Review of Byomkesh Pawrbo

Last year, director Arindam Sil had reintroduced the popular sleuth character from Bengali literature Byomkesh Bakshi, with his movie #HarHarByomkesh. First time he made a Byomkesh movie which was more contemporary more mainstream without compromising the core qualities of a Byomkesh thriller. He has continued that trend with his second outing with Byomkesh in the movie #ByomkeshPawrbo.

#ByomkeshPawrbo is a movie based on Sharadindu Bandopadhyay’s novel “Amriter Mrityu”. The story is set in the backdrop of a small town Santagola in the Dooars area of

North Bengal during the time of 1948. Govt of West Bengal assigns a task to Byomkesh Bakshi (Abir Chatterjee) to find out the persons responsible for the illegal arms circulation in Santagola area. So Byomkesh has to go to Santagola and he is accompanied by his wife Satyabati (Sohini Sarkar) and writer friend Ajit (Ritiwick Chakraborty). Reaching there he finds there are four rich and powerful local businessman who are the prime suspects. These persons are Biswanath Mullick (Kaushik), Badrinath Das (Rajatava), Nafor Kundu (Subhasis) and Jamunadas Gangaram (Ashok Singh). The mystery gets more confused when two back to back murders happen in the nearby village. First a mentally challenged man Amrito gets killed and it is followed by the murder of another middle aged suspicious guy Sadananda Sur (Rudranil Sengupta). By doing further investigation Byomkesh comes to conclusion that both the murders are actually related with the illegal arms dealing.

The screenplay has been adopted doing some minor changes from the original text but it can be said it is very well written script which is crisp and engaging till the end. No matter if you

have already read the story or not you will enjoy the investigation process of Byomkesh with little help of Satyabati and Ajit. It’s true that there are only four suspects so it is rather easy to predict the main culprit and many of you may predict that even before the climax but that does not affect the enjoyment of watching the movie. The references of literature especially Mahabharata has been used quite cleverly in the story proceeding. Also the dense forest of Dooars area has been used wonderfully not just as a backdrop rather as a character of the film. Only problem with the script is one additional song before the climax which looks very much out of place. It could have been avoided or could have been placed in the first half, but this is negligible.

As a director Arindam Sil has always succeeded to prove his caliber. In recent times when Bengali film industry is going through a bad phase, Arindam Sil is one of those directors who are giving commercially successful movies that too without compromising the quality of the film. He has skilfully modified the well familiar dhoti kurta clad sleuth to fit into today's time. The way he has performed as a captain to the talented cast and crew and has extracted the best work from them is commendable.

Among the actors the best of all is no doubt Abir Chatterjee in the title role of Byomkesh

Bakshy. It is his fifth film as Byomkesh and every time he is evolving to be a better actor and more suited for the role. For a change this time he has seen doing some hand to hand battles and horse riding and he has done those sequences confidently. There are some disguises for his character too and he has managed those portions very well.

Sohini Sarkar looks adorable as the sweet cooperative Satyabati. Even in the last film we have seen Arindam Sil presents more calm and sweet version of Satyabati compared to the text and Sohini looks perfect in this version of Satyabati. Ritwick Chakraborty has nothing much to do as Ajit. He has managed to make her presence felt in the supporting role.

Among the others Kaushik Sen is very natural as always. Rajatava Dutta is okay. Shubhashis Mukherjee is good providing some comic relief. Sumanta Mukhopadhyay looks convincing as the local inspector at Dooars. Special mention should be given for Rudranil Ghosh. He has very lesser screen time and hardly two three lines but he is just brilliant in those scenes. His expressions and body language is too good as a middle aged lonely man having many secrets under his sleeves. Supriya Dutta is excellent in his one scene appearance, he will definitely make you laugh in that one scene.

The technical team has a major responsibility when the film is set in a different period and

here we must say the whole technical crew has done a fabulous job. Their research to recreate the era is just too good. DOP Soumik Halder is in excellent form with his camera. The opening credits where he has shot the dense forest from a top view, he has made us spellbound. Special mention should be given to the night sequences shot in jungle, they are brilliantly captured. Same can be said about the sound design which is perfect. While talking about the recreation of the period of 1948 how can we not talk about the makeup and costumes done by Sabarni Das. Her effort has made every character look perfect on the screen. Also Tanmay Chakraborty is good in production design; especially the set designed for Sadanand Sur’s house looks very authentic.

Both the music and background score has been done by Bickram Ghosh and we must say he

is better in background score than the songs. The songs are not bad but have not been used properly in the movie. The over hyped mujra number “Dil Rasiya” featuring Sayantika does not work that much. There were more expectations from the song considering that it has been choreographed by ace choreographer Saoj Khan. But the output on screen is just ordinary and we must say Sayantika should have work harder on her dance steps, though she is okay with her facial expressions.

Finally it is a well made film from a brilliant and hard working cast and crew lead by a talented director. This movie is a perfect blend of modern film making approach with traditional Byomkesh emotions.