Review of Bengali movie "Byomkesh Fire Elo"

Director Anjan Dutta and actor Abir Chatterjee are back with the third installment of their Byomkesh series and it will not be wrong to call it the best from the duo. This time the story which has been adapted is "Benisanghar".

The story revolves around the murder of a very rich and well established man Benimadhab (Bishwajit Chakraborty)  and his faithful bodyguard Meghraj. Benimadhab's family has a lot of mysterious characters like his theater actor son , his daughter-in-law , his daughter , his son-in-law Gangadhar (Kaushik Sen) and his grand son and grand daughters. There are his two nephews too who live with him Sanat(Rahul Mukherjee) and Nikhil. All these characters have more or less motive to kill Benimadhab as no one have a good relationship with him and also he was about to change his will which will affect the relatives financially too. Byomkesh does his investigation and not only he found the murderer rather he discovers some other dark secrets of the family too at the end.

The original story has been tweaked a bit using creative liberties which may not appeal to

the die hard Sardindu Fans but if you take it as a movie's screenplay then it is really well written. The way the plot has been created in the beginning , the way all the characters have been introduced in the first half keeps the drama engaging. Only few things which could have been avoided or at least reduced is the domestic fight between Byomkesh and Satyabati (Ushashi). Its not like that a married woman have to always fight with her husband. Also there is one portion where Byomkesh tries to give lecture on social life beyond politics to the character of Makranda (Shubhro) which does not sync with the story as it has nothing to do with the main story rather it tries to show Byomkesh in a different light apart from an investigator but do we need it? There are also some portions added to tell why Ajit(Shaswata Chatterjee) is still with Byomkesh's family but we really don't need all this melodrama in the murder mystery.But in spite of this drawbacks still it never loose its grip from the audiences till the end as because of the characters are so interesting and their different equation with Byomkesh has been portrayed very well.

As a director Anjan Dutta has done superb job whether it is recreating the old age charm of old Calcutta or choosing the actors for different characters he has done all these with near perfection.It is much better from his earlier Byomkesh movies in its presentation.

Abir Chatterjee has done an excellent job as in the lead character. He has matured a lot from his first Byomkesh Bakshi movie. While watching him it can be said his body language to dialogue delivery everything is just perfect for the character. Though the bad thing is it is his last Byomkesh film and we will surely miss him as Byomkesh. If there will be new actor for next Byomkesh then there is high probability that it was last one for Shasawta Chatterjee and Ushashi too as Ajit and Satyabati. In the final installment Shaswata has nothing much to do. He has hardly 3-4 scenes in fact this time his character Ajit has not even accompanied Byomkesh during investigation. In this minimal scope Shaswata is too good as usual. Also his voice over has

been used very well to introduce the characters. Ushahsi had to play only a nagging wife all the time and she hardly have any scope to perform anything.
Among the rest of the cast it is Kaushik Sen as the born gambler and alcoholic Gangadhar who steals the show. He is absolutely brilliant. His scenes with Byomkesh are very interesting. Rahul has also done a good job as Sanat, the photographer nephew of Benimadhab. In the emotional scenes he is very good. Subhra has a lot of scope to perform as Makranda but he fails to deliver upto the mark. Locket Chatterjee has her moments but very few. Biswajit Chakraborty has performed very well in his brief appearance.
The rest of the cast have given perfect support.

Among the technical team full marks should be given to the cinematographer Indraneel Mukherjee. He has captured the whole film giving it old age charm to represent teh era of 1960. The same should be said for the art direction and costume design team who have given the perfect look for that period. Arghyakamal Mitra has done a fantastic job by balancing the pace of the film between an edgy thriller and an emotional journey of human relationship.
There is no song in the film but Neel Dutta's music has been used very well in the background.

Overall it is best Byomkesh film ever made by Anjan Dutta so go and watch it if you are a Byomkesh fan. Also you should watch it as it is the last opportunity to see Abir Chatterjee as Byomkesh Bakshi.