Hindi Cinema has given us very few brilliant investigative crime dramas and when it comes to films based on any particular detective figure only, then we have rarely gone into that specific genre with a serious vision. Interestingly Bengali Cinema has many movies made on their cult detective icons such as Byomkesh Bakshi, Feluda and more. But Hindi Cinema has recently realized this void and now coming up with a series of detective movies in the coming months beginning with SAMRAT & CO. made under the reputed banner of Rajshri Productions venturing into this rare genre of crime movies for the very first time.
However, the sad news is that a clean attempt made into this less explored genre remains the only merit of this amateurish detective film and it has been surprisingly directed quite casually without taking care of all the ‘must have’ ingredients required for such investigative thrillers. On a lighter note, probably having only a Sherlock Holmes kind of character along with a funny Watson looking into an interesting case brought in by a charming girl is only what a detective film is all about as per the writer and the director, as I personally felt while watching it.
Elaborating on the same, a detective movie made on a particular case first of all has to move out of the TV serial mode essentially to make it big enough to be presented as a complete theater experience. In fact that is the very reason why many films are not made in this risky genre, since they don’t offer any repeat value, once the secret is out revealing the real killer. Therefore you often get to see enjoyable Detective Serials being made with several episodes for the channels, but rarely a major film made on a single case.
Secondly, the case adapted for the film should be so engrossing in its own that it can keep the viewer focused and glued to the proceedings for at least two hours with new clues and development thrown in every 10 minutes.
Thirdly and most importantly the culmination of such films should be shocking as well as entertaining enough that the viewer feels annoyed (on his own misjudgment) yet immensely satisfied with the disclosure made by the detective describing the complete process of his investigations in the last reel.
But surprisingly, none of the above is there in SAMRAT & CO. and the film still follows the same old overused pattern of ‘every suspect, dying one by one’ as its uninteresting story progression incorporating many other added subplots without any clear vision. Moreover the pattern of direction makes you wonder about the kind of team behind the product, who probably have never read Indian detective novels of writers such as Ibn-e-Safi, Ved Prakash Sharma, Colonel Ranjit and the pioneer Surendra Mohan Pathak with his famous characters of Sunil, Sudhir, Vimal and more. Plus it seems they even missed out enjoying the interesting detective heroes of the Comic world too wherein we had Rajan-Iqbal, Mama Bhanja, Babloo, Inspector Manoj, Amar-Akbar, Colonel Karan and many more, much famous among the kids and also in the grown-up comic lovers, continuing with their childhood passion lovingly.
Anyway moving ahead, even if you ignore the weird hair-style and ‘speaking to self in a fast mode’ tactics of detective Samrat, still there are many more sequences in the film which force you to call it a childish attempt in a serious genre, made by an over enthusiastic team.
For instance, the narration leaves several questions answered in the end which is a clear indication of an unprepared script with lots of visible loopholes. Too many characters are stuffed into the proceedings in order to make it thrilling enough forcibly. Characters are singing songs in the middle of an ongoing investigation, just to fill in the commercial needs. In the same mansion at a hill station, one character comes out of the washroom saying its too cold in here and the other is wearing short skirts as if its summer time. Strangely so many digitalized, backdrops have been used unnecessarily to give it a different feel. The detective starts fighting with the killer in the end on a dangerous hill top, perhaps to fill in the action requirement of the distributor as it seems. And lastly just like a typical Hindi film hero, the intelligent detective also finds his true love in the young daughter of the dead as if she was just waiting for a crime investigator only all her life till now.
To say the truth, this certainly isn’t the film matching up to the Rajshri standards from any angle featuring such over the top and irritating performances by the lead characters including Rajeev Khandelwal (didn’t he read the script before signing it?). Also I found accomplished performers such as Priyanshu Chatterjee feeling quite uncomfortable acting in such mediocre movie made in the name of ‘Dilchasp Rahasya Ride’, which neither has anything ‘Dilchasp’ nor ‘Rahasyamayi’ in its 2+ hours of duration, taking the viewer on to a funny ride.
Summing up, the background score is the only decent feature of this poor film but since one cannot spend both his time and money for this one factor alone. So simply skip it and watch the American TV Series “True Detective” instead, if you really wish to see something spectacular about detectives.
Rating : 1 / 5 (And that too just for the courage to try this rare genre.)
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