The Enigma Of Bob Biswas

Bob Biswas as the character in the movie Kahaani was shown as a very subdued personality and an extremely unassuming character. The way Saswata Chatterjee played him, he seemed like the kind of person who would go unnoticed in a marketplace, and no one would bother to even give a second look; I’m not sure how his family would react to his being present or absent at the dinner table.

Bob is an enigmatic character with average Indian height a less than average looks, and the way he carries a messenger bag around, seems to be the man next door going on a regular job. You would not get a whiff of a doubt that under the garb of a LIC agent, is a cold blooded murderer lurking somewhere inside. That’s an interesting character sketch.

Abhishek Bachchan has taken over this character of Bob, or maybe it was just landed on his lap by stroke of luck, but he totally gives it a different dimension. Abhishek is a tall person at 6’ 2” and conspicuous by his presence. We cannot just ignore a six footer walking around you with that kind of hairdo. It’s going to be very difficult for Abhishek to convince the audience that he is Bob. Secondly, it’s not just the height,  but also the presence that he has or the weight that he carries around, I am sure a few eyes would definitely turn towards him. And that tall person would not be unassuming character that he was supposed to be. And he would not be able to carry out the same kind of assignment of handing death penalties to the marked persons, as Bob managed to do in the movie Kahaani.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJYlfSNH3as

Mainstream cinema of Hindi movies, is attempting this spin-off character cherry picked from the many characters that were present in Kahaani. Let’s see how this character turns out to be in the new movie Bob Biswas which is totally extrapolated. The sub-plot of memory loss will help Abhishek, as he can give shape to the character in his own way. But through the trailers, it does not look very natural, the way he has adopted the role. Of course this is just the trailer.

Some how I feel that the back story may not be as fulfilling because Sujoy Ghosh was not involved in the writing. After all, he created Bob Biswas with all his imagination but now that is handed over the pen to somebody else for them to create a good background story. He may have given them some backdrop of the character and few lines of generic description, from where Bob arrived, what they were earlier and what they are now etc. I hope he has at least gone through the script, and given his creative advice.

Somewhere there is an inkling of doubt that, had such that Saswata Chatterjee played the full fledged character, would he have done a better job than Abhishek. I think he would but considering that this is a Hindi movie, there was need for Pan India audience. What may have worked as a 2 minute character in Kahaani, may not work with a complete movie dedicated to furthering that character. The audience of the northern belt would not be willing to watch a movie or go to theatre to watch a Hindi movie and find Saswata hogging the screen for 120+ minutes. Based on the trailer, it looks very interesting. But the only issue I see is that, despite the transformation into Bob Biswas, there is still an Abhishek Bachchan in there.

 

sorry ‘onir’ bhai

sorry onir bhai, i did not enjoy your movie at all and not just because it was bad; it was too contrived. howcome the same situational coincidences are criticised in big banner movies but here we are supposed to take it as real world cinema. e.g. the lovemaking scene of sharman and chitrangada in the store, taking a walk through the forest area, going for the jazz club restaurant etc.

sorry onir bhai, the cliche of scientist [and students doing phD] being forgetful was carried forward. it neither helped in building the movie nor the character of sharman. it was probably meant for comic relief, but it just did not happen. contrived again. and really bad that the image of scientist was given a minor dent.

sorry onir bhai, but the comical moments in the movie were unnecssarily done and were tasteless. some funny lines from boman irani were nice, but at moments even they were uncalled for; again contrived. sounded like the one-liners were prepared first and so a situation had to be created to use them. the worse sequence was that on the eve of the wedding when sanjay throws a party and they suddenly get a phone call from US saying that stock market crashed; phew ! the begging bowl sequence was so inappropriate. sanjay had earlier mentioned that his partner does get such nightmares, but its depiction was crass given the situation.

sorry onir bhai, the ridiculous ending of the movie was laughable and i rolled and laughed and rolled and laughed… a similar ending in a movie like ‘dillagi'[sunny and bobby deol] or any other big banner movie would have caused a brouhaha among critics going hammer and tong against the directors; but here we are supposed to consume it in the name of neo-realistic cinema. wait for 11 years for mom to pass away because there was a ‘maa kasam’; oh my god ! maa kasam was out of fashion long time ago. how did anybody think of such an impractical ending to a movie thats supposed to be from a forward-thinking director. and wats left in a marriage when they are living-in, breeding kids, and doing almost everything what a couple does; and all they are divided is by some silly social obligation; they could as well have foregone the marriage.

sorry onir bhai, the confusion of not knowing the difference between crush, infatuation, momentary pleasure, and love has again been carried forward in this movie. howcome bollywood directors still get confused between these forms of amorous behavioral pattern. only if we can separate momentary pleasure[lust] from love, we can progress. chitrangada and sanjay suri are supposed to be in a relationship for 5yrs; and time & again sanjay says that he has been trying his hardest to make a good life so that they can have a good future. but instead of believing in his dream, she starts fantasizing about somebody else. thats totally fine, its a frustration and can have its own consequences like looking for physical love. a one-night stand and then an apology/remorse would have been better. but why equate that physical need with love ?? thats just not justified. KANK suffered from the same problem.

sorry onir bhai, i am not looking forward to your next movie. i gave this movie a chance although i disliked bas ek pal. but no more waiting for your next venture.

sorry onir bhai, for being over-apologetic. but at least i am being sincere in my apologies unlike sharman joshi in the movie.

sorry onir bhai …