Suddenly, Bengali sleuths are everywhere. On December 19, Bengali director Anjan Dutt released the final part of his Byomkesh Bakshy trilogy, based on Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s fictional detective. In April, Dibakar Banerjee will release Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, a period thriller featuring the same dhoti-clad character.
Already, Mira Nair has announced that she will team up with Irrfan Khan to make a film set in Kolkata called The Bengali Detective.
But even as fictional versions of the much-loved private eye make their way to the screen, a recent documentary has captured the real-life world of the Kolkata sleuth. In Phil Cox’s The Bengali Detective, which forms the basis for Nair's feature film, Rajesh, the head of Always investigative agency, tackles three cases at the same time and burns up the dance floor in a bid to qualify for a television talent hunt.
Over the decades, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s Byomkesh Bakshy! has been interpreted by a long line of men. These include Uttam Kumar, the lead in Satyajit Ray’s 1967 adaptation of the Byomkesh story Chiriakhana, Rajit Kapoor, who played the part in a Doordarshan series in the early nineties, Abir Chatterjee in Anjan Dutt’s trilogy, and now Rajput, the beefy heart-throb from Kai Po Che! and Shuddh Desi Romance.
Given Byomkesh’s enduring image as an Eastern Sherlock Holmes, it is not surprising that Cox’s documentary is structured as a procedural. The 110-minute film introduces us to Rajesh and his team in a heavily dramatised opening sequence. The documentary then lays out three overlapping cases, lines up witnesses and potential suspects, and speculates on the veracity of the clues.
“The whole reason for wanting to make The Bengali Detective was to make something that sat squarely in the detective noir genre of filmmaking,” said Cox, who is one of the founders of the London-based production company Native Voice Films. “If I did not feel that I could achieve rich narrative twists and turns and unfolding mysteries that would hold an audience, I would not have made this film. I also wanted to make something entertaining and moving – not didactic or a superficial social commentary.”
Rajesh reopens murder cases unsolved by the police, helps companies track down spurious goods (a major component of his business), and shadows errant spouses. Cox follows closely in the footsteps of the Always team, filming away as they chase leads, interrogate witnesses, meet police officials, and interview clients. It was far more difficult than it appears in the documentary, according to Cox.
“The problem was working in the documentary genre ‒ my subjects were not actors, nothing could be scripted and one simply did not know how a case would unfold, let alone whether the camera would be there to record the pivotal moment,” Cox said. “So it was all about balancing collaboration with Rajesh and getting the absolute trust of the real people who wanted real crimes solved.”
Witness to the prosecution
Since it would have been impossible to be invisible during the investigations, Cox worked closely with Rajesh to capture his work process. “The method in making this film was everything, and actually was quite simple,” Cox said. “I was after a cinematic experience, not a fly on the wall verite documentary, so the method and the shooting technique had to be very particular. I spent two years in finding Rajesh and he had a wonderful richness to his life and a thirst for solving crime. He also understood that in order to make this film the way I wanted, he had to collaborate in the sense of making sure I was present at all moments of a case, as well as letting me into his personal life of doubts and worries. It was about trust.”
The shooting crew comprised Cox, cinematographer Lisa Cazzato and assistant director Shounak Chakravorty. “A scene can only happen once, but I needed to control it later on, so with two cameras filming one moment with different lenses and different angles, it gives me scope to control that scene in the edit,” Cox said. “Some people are confused by this as it looks too much like fiction, but that does not bother me.”
Mostly fact
The crew met Rajesh’s clients before they actually turned on the cameras to make them comfortable with the presence of the recording apparatus. “Then, when the pivotal moment came when Rajesh started the case with them, both the detective and the clients didn’t care about my presence, and I was filming real spontaneous drama and dialogue,” Cox said.
The camera couldn’t be present everywhere and all the time. “For example, when tailing a suspect, we only could film a few brief moments on long lenses or on supporting motorbikes before we had to leave in case we blew the detectives’ cover,” Cox said. “We looked like simple tourists with still cameras. There were no tripods or booms, so no one suspected we were actually filming.”
The opening sequence, a stake-out at a market which results in a counterfeit goods supplier being nabbed red-handed, appears to be a scene from a feature film because of the way it has been shot and edited. “We shot early footage as the detectives hung around the market, and then when they did the catch, we ran in hand-held and caught the moment of catching the counterfeiter,” Cox explained. “It was actually quite simple, and it all comes together in the edit.”
A goldmine
Fortunately for Cox and viewers, Rajesh’s private life is as eventful as his public one.
The Bengali Detective introduces us to his son and his blind wife, who suffers from several debilitating ailments. Rajesh is also blessed with terpsichorean skills, and trains along with his employees after hours to make the trials for talent hunt show for the Zee Bangla television channel.
Cox presents The Bengali Detective as the saga of a man trying to work his way up the ladder in an economy that holds out the promise of individual progress and achievement. As is evident from Rajesh’s story and the city where he digs for gold, this progress can be elusive. “Rajesh is a modern self-made man with a great heart,” Cox said. “He could certainly have easily been out of a Charles Dickens novel. I always wanted a single lone strong detective at the heart of the film, as that is what the genre demands. I chose him not for his detective skills, but for his rich layers of life and depth. He was simply a real person with flaws and weaknesses that the audience could believe in, along with great heart and humour, and some cheekiness.”
Kolkata provided the perfect setting for Rajesh’s journey. “It felt so melancholic ‒ one foot in the past and one in the present,” said Cox, who has produced another documentary set in the Eastern port city, The Auction House: A Tale of Two Brothers. “The whole place has a great cinematic presence and a cinematic history and rich detective tradition.”
