins zooming around town sniffing at the breadcrumbs. Sure enough, a body turns up, so does a seemingly antagonistic femme fatale (Swastika Mukherjee), and Bakshy and Ajit find themselves afoot a deliciously seedy conspiracy.

The film’s storytelling style is pure unbridled sex with the camera. Every passing clue is a thrilling experience, dragging us deeper into the murky mystery with Sneha Khanwalkar’s insane industrial death metal music. Your jaw will remain on the floor for most of the runtime because at any given instance there’s always something leaping out to dazzle your eyes. Every frame of every scene has an insane amount of intricate detailing that really brings the pre independent Calcutta to life. At certain times the film even haughtily shows off the gorgeous production design, like during the opening credits when the camera slowly shows us poster clad Calcutta streets through a tram window. The intoxicating visuals are complemented by the breakneck pace of the case, that makes the two and a half hour runtime seem like a cool breeze.

The question on everyone’s mind is if the film borrows any elements or style from Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes or its BBC counterpart. Fortunately it doesn’t. This is neither an action movie nor a tale of an unstoppable super genius. This detective is refreshingly human and grounded, despite being a Bollywood hero. His ‘heroism’ exists on a level that’s exactly between Rajit Kapoor and Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s surely a tough balance to pull off, considering Bakshy is up against Samurai tuition teachers, Japanese drug lords from Shanghai and a mysterious figure that is more dangerous than either of them. So Bakshy is beaten, both physically and intellectually. This is his first big case and the rust and mild vulnerability is on full display.

Slipping seamlessly between shyness to good-natured cockiness to enthusiastic charm, Sushant Singh Rajput is a fun Byomkesh Bakshy. A lot of times he underplays the character, letting his costumes and unibrow do the work. Banerjee has no doubt refined Sushant’s quiet, soft-spoken presence into a likable and offbeat acting style. He has his showreel moment in a scene in which he gets high and unlocks a puzzle to the mystery.

Beyond the hundreds of plusses in the film, there is a shadow of a minus. The third act of the film will forever be the subject of bickering and argument between people who’ve seen the film. It’s not that the finale is disappointing – it’s actually much more than that. It’s really hard to describe what goes wrong without going into spoiler territory, but there is a certain dependence on red herrings that Banerjee suddenly indulges in, and it feels cheap and also frustrating. Something huge happens half way through, and in the third act the film leads you to believe it’s more than what it is, when it actually isn’t. And despite that the film runs an hour and a half post interval, making that huge event a dubious attempt at whodunit storytelling. What makes it stranger is that the final few minutes go into over the top masala Bollywood territory, totally out of place when the tone of rest of the film is so beautifully controlled on a tight leash. No matter how you look at it, the sense of disappointment is very hard to shake off once you leave the theater .

Another aspect that falls flat is the femme fatale of Swastika Mukherjee who makes the worst Bollywood debut since Nargis Fakhri in Rockstar. Most of her seduction is unintentionally hilarious at best, and her big dramatic moment only hurts the film at its weakest point. Fortunately she’s balanced out by the rest of the excellent cast, including Neeraj Kabi, Divya Menon and particularly Tiwari as the sidekick who literally kicks down doors with his side.  

What works best in the film is that you absolutely do not have to be familiar with the old cases of Byomkesh Bakshy to enjoy this film. It’s perfectly calibrated for both old hats and newcomers to the character. It’s made to render a bit of pop culture to today’s audiences – after all we’ve never really had an adventurer in desi cinema. The film, ultimately, is a wicked cocktail of clues, images, sounds, emotions and sensations, and from start to end you’ll be firmly affixed to the edge of your seat. Hopefully this is the start of a franchise, and the dawn of a bold new era for Yash Raj.

(First published in Firstpost)

Review: Mission A7000

‘Mission A7000’ opens with a dark figure locked in a basement in a rainy night in a remote European location. Dogs barking outside, a bunch of machine gun wielding masked guards patrolling the area. It’s a saucy opening, heavy on atmosphere and intrigue. It turns out to be a perfect calm before the storm because utter mayhem breaks out in a matter of minutes, and the dark figure from the basement escapes captivity in a grand manner.

Full of thrills, mystery, snazzy gadgets and exploding chopppers Mission A7000 is like a Tom Clancy book. The protagonist Louis is a young college kid and also a tech prodigy who is sucked into a gigantic government conspiracy because he somehow gets his hands on classified information on his phone. Louis is on the run throughout the movie, zooming from the streets of Bombay to the bylanes of Istanbul to the dunes of Arabia. Pursuing him is a mysterious figure called Blackcat, a seemingly special ops personnel gone rogue, operating outside the jurisdiction of government officials.  Blackcat’s face is never revealed until the end of the film, so the filmmakers throw us a bunch of red herrings along the way.

