Neither we nor B’wood gives Abhishek the love he deserves; Bob Biswas does

Bob Biswas

CAST: Abhishek Bachchan, Chitrangada Singh, Paran Bandopadhyay, Pabitra Rabha, Rajatabha Dutta, Bhanu Uday, Vishwanath Chatterjee

DIRECTOR: Diya Annapurna Ghosh RATING: ★★★ Streaming on Zee 5

Iwasn’t expecting to like Bob Biswas the film. In fact, I was all ready to dislike Abhishek Bachchan for playing a character that, in all fairness, belonged to a Bengali actor.

Saswata Chatterjee had earned the dibs on any film on Bob Biswas because he had, along with writer-director Sujoy Ghosh, created that stand-out character in the 2012 film, Kahaani, with his own special, measured creepiness. It was his unique psychopathic mix of congenial but obsequious commonness and salacious glee at killing that had stayed with us for over a decade and made Bob Biswas the iconic character that it is.

Abhishek Bachchan playing the title character in Diya Annapurna Ghosh’s Bob Biswas just felt so typical of Bollywood and its privileged star kids who will simply walk in and claim something that really isn’t theirs, and then make a hash of it.

And yet, I enjoyed the film and I liked Abhishek Bachchan because he surrenders to the character with humility, without any starry airs or hamming. He claims the character as his, but with deference to Saswata’s Bob.

The film has a humble beginning in a Kolkata hospital. Bob Biswas’ character is linked to the original in Kahaani through a silly back story about an accident, memory loss and a dead best friend.

Bob says he doesn’t know who he is, what he did, why he was in a coma for 8 years.

It feels like an awkward start, and as Bob Biswas (Abhishek Bachchan) checks out of the hospital with wife Mary Biswas (Chitrangada Singh) and son in tow, it stumbles.

Like us, two cops are watching him and laughing as they debate whether Bob is feigning it or the contract killer has, in fact, lost his ball bearings.

Bob Biswas’ plot is pivoted on “blue”, a drug that college-going youngsters in Kolkata are getting addicted to, and a man who may or may not be lying. This is boring and trite and many of the situations and characters that make up this story feel filmy, predictable. It’s as if we’ve been here before, we’ve seen this guy, met that burly bully. And yet, even on this potholed road, as the film progresses, it begins to find its balance and even acquires a rhythm. In fact, Bob Biswas seems to enjoy our impatience as it delays gratification. And when the moment comes, it’s sudden, stunning and worth the wait.

Written by Sujoy Ghosh and Raj Vasant, Bob Biswas sparkles and smiles when it’s preparing for a kill, and for that it always makes a pit stop at a chemist shop.

The film has two scenes, one of which involves a lift, that are quite fabulous. It also has a very obvious demonetisation related boo-boo that, I suspect, the writers left in just to engage us more.

Ihave always liked Abhishek Bachchan. There’s a quiet decency to him and an infectious comfort with who is and will always be in this universe: Small B.

Massive privilege that comes loaded with the burden of high expectations.

Abhishek has proven his calibre again and again, in comedy, thrillers, in a courtroom drama, as a student leader, in his big daddy’s presence, as Bunty to Rani Mukerji’s Babli.

It’s a fact that his sparkling roles are embedded in a patchy road with annoying duds like Raavan. But it’s also his chemistry with Mukerji that Bunty aur Babli has a sequel 16 years later.

For every annoying Big Bull and Housefull, he has a Dostana, Ludo, Manarziyaan, Bol Bachchan and Happy New Year where the only scene I remember is of him folding his kachchas to create a ladder to escape.

Yet, we don’t give Abhishek Bachchan the love he deserves, because box-office driven Bollywood doesn’t either. Bob Biswas fixes that, and Abhishek reciprocates that love.

Abhishek Bachchan plays a character here that’s split between who he is and who he wants to be. He toggles seamlessly between overt civility and covert instinct to kill with empathy and humility. He puts Bob before Bachchan and remains lost in the character, physically and emotionally, never stepping out of it to do heropanti.

There’s a breezy lightness to him and by the end you warm up to seeing Abhishek again, as Bob Biswas in a sequel.

I also really liked Paran Bandopadhyay the chemist with his amiable personality and soothing Bengali. And gorgeous Chitrangada, in her starched sarees and frilly nighties, is like a warm anchor that roots the character of Bob. She provides some clarity about his motivation and lack of a moral core.