Anyways, I happened to come across “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy”. I have had wanted to watch this one for a long time but for some reason, this detective movie eluded me. That was until last night when I came across it on Amazon Prime Video.

A click and I got to finally meet Bakshy Babu.

Byomkesh Babu

The movie is based on charachters invented by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and mainly taken from the novel Satyanweshi. In many ways Byomkesh Bakshy is inspired by Sherlock Holmes.

The movie is set in the 1940s in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkatta). India was still under British rule and was hence by extension part of the war effort on the Allied side.

As Calcutta was an important port for shipping supplies to the war against Japanese forces in Burma, Japan had tried it’s hand by bombing Calcutta. Many of the bombings did not cause much damage. That said, Calcutta as a city, lived in fear of falling to the invading Japanese forces. This historical backdrop of Japanese threat and Chinese migrant population is beautifully weaved into the movie plot that is mainly a murder mystery.

The music varies from rock to heavy metal and for some reason it fits into the movie almost perfectly. The movie also takes a loving, caring look at the city of Calcutta of old. The characters are all odd, interesting and cannot be taken very seriously.

Sushant Singh, as Byomkesh Bakshy does not disappoint. The cast is talented and work well. Their costumes, their look are impeccable. The sets are wonderful and a lot of detailing is near perfection.

There is also a healthy dose of dark comedy in the film. The story has it’s moments of mystery, twists and turns but honestly at the end of it, I sat up researching more material to read on Calcutta during the second world war.

This is probably the first movie I have seen in Hindi which I really hope to see become a franchise.

I won’t give much of the plot away, watch it for yourself.

PS: I don’t like rating movies. I suspect, I will only write about movies that I personally recommend you watch.

Recommended:

• Calcutta feared a Japanese attack- Netaji files (The Hindu)

Trailer