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Despatch movie review: Manoj Bajpayee doesn’t get the film he deserves

Name: Despatch
Released: 2024-12-13T10:32:32+05:30

Despatch movie review: The film never cements its pieces together enough to create a coherent picture. Its telling feels disjointed, and its characters come and go, leaving us in limbo.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Despatch movie review: The film stars Manopj Bajpayee in the lead role.

Crime reporter Joy Bag (Manoj Bajpayee) is not the kind of journalist we see too often in Hindi movies. His favourite accompaniment is his rucksack, as he goes about criss-crossing the city on his bike, in search of the latest story. He’s been doing this for a while, because he talks to his seniors like an equal, but at heart he will always remain a scrappy newshound who likes nothing better than chatting up shadowy contacts over cups of cheap cutting chai, which he prefers to the pizza his wife serves at unwelcome parties at home.

Director Kanu Behl’s sharp exploration of the ugly, sordid aspects of life made his debut feature ‘Titli’ a riveting watch, in which a criminal family on the margins of Delhi tries to eke a living with varying degrees of success. Behl’s manner of probing the standard construct of masculinity, and the damage stuntedness can lead to, was the most interesting part of his not-as-accomplished film, ‘Agra’.

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His latest, ‘Despatch’, uses Joy and the scams he seeks to uncover– it is a time when 2G is in the news, as well as its connection to ‘T20’– to look at the hidden connections between hawala kings who live in the UK, building barons in Mumbai, dodgy men who play for massive stakes, grabbing power and money in places that the ordinary Indian isn’t even aware of. There’s a resonance between the time the film is set in– the kind of old-style Nokia phone Bag uses is an indication of it– and now, when all of these elements are in play.

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But the film never cements its pieces together enough to create a coherent picture. Its telling feels disjointed, and its characters come and go, leaving us in limbo. The only character who is fully visible is Bajpayee, admirable in his commitment to his not-very-likeable part. On a personal level, he is quite a sleazebag, and Bajpayee doesn’t shy away from playing him as one. He’s got a wife (Shahana Goswami), whom he despises, or dislikes, the rift between them obvious yet a bit fuzzy. He has a bit on the side, a colleague (Arrchita Agarwal), with whom he has hot and heavy assignations in parked cars, and empty flats. Professionally, too, he seems to be spiralling out of control.

In a better film, Joy would be a joy to watch. Here, his sweaty sexual escapades– which Bajpayee commits completely to, too– colour him. His struggles, as he gets deeper into danger, are more interesting to him than to us. He doesn’t get an out. And, finally, he doesn’t get the film he deserves.

Despatch movie cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Shahana Goswami, Arrchita Agarwal, Rii Sen
Despatch movie director: Kanu Behl
Despatch movie rating: 1.5 stars

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