The Byomkesh Effect: Bollywood And Detectives (Or The Lack of It)

Can you think of one famous detective from Bollywood? Not someone who is a spy or cop, fighting to solve crimes and save the day. We mean someone like Sherlock Holmes – a true-blue detective with a keen eye for detail and a super sharp mind minus the fancy getup and style. Can’t really think of anyone, right? Well, that’s because hardcore detectives have never really managed to catch the fancy of the Indian audience, which has led to them being diluted and presented as something else entirely. All that, however, might just change now as we eagerly await the release of Detective ByomkeshBakshy.

The edgy and racy trailer of Dibakar Banerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy has definitely gotten us very excited. Whether it will be enough to give thrillers based on a plain, quirky protagonist, who is a detective, a marked place in Bollywood remains to be seen. It might sound weird, but hardcore detective films have rarely managed to excite the Indian audience. We don’t seem to agree with the concept of a regular looking man or woman solving crimes or doing something extraordinary.

So what has Bollywood been doing? That’s a very interesting question and something that could be used to write scholastic papers! It’s not like no one tried. The makers did try to show the audience that a hero does not always have to be young, dashing and suave, with films like Do Jasoos and Gopichand Jasoos. Both were good films, with stellar performances and an interesting plot. These, however, failed to do the one thing that decides whether a genre or trend would survive in Bollywood or not – these failed to rake in the moolah.

Disconnect With The Detective Genre

What was the problem? Maybe the audience did not really want a middle-aged, overweight, plain-John being portrayed as someone who was capable of solving crimes, taking on the bad guys and maybe even tug at the heart of a pretty young thing. The solution – it seems that it was invariably decided that the makers would stick to casting handsome young heroes, who would continue to fight the bad guys, jump from one building to another, defuse bombs, take bullets to the chest and even make time to romance the heroine.

Another thing that happened was that the detective genre did not stay purely “detective” and overlapped with the spy/thriller/agent genre. Even if the lead is a professional detective, he/she needs to be associated with the Government in some form to make it possible for him/her to wear good clothes, sit in a plush office and operate flashy equipment and devices.

Did it make things more interesting? Yes! Did it allow makers to showcase bigger, swankier films? Yes! Did it give Bollywood a chance to get noticed overseas. Most definitely! But it also led to the dilution of a genre and the typecasting of a character. It was just not enough to be a ‘detective’; you had to be a secret service agent or a cop. Do you think Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger would have been as successful if he was not a fancy RAW agent or spy? Do you think Preity Zinta could have been given the dangerous job of getting a serial killer behind bars had she been an independent detective?

An Attempt To Break Conventions

Every once in a while Bollywood tried to breakaway from the stereotypical portrayals, but it did not have the guts to breakaway completely. Shah Rukh Khan is a full-blown detective in Baadshah but even he is someone who is attractive, young and feels the need to impress potential clients with money and stunts. The only reason, it seems, he succeeded with Operation Maa was because he got everything designed for a, yup, spy working with the Government.

Anees Bazmee’s Thank You is another film where Akshay Kumar is a private detective. There’s absolutely nothing plain about him. He’s shaking a leg with Razia (Mallika Sherawat), wearing the best clothes, using all the latest gadgets and his penthouse apartment would make even the richest New Yorkers jealous. Also, just like Shah Rukh in Baadshah, Akshay here has an emotional back story that has motivated him to help his “clients”. It cannot all be purely professional even, it seems.

Recently, Samar Shaikh tried to give things a new turn with the Vidya Balan starrer Bobby Jasoos. There was, of course, an emotional angle to the plot but other and there were elements of romance, but other than that, the makers tried to give us the story of a woman who aspires to be a professional detective and her delayed success. That, unfortunately, did not work with the audience. Despite Vidya’s acclaimed performance, the film did not do well at the box-office and that, we think, defeated the whole purpose, yet again!

Byomkesh Might Spell Change After all

Amongst all this, we are forced to think what Dibakar is doing, trying to pitch a dhoti-clad detective with greasy hair to the unforgiving Indian audience. Will Detective Byomkesh Bakshy finally manage to do what no other unconventional detective has been able to do? Will he get us to believe that you don’t have to be rich, fancy and dashing to get people’s attention? Will he make us believe that intelligence alone can be an attractive trait in a person? We are going to take a chance here and say ‘yes’. Among other things, we think that the fame and hype that surrounds Byomkesh Bakshy (the character) and Sushant Singh Rajput, overall, is already working in favour of the film. In addition, people are already drawing parallels between West’s Sherlock and our Byomkesh, which might not be a new thing, as such, but it is definitely new and exciting for the young moviegoers!

While the fate of the film remains to be seen, there is a lot of buzz around it. Does that mean the Indian audience is starting to mature? Give them an interesting enough trailer, and they’re in (something that Bobby Jasoos failed to do). Whether the film fails or breaks the box-office, it has certainly paved the way for a reinvented – if not new – genre in Bollywood. We might just be treated to more unconventional detectives now. Feluda or Karamchand anyone? This sounds exciting!

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