Sayanti Maitra

How was the movie? Totally depends on your purpose of watching it. If you are tired after a long week and you just want to chill with an entertaining movie - then yes, go for it. You will love the picturesque landscapes, the ensemble of good looking actors, good background score, few suspenseful frames and enough spices and dramas in forms of sensual scenes, chasing, fighting sequences etc. If you have not read the original novels ever, lucky you! Otherwise, just assume that you are watching just another masala thriller whose characters happen to be namesakes of your favourite characters from the novel! Now, if you are in a mood to savour a good movie, dig deep and heaven forbid, you want to enjoy a Boymkesh movie, you may need to think twice. Except two to three veteran actors/actresses, all the other characters will make you painfully aware that you are actually watching a movie and it is all just 'acting', just reciting dialogues from a script. And those dialogues, in most cases, are stilted, not at all spontaneous and far removed from reality, from the way actual people talk in everyday life. The screenwriter tried to do a good job by introducing few new characters, back stories, layers to the original storyline, taking enough creative licence and that is good, I liked it. But the weak acting and the way the story unfolds, totally kills this superb effort. I could have overlooked all these above issues and kept my mouth shut, if not for the whole Satyabati scenario. The worn out mainstream Indian movie formula of showing the herione as doe eyed, brainless beauties just for the purpose of showing a romantic side of otherwise macho hero - is very subtly woven into this screenplay too. The Satyabati we admire in the novel, the Satyabati Byomkesh fell in love with, was a character of strong personality, courage and determination. Byomkesh came to respect her immensely before he fell in love with her. But all we see in this movie (and in some other recent Byomkesh adoptions too, sadly) is a clueless woman, sometimes bordering to silly and 'nyaka' (I couldn’t think an appropriate English word for that!). And then, Satyakam harrasses her continuously right under his nose and Byomkesh does nothing, absolutely nothing, nor does Satyabati take any stronger stance. After Satyakam stalks her in her room and she breaks down, Byomkesh tells, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to you as long as I'm here"! It is so infuriating! So, according to him "something" happening means when the predator finally rapes or molests the woman? And all these taunting, stalking, touching, the psychological torture is nothing? Think twice, respected screenwriter, please think twice before writing such characters and dialogues in a country where stalking or teasing a woman is already considered "normal" and "no" still does not mean "no". And my earnest request to the director - we know that you are capable of making good movies and you like dark, mystery thrillers; So, please choose some other detective character or create a new hero of your own, but please don't ruin the classics and the emotions of generations of Bengalis that are intertwined with these beloved characters. In other words, দোহাই আপনার, ব্যোমকেশকে এবার রেহাই দিন।