Manoj Bajpayee is familiar with the crime genre. His breakout role was that of Bhiku Mhatre in one of the greatest Hindi films of all time, Satya, where we got a peek into a version of Mumbai’s underworld. Then he was in Shool, which focused on crime and politics in Bihar. He played Veerendra Pratap in Raajneeti, which was an amalgamation of Mahabharat and The Godfather. He was integral to the evolution of the landscape of Hindi cinema that was triggered by Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur duology. He is currently the face of the Silence franchise. Through The Family Man and Killer Soup, he has shown he is incredibly comfortable with flexing his acting chops through the episodic format on the small screen. So, I think it’s pretty normal to be hyped about his next project. But I’d advise you to keep your excitement at bay, because Despatch might be one of the most disappointing things he has ever done.
Kanu Behl’s Despatch is set in Mumbai between 2007 and 2012. We follow the crime journalist of the titular newspaper, Joy Bag, as he comes to terms with the fact that print journalism is going out of fashion and is being overtaken by digital journalism. So, in order to convince the higher-ups to keep backing print journalists, Joy’s editor, Tarun, tells him to come up with a cover page story that’ll knock it out of the park. Joy comes across the broad daylight murder of a gangster named Shetty and claims that that story is going to run for as long as it takes for the power vacuum caused by Shetty’s death to be filled. But then he gets distracted by the rumor of a company called GDR using low-level thugs like Sangli to steal documents related to a 2G scam from the Central Vigilance Commission’s office, especially because it didn’t make any headlines. As he digs deeper into this, he realizes that this 2G scam is somehow connected to the launch of the Indian Premier League, and the rabbit hole goes all the way to London. Oh, and three (or more) women lust after Joy for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.
Kanu and Ishani Banerjee’s script for Despatch feels so listless. You can sense what it’s trying to say, but it’s so afraid to actually spit it out that it never gets to the point. And every time you think that the film is close to making a point, Joy’s personal life rears its ugly head. The whole movie is like Spotlight, or wants to be like Spotlight, but if Spotlight never brought up the child sex abuse that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston had partaken in, and merely alluded to it. Now, why is that something that anyone would be interested in? Also, after all those vague references, suggestions, hints, and implications, if the whole point of the story is that true journalism is dying because of social media and the capitalist takeover of media houses, then aren’t the writers a little late to the party? We’ve already gotten the same message in the most explicit manner imaginable from the one and only Ravish Kumar. So, if the journalism angle of the film is a dud, surely the personal drama will be interesting, right? No, it’s not. It’s actually pathetic. Joy, as a character, is really uninteresting. I didn’t understand why I should be overlooking his flaws to root for his crusade for the truth (which in and of itself is ambiguous). Then all the female characters are sacrificed to make Joy come off as a sleazeball, to show how lust leads to loneliness, I guess. On top of that the dialogue writing is atrocious. It’s just a mess, and not in a good way.
I think Despatch takes the top spot as the Bollywood movie with the most explicit scenes. Kudos to Kanu Behl, Manoj Bajpayee, Arrchita Agarwaal, Shahana Goswami, Rituparna Sen, and the rest of the team for challenging the rigid and archaic CBFC and somehow making it past their scissors. I have heard reports of how the younger generations don’t want to see intimate scenes in movies and shows anymore because it makes them cringe, which is just another way of saying that these younglings are giving boomers a run for their money with their prudish behavior. That’s one of the reasons why I’m a big advocate for the inclusion of sensual scenes in films and shows that don’t necessarily affect the plot. However, if such scenes are sloppy in the name of “realism,” and the plot wants me to really pay attention to it while essentially taking me on the dullest wild-goose chase, then I have a problem. I mean, my brain is already in “slog mode” as I’m trying to piece together the obscure pieces of a hazy puzzle. So, what are you trying to achieve by interrupting my train of thought with these extended moments of unerotic awkwardness, Kanu? What is my takeaway supposed to be from all this? Do let me know, man.
Earlier this year, when I saw Manoj Bajpayee in Bhaiyya Ji, I thought that the actor had hit rock bottom and the only way out of there was up. But I think Bajpayee’s turn as Joy Bag is his worst performance yet. He just seemed so confused and uninterested throughout this overlong film that I was bewildered at the fact that I was once a fan of his. I had to read a few reviews on Letterboxd that have emerged from the film’s festival run to see if I was missing something that others are seeing, and at first glance, the mention of Nightcrawler sort of made sense to me. However, I thought about that comparison for two more seconds and realized that it’s an insult to Jake Gyllenhaal and Dan Gilroy to compare them with this garbage created by Bajpayee and Behl. I don’t know why Arrchita Agarwaal, Shahana Goswami, and Rituparna Sen agreed to work in this film. Did they get a different script or something? Were they scammed? As a ‘90s kid, I have grown up watching shows and movies featuring Kabiir Sadanand and Harmeet Singh Mamik, and seeing them on the screen did make me nostalgic. Then the nostalgia faded away, and the underwritten nature of their roles in this film became apparent. The rest of the supporting cast was fine. I just hope that everyone got paid properly.
No, I don’t recommend giving Despatch a watch. If you want to learn about the 2G scam or the controversies surrounding the Indian Premier League, that information is available on the internet for free. If you want to educate yourself about the state of journalism in India, there are countless longform articles on it that you can and should read. If you want to look at the sorry state of journalism through the eyes of Ravish Kumar, While We Watched is available on Mubi. There are several reports of journalists who have been killed in India, especially after 2014, and you should take a look at that if that’s something that you want to be aware of. Print journalism hasn’t died yet, and there are several pockets of digital journalism that are fighting against the might of the powerful government and certain corporate overlords. So, read and share their work, and support them with your wallet. Doing all or any of that will be a better use of time and energy than watching Despatch.
