Bob Biswas Movie Review: Sabka saath sabka Biswas

Bob BiswasOn ZEE5Dir Diya Annapurna GhoshCast Abhishek Bachchan Chitrangada SinghRaing 35Whether or not this is actor Abhishek Bachchanrsquos finest performancemdashstill think that was Guru 2007 and in a less obvious sorta way Bol Bachchan 2012mdashit is without doubt his toughest role so farChiefly because he plays a character Bob Biswas that is already associated with another gentleman Saswat Chatterjee who in a nineminute role in Sujoy Ghoshrsquos Kahaanimdashyou can watch the compilation of all his scenes on YouTubemdashmerged so well into the Everyman in a Kolkata crowd that he immortally stood outWatch VideoWhich explains a fullfledged feature entirely centred on the role from the 2012 hit film The only other such instance for a Hindi movie that I can instantly recall is Taapsee Pannu in Naam Shabana 2017 in a prequel of sorts to Baby 2015mdashand that was a bit of a hollow disaster to be honest In this case though no matter what Abhishek does for his part hersquos likely to be compared to the original And as it is with biases towards originals for anything hersquos quite likely to be compared unfavourably That slight unfairness is a given to start withFurther this is also Abhishek sincerely weaning himself away from all mannerisms tics and tropes that wersquove come to identify with him as a mainstream Bollywood star for over two decades He shows up overweight balding deeply unattractive largely shorn of his characteristic smile and intense dialogue deliverymdashholding scenes by virtue of being understated aloneWhat do we know of Bob Biswas soon as the spinoff titled on him starts Nothing Which is also true for Bob Biswas himselfmdashhersquos lost all memory And therefore the lead character has to regain some of the stuff about himself that the audience would be aware of if they have seen Kahaani That is a man whorsquos a life insurance agent by day and a contract killer by night likely in the employ of certain copsOver this we see a new world created around Bob as wellmdashas a regular middleclass man with wife Chitrangada Singh and two kids Besides Vidya Balan of course and the fact that the film was a suspensethriller on a mainstream Hindi screen after long whatrsquos that one thing you remember most about Kahaani Kolkata the city captured with immense love and attention to detailThis is as true for Bob Biswasmdashright down to yellow Ambassador cabs egg rolls and the brown street chowmein The art direction even during indoor scenes is exquisite to the say the least Which I suspect is what first separates an Agrade production from lesser ones You can feel its milieu The motorazr cellphone with Bob Biswas suggests the film is set around the same time that Kahaani wasLeft to itself as with Kahaani this would have been a Bengali film In a way that Amitabh Bachchan playing up the old bhadralok in Piku 2015 wasHis son Abhishek one must acknowledge here is halfBengali himselfmdashalthough of the lsquoprobashirsquo kind since his mother Jaya Bachchan grew up in Bhopal That said perhaps trying to avoid a caricature he consciously plays Bob not as a Bongmdashkeeping his accent neutral But for ldquoNomoshkarrdquo which is Bobrsquos trademarkAt no point though does this take away from his convincing powers as a performer Between Abhishek and Bob unless the judgment is clouded by comparisons the audience is likely to remain on the ride altogether believing in the dark world the lead character occupies Which is Getting chased down by snoopy cops on one end and an arms dealer fronting as a pharmacist the lovely old Kali Da Paran Bandhopadhyay for an ally Full marks there At the centre of it all is a novel ldquoblue drugrdquo that no onersquos heard of like the ldquogochirdquo from Sacred Games 2 that the young in Kolkata are addicted to Portions of this plotmdashwritten by Sujoy Ghosh his daughter Diya makes her directorial debut with thismdashcan seem too casual and contrivedHerersquos an issue yoursquore more likely to face and which makes this a tougher film to pull off stillmdashthe humanising of a serial killer All said and done Bob Biswas kills for a living And therersquos something unconsciously unconscionableuncomfortable about a series of scenes that deal with deaths in bulk where it doesnrsquot matter who dies where how and whenLife like the film itself carries on as if not much really happened Even neighbours and bystanders donrsquot care let alone detailed investigations post the said murdersDespite suspense thriller for a genre I enjoyed Bob Biswas more as a characterdriven movie rather than a plotdriven pic The sheer lack of prepostrelease buzzmdashwith none of what Irsquom watching being overhyped alreadymdashsomewhat helped This is a relatively underrated film that I guess will eventually survive its shelflife on an OTT platform Felt the same about Kahaani 2 2016 too by the way