Majority of the movie is Louis running around, using his gadgets and know how to uncover the mystery at hand. There’s a great one take scene where Louis and Blackhat spar each other at an abandoned building, one chasing the other wherever the advantage lies. As ridiculous as the ‘high concept’ style of the film sounds, the film also shoehorns in a heartfelt love story between Luois and a sultry French woman who calls herself Vek whom he meets in Istanbul. Surprisingly, the love story actually adds some gravitas to the plot rather than a side track. The most interesting part of the film, however, is not the conspiracy involving a major tech corporation but the brain hacking concept reminiscent of Minority Report. Mission A7000 takes the concept to a further level and the results are a ton of fun. 

I managed to catch a secret screening, get your chance to be invited to the Special  MissionA7000 Launch event happening in your city. Book your date here http://www.missiona7000.com/

Movie Review: Badlapur

There were plenty of factors riding against Badlapur. Director Sriram Raghavan was coming from the failure of Agent Vinod. Varun Dhavan, the star of over the top romantic comedies was headlining a dark thriller. Ek Villain, another film with a similar premise of vengeance had just recently come, made money and gone. That budget was super tight, only movies that cost a lot of money make a lot of money here.

Much like the protagonist of this film, Badlapur renders a brutal wallop to everything going against it, and emerges as the first truly great movie of the year.

Dhawan stars as Raghu, a successful ad agency professional in Pune whose life descends into the pits when his wife (Yami Gautam) and child are killed during a car hijack. One of the culprits, Liak (Nawaz) is caught and put behind bars, but he refuses to divulge the identity of the other guy. Raghu cannot accept this - his mind fractures, and what follows is a crazy revenge trip that is set, aptly in the town of Badlapur.

Fortunately, we don’t get a rehash of Ek Villain. What we do get is the Sriram Raghavan of Ek Hasina Thi. It is surprising that unlike the trailers this isn’t the bloody vengeful journey that you expect it to be – it’s a black comedy and character drama with a small dose of violence. The film zips by from one plot point to another, as we follow Raghu’s weird path of salvation. Raghavan extracts humor from apathy, like from Koko (Radhika Apte) a hapless wife willing to offer sex to a murderer without a moment’s consideration. He also extracts humor from desperation, like Liak’s bungled attempts at escape from prison. There’s also a lovely dynamic between Liak and his mother (Pratima Kazmi) that ends in a subtly heartbreaking way. To have such a nuanced and offbeat film as a mainstream release is quite a nice change.

At most times Badlapur feels like Raghavan set out to take badla and mess with the clichés of the formula and genre. Meandering romantic sub plots? To hell with that - Raghu just uses and throws. A thirst for revenge? Too easy, let’s make the hero and the villain wait for fifteen goddamn years until they actually do anything. No one even smokes in the film, yet there is persuasive mention of Ganja. The familiar element of a suitcase full of cash is present, and the plotline is quietly subverted by the end. What’s more, there’s shades of James Hadley Chase and Vijay Anand in the mix as well, complete with sex based shock value.

What works best is that Badlapur is stripped down, crystalline filmmaking. There’s no room for unnecessary BS nor are there any frills that pander to commercialization. While Johnny Gaddar had a dash of pulp in every frame the shots here are simple and beautiful. There’s no fancy camerawork here – Raghavan composes his scenes at the most basic level and lets the terrific acting and narrative do the heavy lifting. The visual resplendence is seen right from the opening scene, a long and meticulously composed Haneke style take where a woman simply crosses the road, while two shady folks in the frame do their own thing, until something horrible happens. It’s the reason why the tagline of the posters is ‘Don’t miss the beginning’.    

This is also violence done right. Raghavan seems to know that if there’s too much gratuitous brutality from the get go the audience becomes numb to it and the scene that matters won’t be effective. So the little bit of brutality there is arrives at a point when you least expect it, and whatever happens in that short burst will make the hair on your neck stand.

Raghavan managed to make even Neil Nitin Mukesh seem like a decent actor, and his knack for getting unheard of performances is on full display here. Varun looks like a beast, and his presence is felt. Much like Shahid Kapoor in Haider his transformation is memorably messed up. This is the film that is going to win everyone over and make him a household name. A bit more work on his delivery would have been perfect though.

Nawaz is once again effortlessly in top form as the sleazy, film obsessed baddie, and his chemistry with Huma Qureshi remains intact. Kumud Mishra as a cop is fun, and really brings the house down in a shouty meltdown scene with Nawaz. Yami Gautam is fine but she’s played the same role previously in Action Jackson, so hopefully she won’t be stereotyped as the murdered wife. The cherry on top are the wonderful cameos from Raghavan regulars Ashwini Kalsekar, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain and Gopal Singh, the suitcase guy from EHT.

