Movie Review: Detective
Director: Joydeep Mukherjee (hoichoi.tv)
Language: Bengali
Verdict: Surprisingly, I had fun! 😀 (3/5)
After my last two negative reviews of a movie liked by many and of a book by a famous author, I guess I do need to explain myself if I say I did enjoy this movie. That was the explanation of explanation, and here goes the explanation itself… In one of my most favorite television shows, called Master Chef Australia, the judges always said that, in the end the taste matters. Same goes for me, in the end ‘fun’ matters. And this movie was fun. It kept me guessing the ending and surprised me with the outcome in the climax. I would lie if I say, hmm! I saw that coming. And this I can say only for a handful of movies. Although there can be another explanation: I started the movie with zero expectation. 😇
Detective is based loosely on a short story written by Rabindranath Tagore. The short story Detective is part of Golpoguccho collection and here is a link, in case you want to read it (link).
While watching Detective, my predominant feeling resembled listening to a standup comic, who stretched the delivery of his punchline till the very last moment, if he would have lingered another second the joke would have become a drag and a bit of bore. Similarly the overacting, the sideline stories, the villainous plot, the female naggings; all which makes a movie intolerable were kept just under my tolerance level. Other than last 10 mins, the movie kept its momentum. Moreover it kept me guessing the ending till the end, and as I have mentioned earlier I was pleasantly surprised 😅.
Just to keep my “intellectual” dignity I do have to mention a few negative points: The freedom fighters of Bengal were not shown in very nice light, particularly the portrayal of the leader, who was the teacher of Shudhamukhi (Ishaa Saha)and Manmothanath (Saheb Bhattacharya). Shudhamukhi was detective Mahimchandra’s (Anirban Bhattacharya) wife and Manmothanath was Shudhamukhi’s premarital love interest. Also there may been some mistakes in the historical facts 😁, which I am letting go since nothing stood out like a sore throat and I did have fun 😇.
The story is about a pre-independence era (British employed) detective who was fed up with the petty crime he has to endure day in day out basis. Catching freedom fighters does not appeal to him. He reads thrillers and crime novels and dreams of interesting cases he will solve. And one day he found someone spying in front of his house and decided to cultivate the situation. What he uncovered was a conspiracy of his own murder. What happened next? You need to watch the movie 😁.
As for the actors go, Anirban Bhattacharya was less of nag as he usually is. I usually watch his movies for the same reason I watch Abir Chatterjee’s movies (Abir is like Keanu Reeves of Bengali cinema, good looking but can not act). However both of them are tall, dark and handsome 😁. Saheb did a role of a brooding young man, which was something different than his ever cheerful sidekick roles, and I must say he was not half bad. Although I liked Ishaa Saha better in Sweater.
All and all a good one time watch. Keep an open mind, sit with a bucket of popcorn and keep your hands off from the fast forwarding button.
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