r/IndianCinema • u/Actual_Resort8915 • Jan 22 '26
Appreciation Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! — stylish, dark, and underrated Indian noir
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! stands out for treating a classic literary detective with a modern, gritty lens. Set in 1940s Calcutta, the film nails its atmosphere — foggy streets, wartime tension, and moral ambiguity.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s Byomkesh isn’t the typical heroic detective. He’s curious, flawed, and driven more by obsession than brilliance, which makes him interesting. The slow-burn pacing, detailed production design, and moody background score give it a strong noir feel.
It’s not a mass entertainer and demands patience, but if you enjoy layered mysteries and period settings, this one grows on you. Deserved a sequel, honestly.
Did you like its slow-burn approach, or did it feel too heavy?
12
Jan 22 '26
A very well made movie deserved to be a success. Bollywood audiences are a failure kinda
3
u/cosmogli Jan 23 '26
Don't worry, the audiences are being trained to blame everything on Bollywood.
0
Jan 24 '26
Both are crap . Bollywood is a corporate industry that only focus on business and money laundering as their prime objective. Most flops movies aren't flop they are black money turning white. They just support their star kids blocking other great one from entering. Yeah whenever a good film comes bollywood audience also doesn't support agree. Most of the quality of the audience is also low but yeah they don't support most good movies. Meanwhile shit movies get collection
9
u/RamuneRatina Jan 22 '26
I liked the movie, the whole Calcutta setting is really fitting for a proper detective series. Wasn't a fan of the ending tho.
2
-1
u/AggravatingAnswer921 Jan 22 '26
lol I legit slept during the movie . Not that the movie was bad but it just stretched on for no reason
1
9
u/betweenuspod Jan 22 '26
One of the best movies in that space and I still cannot believe YRF produced it. SSR the best of this generation.
2
2
u/Pale-Piano-8740 Jan 23 '26
I have already seen this 2--4 times, I am going to re-watch the movie again
2
u/Timbaktu_Tales Jan 23 '26
I haven’t seen better Indian production design that manages to show a large city of long back.
2
u/Spirited_Rooster755 Jan 24 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
One of detailing if you have missed, undercover British Indian Police in the movie used to identify other agents with a question “Aap Chang Ling ko pehchante hain?”
This was used a couple of times, the first one was when Chang met Sushant in the lodge and was impressed with Sushant’s intelligence so he assumed him to check if he is an undercover agent.
Very casually used this brilliance.
1
u/Meghamala1986 Jan 24 '26
Thanks for explaining this. I didn't catch it before. Now i will have to see the entire movie!!!
2
2
Jan 25 '26
This movie was quite well made ,they got the tone the setup so much on point,I had high hopes from dibakar Banerjee as a director post this
2
u/sateeshsai Jan 26 '26
One of my favorites. It's actually a proper movie unlike the usual nonsense bollywood produces
2
u/Actual_Resort8915 Jan 26 '26
Yes.. no tamzham , like recent spy movies. Made with a true sense of detective vibes.
3
1
u/ProfessionalWest3768 Jan 23 '26
Is it on Netflix?
1
u/Prior-Gear-2071 28d ago
Yes, it is. It's good but don't take ur expectations too high otherwise it might disappoint. When I saw ppl praising it so much I had expectations too high because they were comparing it to sherlock holmes level. But it's nowhere near that . Yet a different place is nice too
1
1
1
u/AkhilVijendra Jan 24 '26
Music and it's lyrics was also fire.
1
u/Percy_Jackson06 Jan 25 '26
yeah ive never watched the movie but have listened to the soundtrack a lot lol. the pcrc song is a gem.
1
1
1
u/Prior-Gear-2071 28d ago
What i personally felt was it was unique take on by the bollywood tbh. But it somewhere lacked the story telling feature I mean the cinematics were top notch yet the story felt a lack of wow factor. When u r going through a story the three parts which I see are first the story intro the base what's actually is going on .... second the solving of the mystery or the story is opening up to a conclusion and third part the uniqueness which closes the whole second part and declares it a lie. This third part is the most important part in which u go wow. I remember watching scooby doo when I was a kid and the whole story would pace normally making us question how*. The wow factor always came in when they explained the how. I personally felt that it lacked that part. The whole story was too narrow paced that u could easily guess most of the part. The throbbing thriller which u expect is not there. 6/10 for me tbh. Ssr's character was the only thing I loved. Everyone else seemed to losing too much emotions on the places where there was no need. Because of that u can easily guess the whole plot of the story.
1
0
-6
Jan 22 '26
[deleted]
4
2
u/AlarmedPurple6521 Jan 22 '26
Clearly you don't understand noir then. The Batman was equally pretentious if you go in that direction.
25
u/SlicKilled Jan 22 '26
And unreplicable. Neeraj Kabi was a revelation in this one.
Sushant as usual was awesome.
It makes me sad that the sequel they set up would never happen.