The Khadyoroshik Eken Babu is back again. This time, he voyages to Banaras. We see the trinity once again, giving you shots of giggles here and there. And that’s why you watch it; you watch it for Eken Babu. The Bibhishika doesn’t give you the jump scare, but yes, it has a bit of an intensified pulse.
You enter the theatre, take your seat, and it immediately takes you from the city chaos of Calcutta to Banaras Ganges. Sailing boats and archaic buildings, you almost embody the very soothe out of the screen as you follow. Right after, it bombards you with a blast in mid of the town. You see a bit of build-up in the characters here; suspicion occurs, and your gazes become stronger.
Now, we find Saswata Chatterjee, who changes his skin like a chameleon. The Bohurupi Belal Malik is the mastermind behind the blast series in Banaras. He comes along the Ganga, meets his aid Sukhdev (Biswanath Basu), and immediately tells you that he will be Eken’s following catch. He summons ‘Mai ka lal’, who can chase him down.
And the Mai ka lal enters Eken Babu (Anirban Chakrabarti), at an eatery, with Bapi babu (Suhotra Mukhopadhyay) and Pramatha (Somak Ghosh). The trinity indulged in their freshly ordered ‘mutton chap’ and biryani. We see the usual Eken Babu here, losing it over scrumptious dishes. Meanwhile, Pramatha gets a call from his friend from Banaras, and the trinity sets off on their way to the town.
Banaras gets its recognition in the film. Undoubtedly. The low-key moments, the ‘soru-golis’ of Banaras, the ‘ghats,’ are the very essence of where the town builds itself. The Banaras Gharana, gets its showcase, and you almost tune in with the establishment. What gives you a churn of shakes is the capture of the very popular Masaan Holi. As the film draws to the end, the ultimate chase of Belal Malik begins in the heebie-jeebies of the deadly scary spiritual masks and bounce of ashes. But it’s not Belal Malik that gets you; it is the Holi.
The accents felt awkward. While Belal Malik immediately gets recognised as a Bangali for his ‘gol gol Hindi,’ you also see the natives (as portrayed) speak ‘gol gol Hindi’ because they are Bangali too. Justification haunts you here, yes, but that’s a mild one.
In the middle, you find yourself tee-heeing with Eken’s dismantled proverbs, the childish frowning towards Bapi babu and Pramatha babu. Bapi and Pramatha keep their non-existent formats intact. They are just there, Eken babu leading; the Banaras police now rely entirely on Eken babu to solve the case. The script looks fine, but to give it a theatrical release will make you question the high-end ambition.
But you get up with reminiscences of Satyajit Ray. The curtain falls with a fantastic Joy Baba Felunath reference. The ever-memorable knife-throwing showcase and the nervous Jatayu Ganguly got each of us guffawed. This time, Eken babu became the target. But before it signs off to black, Eken gives a last message, ‘See you soon.’
The Eken: Banaras e Bibhishika, directed by Joydeep Mukherjee and produced by Hoichoi Studios, is now in cinemas.
IWMBuzz rates it 3 stars.
