Starring: Debshankar Haldar, Kaushik Sen, Rituparna, Priyanka.
Dir by Nitish Roy
Rating: ***
A Bengali detective who is neither Byomkesh Bakshi nor Feluda, Inspector De Sarkar is equally riveting as his more famous predecessors. Perhaps it is because one of Bengali theatre’s most versatile actors, Debshankar Halder, plays him in this racy murder mystery about the sleazy secret life of a failed Calcutta jute mill owner.
Dinesh Choudhury, a decadent industrialist, is shot dead in the very first scene. As the inspector arrives on the scene—an old mansion dotted with curios and framed photos of past inhabitants—suspects crawl out of the woodwork. The old domestic help, an adopted cousin, a disgruntled jute mill worker, his angry ex-wife and her jilted ex-flame, even a pimp and a prostitute.
The racy plot bounds forward with some superb performances by Kaushik Sen (the dead industrialist), Rituparna Sengupta (the prostitute), Gautam Halder (the eccentric pimp). Priyanka, playing the ex-wife, delivers a powerful performance herself, the most memorable being the shot of her recoiling in shock and hurt as her husband tells her what their marriage means to him. Her husband in real life, Rahul, who plays her ex-lover, steals hearts with an understated innocence. Tadanta (investigation) is a thriller worth watching.
