‘Despatch’ movie review: Tailored for Manoj Bajpayee, the searing crime drama examines the death of investigative journalism

Manoj Bajpayee in a still from ‘Despatch’
| Photo Credit: ZEE5

Those who have experienced Titli and Agra would vouch that Kanu Behl’s cinema is not easy to watch. Always reflecting dark shades of everyday reality, the filmmaker has this knack for scratching the soul of his desperate characters struggling to cling to their little power structures and, in the process, leaves impressions on the conscience of the audience.

This week, he has painted the complex world of intrepid crime journalist Joy Bag. In love with his byline, for sex, Joy turns to women. Early in the film, during a night raid, when a constable asks Joy why he is grumpy, the officer in charge replies, “Give him a story, and his mood will lift.”

Not so loosely based on the events around the murder of seasoned crime journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, who started his career with The Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Despatch implies a lot more than what has emerged in the news pages and Hansal Mehta’s OTT series Scoop regarding the plot behind the case.

Set in 2012, when the digital-first policy of newspapers had started to make print journalists look for specials to secure their position, Joy is chasing a story that can keep him on page 1 for a few days. When a currency smuggler, Shetty, is shot dead in broad daylight, Joy seizes the opportunity.

But the gun and Underworld story also assumes a digital footprint. The usual Rajan and D company rivalry leads him to the 2G spectrum case and hawala transactions through the black-to-white business of the T-20 league. As he sets out to join the dots, his sources caution that he is punching way above his weight. But Joy is driven by an inexplicable passion for his job, which is explained by Gandhian philosophy, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow’, one of the many clues that Kanu has pasted in the background to convey the motivations of his complex characters.

Manoj Bajpayee in a still from ‘Despatch’
| Photo Credit:
ZEE5

For those who can read meaning into Kanu’s tribute to the poetic New York Post headline, “Headless body in topless bar”, the film says investigative stories cannot see the light of the day if corporates and big media have vested interests in running newspapers. A hack can play with dribs and drabs of information leaks but can’t draw the bigger picture. Ironically, the company that takes over Desptach in the middle of the investigation is called Savera.

Kanu, along with co-writer Ishani Banerjee, creates a morally agnostic mediascape where information is currency, silence is traded, and relationships are strictly transactional. Joy is not your larger-than-life scribe out to change the world. He is more like that mouse who dares to tickle the elephant’s trunk and then runs only to look for another opportunity to make it to the cover page.

The film’s architecture resembles the world where its protagonist operates. Someone in the background describes the police raid as a circus. Much like the shell companies that dot the plot, Kanu invests in sex and violence as intermediaries to keep the truth obtuse. Much like violence, the intimate scenes in the film are intense and are yet incidental at the same time.

The film’s gaze, particularly the way it portrays female characters appears problematic. However, as the film grows on you, you realise that the gender dynamics and sexual chemistry is also manipulative. The gaze that Joy and the women in his life exchange in heated situations gives an impression of people trying to measure each other up. Joy doesn’t want to adjust with his wife Shweta (Shahana Goswami) because she cannot be with his mother and disabled brother.

Manoj Bajpayee in a still from ‘Despatch’
| Photo Credit:
ZEE5

Instead of the self-sufficient Shweta, he feels more in control when he is with Prerna (Archita Agarwal), who is much younger than him and operates in the same journalistic space. But Prerna has her ambitions and perhaps sees Joy as a ladder. Kanu captures the age gap between Joy and Prerna and the mindset that comes with it very well. Then there is Noori Rai (Rii Sen). Once a protege of Joy, she is now an equal in a rival publication with her network of sources. Beneath that giggly visage, Noori is a hard nut to crack and can easily be found in newsrooms.

After a point, it seems Kanu is more interested in character study than the expose of the crime, and Siddharth Diwan’s camera finds multiple emotions in the expressive faces that light up the dour Mumbai landscape. While Shahana underlines her malleability, Arrchita surprises with her tensile strength. Bajpayee is the highlight figure of this searing crime drama that compounds interest.

From the audacity of Shool, the sexual tension of Gangs of Waaseypur, the vulnerability of Aligarh and the muddiness of Gali Guleiyan, one could see several shades of vintage Bajpayee in his latest iteration of Joy.

Despatch is currently available to stream in ZEE5