Bob Biswas(Zee5)

Rating: *** 1/2 

Bob Biswas Movie Review: With that affable angelic semi-smile  and  eyes that  never  tell lies, Bob Biswas, as played by Abhishek Bachchan in one of his finest performances, looks like  anything but an assassin. But there  you have  it.A  bhadralok who looks like anything  but a killer, snuffing out lives as  though on a population-control drive.

Bob’s first  murder is  so  sudden  unexpected and the target  is guilty of such a  minor social transgression that I burst out laughing when  it happens. Young debutante Diya Ghosh’s film is  a puzzle of a film. The killings aren’t meant to be  funny(they never are). But some of them are so  incongruous with the mood of the moment that one can’t help laughing at the sheer absurdity  of it.

At heart, Bob Biswas is  a  very sad film. It is  about dangerous attention-arresting drugs, second chances,sexual harassment at work ,pesky neighbours , chowmein sellers  with  violent skills  and homeopathic  medicines.  It is  the story of  a middleaged man with  a receding  hairline  and a chance of rehabilitation to match the  hairline, trying hard  to heal old wounds.

Abhishek Bachchan with his bewildered  expression and bemused  responses to the world around him, is the pitch-perfect Bob Biswas. Murderously innocent , hopelessly lost in a Kolkata he abandoned many  years ago. Now  he reclaims a  city , a life  and a family that have moved on.With tragic consequences.

The family, though, is  not quite  the  hiccup that Bob  can wish away. Chitrangda  Singh as Bob’s wife is mysteriously unobtainable. The tender moments  between Singh  and Bachchan , beautifully subdued and silken, reminded me   of  an old  Prakash Mehra  film Haseena Maan Jayegi where  wife Babita isn’t sure whether her war-returned  husband is her husband or  his twin brother.

You wish Bob Biswas would  find his  mojo  again. But  life is never  kind to those with a dark past. Nemesis catches up with  Bob Biswas in ways that are most unexpected and brutal. Sujoy  Ghosh’s screenplay owes  its  tone of savage grace  to Korean cinema where  awful things happen to good people whose lives spin out  of control.

You want   good things to happen to Bob, partly because he is played by the convivial  Bachchan. More to the point, Bob’s killings are so bereft of malice. He pulls the trigger because…well,he has  to. The  narrative is  nubile in its expressions of  love and violence. Past transgressions and  present atonement.

As in Sujoy Ghosh’s  Kahaani, Kolkata is  captured in  all its bustling glory. Thankfully no Durga Puja  shows up during the course  of the  plot.The casting, both  big and small, is impeccable.

Specially  outstanding are veteran Bengali actor Paran Bandyopadhyay as  a homeopathic medicine  dealer with deadly secrets and Purab Kohli as  a slimy drug dealer who belts out R D Burman’s Duniya mein logon ko in both  RD and Asha Bhosle’s voices. Newcomer  Samara Tijori has an important  role  as Bob’s  stepdaughter.She is  a confident debutant .

Bob Biswas appears deceptively tranquil on the surface.  As the  deep disturbances  bubble to the  surface we know what Bob Biswas doesn’t.  There are no second chances  in life .

Also Read: Abhishek Bachchan: Put on almost 20 kilos for Bob Biswas!

Also Read: Bachchan As Bob , Bobs Along In A Pool Of Blood

Songs of Bob Biswas