(Full Disclosure: I work at YRF but this post isn’t sponsored by the studio but comes from the heart of a filmbuff who watched the movie in a theater with a paid ticket, instead of a film screening!)

It’s strange but I distinctly remember how every Dibakar Banerjee movie has left me feeling. I remember being euphoric at the end of Khosla Ka Ghosla. This was an Ocean’s 11 devoid of gloss, cool, swag or for that matter, George Clooney. But Anupam Kher Khosla and his motley bunch of family and friends made me want to whistle out loud for kicking Khurana’s butt so hard and so well. There was such a satisfaction that I felt after the Khoslas avenged Khurana for me – yes, I wanted to avenge him to because the film made me feel that it had happened to me, or someone I know really well.

Love, Sex Aur Dhokha made me feel cheap and ashamed. I’m not even sure why because I have never done anything like the protagonists in the film or subscribed to any of the views they had. But I felt dirty after watching the film, because I was part of a system that allows such tragedies to happen on a daily basis. I should have felt helpless but instead I felt mad that I had allowed this to happen; as if I played some part in making this possible.

In fact, it was Shanghai that made me feel helpless. It made me realise more than ever before that there is no such thing as one India. That India can unfortunately never be looked at as a single entity, because of the hundreds of worlds that it inhabits – and because most of these worlds are at odds with each other, at some level. I felt sad that one India will have to be left behind for another India to move forward, and I felt frustrated that this this won’t be allowed to happen so we may remain in this pathetic gridlock forever.

It was Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! that made me feel the most among all Dibakar Banerjee films. I felt for days, for weeks, for months – and every time I simply think about the movie, I feel even now. This isn’t a feeling I can describe or elucidate in words, more so because it felt like the distinct lack of all emotions. It was the feeling of emptiness – the most difficult and demanding of emotions, one that you cannot shake off, because you don’t know how to. Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! is, for me, one of the greatest modern day Indian movies because of the hole it left in my heart.

I talked about Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! last because Banerjee’s new film, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is a movie that made me feel the exact opposite of it. What is the opposite of feeling empty? Feeling everything! I felt possibly every emotion in my chest from thumping tension during the opening credits to excitement and euphoria to perplexity and panic to impatience and insight, to jaw-dropping awe during the final shots. What I felt during Byomkesh Bakshy was the mother of all feelings – the feeling that you seldom get while watching a Hindi film in a big screen: I was THRILLED!

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Detective Byomkesh Bakhsy! is basically Detective Byomkesh Bakshy Begins, but the film has been made so that even within the inception of the movie, there is the inception of the detective. So the first half of the film is the origin of the man and is actually Byomkesh Bakshy begins and by the end of the second half, we come to reach the origin of the detective, and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy begins. This may be why the film has two very distinct paces – the first half is beautiful, languid, slow-burning and expansive, whereas the second half is chaotic, relentless, thrilling and focused. Interestingly though, even when the first half unfolds at its pace, there is so much of the plot thickening that it seems relentless, and even with the enthralling second half, there is a poetry in the plot unravelling that it is beautiful. But every frame is delicious, every shot alluring, and every plot development tantalizing through the course of the film.

As much as I hate to use the cliché, the movie is quite the experience: Dibakar Banerjee has invited you to the theaters for a scrumptious feast but it is up to you to eat in tandem with the pace of the film, else you may be too full for desserts or stay hungry because you were too spoiled for choice. I suppose – and I can only guess here – that’s the reason why some people remained far from appetized, because this is a film that demands a certain level of engagement, commitment and attention from the viewer, and it then proceeds to reward you wholeheartedly for it.

Personally, I loved everything about DBB; from the subtlety of Sushant Singh Rajput (a class act) to the flamboyance of Neeraj Kabi (possibly the greatest find of the last 5 years) to the awesomeness of Anand Tiwari (who I absolutely love watching on screen – although I’m biased because he’s a friend). I loved the entire supporting cast, from Meiyang Chang to Divya Menon to even Swastika Mukherjee, I loved Banerjee’s quirky humour (the Maggi Tomato Ketchup ode made me laugh out so loud that I could feel the piercing gazes of the people sitting behind me in the theater), I LOVED Vandana Kataria’s production design, Nikos Andritsakis outstanding camerawork, Sneha Khandwalkar’s fabulous background song and the INSANE indie music and even the end credits sequence that a lot of people found off. Simply told, my mind was blown by the badassery of the film, and I was stumped that a film so international in design, vibe and execution could come from an Indian director!

*spoiler* Yes, if anything, I did miss some scenes of the impending Japanese invasion at the end, I do believe the climax was a little stretched and if intercut with scenes of an advancing Japanese army, would have become bigger in scope and nail-biting in tension, but considering this is (and should be) the first part of a franchise, I am not one to nitpick.

When you think of it, it’s not at all strange that I remember how every Dibakar Banerjee movie feels. This is a man who has singlehandedly raised the bar for himself and his contemporaries with every movie, but with Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, Banerjee has raised the bar for Indian cinema as well.

NOTE (Not related to the movie): I know that given my new job at YRF, everything I say about any movie from now will possibly be looked at with the lens of where I work, and it may seem shady that I have written such a gushing piece on a film produced by YRF, but those who know me, know well that I’m a film fanatic first and anything else after. And for those who don’t: I graduated as a computer engineer, started my career at HT as a journalist, dabbled in digital at Viacom18 and then made shows for MTV, but the one thing that’s remained constant in my life is my complete and utter love for the visual medium of cinema and television, and no matter where I work or what I do, I will continue reacting to every movie and TV show I see from the heart, than from a calculative mind. Koi doubt mat rakhna apne dil mein, filmbuff hoon mein Mumbai ka! 🙂

– Nikhil Taneja 

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