Abir Chatterjee returning as Byomkesh, Kolkata backdrop, Bengal’s cultural decay in the 70s; everything you need to know

He has made three films on Byomkesh Bakshi so far and all of them (‘Har Har Byomkesh’, ‘Byomkesh Parbo’ and ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’) had a backdrop outside Kolkata. However, Arindam Sil’s fourth Byomkesh film, which was announced recently, will be set in Kolkata.

The detective thriller is based on an unfinished story ‘Bishupal Bodh’ by Sharadindu Bandopadhyay. It was surely a daunting task for the director and screenwriter Padmanabha Dasgupta to complete the story. If all goes according to plan, the yet-untitled film will hit the floors in May.

“In the film, we shift our focus to the tumultuous Naxalite uprising days in Bengal in 1971. Amid the unrest, Byomkesh Bakshi gets involved in a story of vengeance. In the film, we will see Byomkesh attending a play at the theatre and he witnesses a crime taking place on the stage. As he looks deep, he realizes a tripartite story of love, betrayal and infidelity is unfolding. The challenge was different this time. I had to find the murderer since it is an incomplete story. I think Sharadindu Bandopadhyay would have picked up the same person as the murderer. This is not just a detective thriller. It will also show political unrest can also lead to cultural decay. Byomkesh is not just a detective story. It reflects the exact image of society and the timeframe of the story. I will also try to show how the Naxal movement impacted Bengal’s theatre world as well,” explains Arindam Sil.

While Abir Chatterjee and Sohini Sarkar will reprise their roles of Byomkesh and his wife Satyabati respectively there will be a new face for Ajit’s character. Suhotra Mukhopadhyay is set to replace Rahul Banerjee as Byomkesh’s companion Ajit.

“Suhotra is an extremely talented actor. He seems to be a perfect fit to play Ajit. It will be great to see how he portrays Ajit’s equation with Byomkesh and Satyabati,” added the acclaimed director who is also eagerly waiting for the theatrical release of his two more films ‘Mahananda’ and ‘Khela Jawkhon’.

Arindam Sil is highly ambitious about 'Khela Jawkhon' as well since this is by far his biggest film till date, “Khela Jawkhon is the largest scale work for me till date. Considering budget, this is also by far my biggest one. I have long been trying to make a film like Khela Jawkhon and I have so many expectations from it. I hope the audience will shower love on this psychological thriller. I have tried to make an international standard film handling all those problems we face while making a Bengali film. I can assure Khela Jawkhon will be unique from the rest of the Bengali films as it can reach the audience beyond Bengal.”