Dibakar Banerjee's next venture is perhaps his most ambitious and difficult one.
I'm not trying to undermine his previous work here which includes gems like Khosla ka Ghosla, Love Sex aur Dhokha and Shanghai. The last film, in particular, was a very complex movie to make. in each of these films, Banerjee had tried his hands in the genres that find few takers in Bollywood. Khosla ka Ghosla was a black comedy while Shanghai was a political thriller. His new film also deals with a genre explored rarely in the Hindi film industry - Detective fiction. And he has decided to bring onscreen a character which has seen a no. of incarnations in the past, one as recent as 2010, and is hugely popular among its fans.
Detective Byomkesh Bakhshi, produced by Yash Raj Films, is the new film being directed by Banarjee.
The men and women belonging to my generation are very much familiar with this first genuine Indian sleuth. In fact, many of us would have watched Byomkesh Bakshi's each episode at least twice as apart from the initial telecast of season 1 in 1993 and season 2 in 1997, the serial has seen plenty of reruns. You can still catch it on weekends on DD Bharti. For those who have little or no idea about Byomkesh Bakshi, let me introduce this wonderful character and his sidekick Ajit to you.
Byomkesh Bakshi is a fictional character created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. He is a detective who lives with his friend cum assistant Ajit in Calcutta (now Kolkata). It is not a modern character. The stories of Byomkesh are set in a timeline between 1930s and 70s and so the conditions of both pre and post independence era have an impact on the characters as well as plots. I'm here talking about the television adaptation of Byomkesh Bakshi stories which featured Rajit Kapoor in the title role and KK Raina as Ajit. The acclaimed series was directed by ace Bengali director Basu Chatterjee.
The basic premise of Byomkesh Bakshi stories was modeled on Sherlock Holmes, but the overall character development and plots were pretty much Indian. The series was able to capture the same spirit of the novel in setting, costumes as well as drama. There was a lot of suspense and some real smart work by the detective and his aide was shown in the series. Some episodes build up little slower than the others, but 15 minutes into it and you are hooked. That was all due to the taut direction of Basu Da. The credit needs to be given to the principal cast as well as Rajit Kapoor could never outdo himself in any of his subsequent roles. KK Raina was pitch perfect as a bit slow, yet faithful associate of sharp Rajit. Lastly, the background music of the series was perfectly tuned with the overall feel of the series. It raised anxiety levels, but was not an outright haunting score.
Byomkesh Bakshi is one of the most popular characters in Bengal and it has got a good no. of fans in other parts of India as well. Dibakar Banerjee has his task cut out. He needs to do justice to the character as well as the story he will be picking up to film. We have seen how three adaptations of Sherlock Holmes differ from one another (TV series of 90 & 2011-12 and films starring Robert Downey Jr.) and yet all of them have garnered critical acclaim. Will we get to see a modern Byomkesh or the 'Bhadralok' from the original? Rajit's version was sharp, yet witty. What kind of changes will Dibakar introduce to make the character interesting and yet not offensive to the fans? There are plenty of questions in the mind which will be answered only after the filming begins.
Dibakar Banerjee's take on Byomkesh Bakshi stars Sushant Singh in the titular role. Since I haven't watched any other adaptation of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's work featuring Byomkesh, it is difficult to comment on the casting decision, because for me Rajit Kapoor has always been the brilliant Bengali detective. Ajit's character is yet to be finalized and the film will be going on floor soon. The movie is expected to release in the second half of 2014. I always wanted to see a big screen adaptation of Byomkesh after watching Sherlock. Holmes. Dibakar is a capable director and so hopes are pretty high from the film. I sincerely hope he doesn't disappoints.
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