The question of comparison to Ek Haseena Thi and Johnny Gaddar is irrelevant. Badlapur is the kind of film we need more of, and also the kind of film that you need to see more of. It’s in theaters now, so if you want to see a change in the quality of Bollywood products, I suggest you get a ticket or two.

(First published in Firstpost)

Movie Review: MSG

Let’s keep aside the censor board controversy behind MSG. Let’s keep aside the unsubtle self flagellating of Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan. MSG Messenger of God is finally in theaters – so is it worth the hype?

The answer is a resounding, deafening, back flipping, motorcycle riding, dove tossing, fireworks exploding, lion roaring, Deol screaming yes.

The problem with most desi films is that they’re neither genuinely good, or bad enough to be entertaining. We get a Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun or a One Two Three every now and then but these gems too few and far in between. Step aside and make room for MSG – it’s the granddaddy of them all – the Nazar Suraksha Kawach of these gems. It is not just a film, but also a crash course on so-bad-it’s-good filmmaking, and a thesis on guilty pleasure entertainment.

The story is pretty simple – Saint Gurmeet is the Borat of India. Except that he’s real, dead serious about how amazing he is and also a rock star. Think Nithyananda crossed with Aerosmith.

Our Saint, playing himself, is the alpha male, chick magnet, sports superstar, Grand Panjadrum and Dear Leader of Dera Sacha Sauda, a religious sect dedicated to helping helpless people in need of help. People lovingly call him Pitaji and seek his help by chanting ‘Dhan Dhan Satguru tera hi asra’. The chant works just like in Captain Planet and Pitaji proceeds to heal the unhealable, treat the untreatable, rehabilitate drug and alcohol addicts, rescue prostitutes and get them married, save poisoned victims’ lives and create wells for destitute farmers. He does all this using magic, of course. The local drug lord realizes that Pitaji’s rehabilitating and anti alcohol abilities could quash his business, and the film is built around his attempts to assassinate Pitaji.

Three fourths of this three and a half hour film is made up of Pitaji parading around in outrageous clothes and performing wondrous magic. He also constantly does things that make MSG a stoner’s paradise – like standing on a lion with flapping wings, or doing pushups between two buses that are draped in the national flag colors, or headrocking in a car named ‘We luv Sat Guru’, or shooting electric laser beams from his forehead. It’s like Saint Gurmeet sat down one night with his creative team with a kilo of the blue stuff from Breaking Bad.

How can one make a sword fight more awesome? By turning the incoming flying daggers into rose petals falling over a smiling Pitaji. How about doing something with bullets more awesome than The Matrix? Let’s convert the incoming bullets into a golden Crown for King Pitaji and then make him whoop the gundas’ gonads. This is the kind of stuff Rajinikanth can only dream of, and Pitaji chews every ridiculous scene with the smile of a huggable teddy. Not to mention the truly epic song lyrics like:

Papa the Great, mere papa the great

Bas tum karte ho pyaar

Saari duniya karti hate

The consistently over the top style of MSG is only buoyed by the absolutely atrocious acting from pretty much everyone in the film. ‘Guwwwuujeeeee’, a gut bustingly untalented phoren actress in this desi movie asks, ‘can I make a documentary on you? Pleeeeeaaaaase? Please Please Please Please’. When Pitaji replies in the affirmative the girl screams in delight, as Bhangra music plays and random kids begin celebrating. Only Dev Anand’s last few films commanded acting, character development and direction as hilariously tacky as the stuff in this movie.

Behind the crackpot writing, direction and acting, MSG without a doubt, is a gigantic advertisement for Dera Sacha Sauda. How dangerous is this, you may ask yourself. These guys spent tens of crores to promote a controversial cult on a mainstream level as this great organization that benefits mankind. The Dera has millions of followers and heaven knows there are people dumb enough to actually believe all the magical tricks of their Pitaji. Keep your concerns at bay, because it’s great to have more movies which are bad enough to be fun rather than the ones that are so bad they’re terrible. Besides, why wouldn’t you want more movies featuring a Saint, with curly arm hair, in a rainbow costume, playing a guitar with both hands, while riding a bike, over a swimming pool, in the air, as two female fans in the pool cheer in awe?

Hilariously, Saint Gurmeet’s ginormous name is present in every single opening credit of the movie, sometimes in different lengths. It is reminiscent of the film Jigarthanda, in which a local gangster forces a filmmaker at gunpoint to make him a superstar. The third act of that movie is pretty much the story of MSG’s release and now a bridge between satire and reality.

Why the film faced any ban is a mystery. You can laugh with the movie, and more so at the movie. It’s a win win. I reckon the censor board wanted to ban the movie for being too awesome. There is literally no better way to spend your valentines day than taking your date to watch the Love Charger.

(First published in Firstpost)