One dramatised example of the Bengali love for fearless private eyes has already hit the screen. The other one will arrive in April, taking Byomkesh where no Bengali detective has gone before: Bollywood.
Already, Mira Nair has announced that she will team up with Irrfan Khan to make a film set in Kolkata called The Bengali Detective.
But even as fictional versions of the much-loved private eye make their way to the screen, a recent documentary has captured the real-life world of the Kolkata sleuth. In Phil Cox’s The Bengali Detective, which forms the basis for Nair's feature film, Rajesh, the head of Always investigative agency, tackles three cases at the same time and burns up the dance floor in a bid to qualify for a television talent hunt.
Over the decades, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s Byomkesh Bakshy! has been interpreted by a long line of men. These include Uttam Kumar, the lead in Satyajit Ray’s 1967 adaptation of the Byomkesh story Chiriakhana, Rajit Kapoor, who played the part in a Doordarshan series in the early nineties, Abir Chatterjee in Anjan Dutt’s trilogy, and now Rajput, the beefy heart-throb from Kai Po Che! and Shuddh Desi Romance.
Given Byomkesh’s enduring image as an Eastern Sherlock Holmes, it is not surprising that Cox’s documentary is structured as a procedural. The 110-minute film introduces us to Rajesh and his team in a heavily dramatised opening sequence. The documentary then lays out three overlapping cases, lines up witnesses and potential suspects, and speculates on the veracity of the clues.
“The whole reason for wanting to make The Bengali Detective was to make something that sat squarely in the detective noir genre of filmmaking,” said Cox, who is one of the founders of the London-based production company Native Voice Films. “If I did not feel that I could achieve rich narrative twists and turns and unfolding mysteries that would hold an audience, I would not have made this film. I also wanted to make something entertaining and moving – not didactic or a superficial social commentary.”
Rajesh reopens murder cases unsolved by the police, helps companies track down spurious goods (a major component of his business), and shadows errant spouses. Cox follows closely in the footsteps of the Always team, filming away as they chase leads, interrogate witnesses, meet police officials, and interview clients. It was far more difficult than it appears in the documentary, according to Cox.
“The problem was working in the documentary genre ‒ my subjects were not actors, nothing could be scripted and one simply did not know how a case would unfold, let alone whether the camera would be there to record the pivotal moment,” Cox said. “So it was all about balancing collaboration with Rajesh and getting the absolute trust of the real people who wanted real crimes solved.”
Witness to the prosecution
Since it would have been impossible to be invisible during the investigations, Cox worked closely with Rajesh to capture his work process. “The method in making this film was everything, and actually was quite simple,” Cox said. “I was after a cinematic experience, not a fly on the wall verite documentary, so the method and the shooting technique had to be very particular. I spent two years in finding Rajesh and he had a wonderful richness to his life and a thirst for solving crime. He also understood that in order to make this film the way I wanted, he had to collaborate in the sense of making sure I was present at all moments of a case, as well as letting me into his personal life of doubts and worries. It was about trust.”
The shooting crew comprised Cox, cinematographer Lisa Cazzato and assistant director Shounak Chakravorty. “A scene can only happen once, but I needed to control it later on, so with two cameras filming one moment with different lenses and different angles, it gives me scope to control that scene in the edit,” Cox said. “Some people are confused by this as it looks too much like fiction, but that does not bother me.”
Mostly fact
The crew met Rajesh’s clients before they actually turned on the cameras to make them comfortable with the presence of the recording apparatus. “Then, when the pivotal moment came when Rajesh started the case with them, both the detective and the clients didn’t care about my presence, and I was filming real spontaneous drama and dialogue,” Cox said.
The camera couldn’t be present everywhere and all the time. “For example, when tailing a suspect, we only could film a few brief moments on long lenses or on supporting motorbikes before we had to leave in case we blew the detectives’ cover,” Cox said. “We looked like simple tourists with still cameras. There were no tripods or booms, so no one suspected we were actually filming.”
The opening sequence, a stake-out at a market which results in a counterfeit goods supplier being nabbed red-handed, appears to be a scene from a feature film because of the way it has been shot and edited. “We shot early footage as the detectives hung around the market, and then when they did the catch, we ran in hand-held and caught the moment of catching the counterfeiter,” Cox explained. “It was actually quite simple, and it all comes together in the edit.”
A goldmine
Fortunately for Cox and viewers, Rajesh’s private life is as eventful as his public one.
The Bengali Detective introduces us to his son and his blind wife, who suffers from several debilitating ailments. Rajesh is also blessed with terpsichorean skills, and trains along with his employees after hours to make the trials for talent hunt show for the Zee Bangla television channel.
Cox presents The Bengali Detective as the saga of a man trying to work his way up the ladder in an economy that holds out the promise of individual progress and achievement. As is evident from Rajesh’s story and the city where he digs for gold, this progress can be elusive. “Rajesh is a modern self-made man with a great heart,” Cox said. “He could certainly have easily been out of a Charles Dickens novel. I always wanted a single lone strong detective at the heart of the film, as that is what the genre demands. I chose him not for his detective skills, but for his rich layers of life and depth. He was simply a real person with flaws and weaknesses that the audience could believe in, along with great heart and humour, and some cheekiness.”
Kolkata provided the perfect setting for Rajesh’s journey. “It felt so melancholic ‒ one foot in the past and one in the present,” said Cox, who has produced another documentary set in the Eastern port city, The Auction House: A Tale of Two Brothers. “The whole place has a great cinematic presence and a cinematic history and rich detective tradition.”
One dramatised example of the Bengali love for fearless private eyes has already hit the screen. The other one will arrive in April, taking Byomkesh where no Bengali detective has gone before: Bollywood.
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