The façade of decency and sophistication in bengalees is not unknown, it seems that pseudo-intellectualism is the only thing we now have as a community, we are clinging to the fossils of greatness, resorting to milking them until they dry, and it is drying. Debaloy Bhattacharya's 'Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole (2024)' may not be an anger-filled ultimatum to the fossilized culture we have, but the intention is clear from the very beginning. The film surely takes a jibe at the decaying heritage of a community that pioneered art, culture, and music back then.
Debaloy Bhattacharya interestingly resorts to channel his take through reestablishing a pulp genre detective who used to roam around readers' hearts and hands way before 'Byomkesh' and 'Feluda' came. But this time, the detective is placed in modern-day Kolkata, where the existence of pulp fiction is a distant memory, where there is no room for something fresh and organic in any forms of art be it cinema or literature.
Deepak Chatterjee(Abir) is a once glorious pulp detective who is now guarding an already rotten library as a night guard, he is weary, he is tired, and he is having conversations with his creator Swapan Kumar(Paran Bandhopadhyay ), cursing him for lack of realism in his characters, logic in his stories and also refusing to be part of any other new stories starring him.
The conversations between them act as a meta-commentary of the drought in the creativity of Bengali films, the façade of sophistication of Bengali audiences. As an actor, Abir has essayed two most beloved sleuths in Bengali literature, and now he has sidelined himself from playing them, so the character of a world-weary detective works both ways, both on the surface and meta-level. It seems like fatigue has come over by playing the same characters over and over again with no room for innovation in them.
Debaloy Bhattacharya is an avid pulp fiction worshipper, where any director could have bastardized the nature of the source material by being edgy, he never lets that lash go out of his hand. Although the film is self-conscious of its pulpy nature, over-the-top dialogues, and cartoonish villains, it never shies away from the essence of pulp that Swapankumar used to serve its readers. But there is a certain limit to those fictions in an ever-changing world, a certain expiry date of cheap thrills found in those fictions.
In the film, the writer and his character tussle in debates about whether changing your art through time is viable or remaining orthodox and rigid in your approach works or not.
The creator and creation are involved in creative differences throughout the film, can a character survive without his creator is surely a metaphor for the importance of writers in a film. The Writers Guild strike and the threat of AI takeover signify that Debaloy is not only criticizing Bengali films but as a whole the phenomenon of demeaning writers everywhere.
As absurdities crawl in the narrative, we can't help but smile but immediately the self-conscious nature of the narrative makes us question how long these convenient tropes prevalent in Bengali cinema will work. It is a spectacular achievement in balancing out those two which Debaloy does with flying colors, maybe sometimes he is too self-indulgent but that's forgivable.
Abir is so well suited for this role, and so is our veteran Paran Bandopadhyay whose chemistry is the USP of this film, maybe this is the most unique character played by Abir in his career.
The supporting cast although good adds nothing extra to the narrative.
If you take out the social commentaries, there is nothing such as a convincing storyline anywhere, maybe because of its pulpy nature, but still it could have created memorable side characters especially when there is a clear indication of a sequel.
Also, the spectacular editing gives us a nostalgic trip to the book jackets back then, with the stunts visually synchronous to browsing comic strips. The spectacular monochromatic lighting, and gorgeous visuals all speak for the technical fluency in the film.
Debaloy Bhattacharya has always tried to experiment with his films, sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not but still he experiments. This film belongs to the former category, it's a long-awaited subversion of telling a Bengali detective story.
