Bengali Movie Durbin 2014 (Bengali Flim Review)

Durbin

 Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty,

          Anjana Basu, Aparajita Adya, Rajat Ganguly,

          Nitya Ganguly, Rongeet, Deeptodeep, Ahona,

          Aritra Dutta.

Direction: Swagato Chowdhury.

Pupul (Rongeet) is twelve years old. But, instead of studying and playing like other twelve year olds, the only thing that interests him is solving cases. His two friends, Tatai ( Deeptodeep) and Bhebli ( Ahona), are equally enthusiastic on being sleuths and assisting Pupul. Pupul calls himself Captain Spark (remember Joy Baba Felunath?), roams around with a toy pistol and dreams of possessing a durbin (binocular), which, according to him, will make him a real detective. So when his uncle presents him one on his birthday, disaster strikes. Looking through the durbin, Pupul witnesses a murder and decides to catch the culprit. Now, here comes the twist in the tale. The movie, in the time of promotions, boasted that it brought two legendary Bengali sleuths — Feluda and Byomkesh — together on screen, for the first time. Turns out that the director ( Swagato Chowdhury) has taken a lot of creative liberties and brought the two sleuths, not only in the same frame, but also as neighbours! Of course he has tweaked the names and the circumstances. Prodosh Mishra (not Mittir) aka Feluda lives with his cousin Topshey and teaches Math to little kids. His neighbour Byomkesh Basu (not Bakshi) lives with his writer friend, Ajit. Their landlord, Lalmohan Babu is a 'rohosyo-romancho ouponyashik'. Here, both Feluda and Byomkesh are famous detectives, who are past their prime. The para also has another sleuth, Bhanu Goenda (remember Bhanu Goenda and Jahar Assistant?), who has a catering business as nobody asks him to solve cases anymore.

Initially these connections make you feel like you are taking a trip down memory lane and you appreciate this unique way of paying tributes to the detectives with whom we have grown up. But, after a certain point of time, it becomes less and less amusing. When somebody is dealing with these characters and taking the risk of showing them in a new light, the balance between comedy and parody becomes precarious. Unfortunately, the director, riding high on the excitement of doing something mind-blowing, messes up that balance quite a few times. So when an aging Byomkesh accuses Feluda "Tui amar client bhangiye nicchis" or becomes over-eager to share the remuneration, you feel somebody is trivializing the whole thing by violating a precious childhood memory. Trust this reviewer, it is not a good feeling. The weak and predictable plot also doesn't help things much.

But the film has some really good actors like Soumitra Chatterjee as Byomkesh and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as Feluda. Their performances, obviously, make it worthwhile. The child artistes, considering it's their first film, are appreciable. Anjana Basu as Pupul's mother is good, so is Aparajita Adya as Madhabi Dutta.

So, if you are not sentimental about Feluda roaming with an empty pistol because he can't afford to buy bullets or Byomkesh confessing that his revolver has gone rusty because of lack of use, you can watch this film.