Bob Biswas: A Killer's Story
Yogendra is freelance writer
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By Yogendra
First publised on 2021-12-05 06:52:06
About the Author
Yogendra is freelance writer
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For a crime thriller, Bob Biswas (streaming on Zee5) has more murders than thrills. Having said that, it is not a film that you cannot watch, despite the fact that Saswata Chatterjee was a much more intriguing and menacing presence as Bob in Kahaani than Abhishek A Bachchan is in this film.
The day-time insurance agent and other time contract killer Bob Biswas has lost his memory after an accident. The film opens with him being released out of hospital after recovering from coma. He is reunited with his family - wife Mary, a 9-year old son and a teenage daughter from his wife's former husband - but he lives like a stranger with them due to memory loss.
But two men, working for a gangster, collar him and tell him that he will have to work for them - killing people they ask him to - if he wants to live and let his family live too. Bob has no other option and does their bidding and thus begins a series of murders which the gangsters order to capture the market for 'blue', a drug that they sell to students ostensibly to keep them awake and let them study for exams.
There is a Chinese food stall owner who is indebted to Bob and who helps him. There is a secretive drug store owner Kali Paul who hands out guns to killers who ask for nux vomika. He also keeps a locker vault which he hires to people to store their things. He keeps talking about rules and how they cannot be broken but his involvement in the goings-on is never explained.
When his memory returns - conveniently, of course - he discovers a diary, a bracelet and a key. He also remembers that it was he who had killed Mary's former husband and is consumed with guilt. He tries to fit in and help but his teenage daughter never accepts him as her father. He even kills a neighbour who disturbs her studies by singing out loud at night.
But when the goons kill his wife and son before his eyes in order to retrieve the diary (where all names of people killed and money paid for each contract is stored), he decides to do a Kaaliya Daman like in the story Kali Paul had narrated to him. He wipes out the entire gang. In the end, the lady who he was asked to kill but could not tells the police not to punish Bob. But her role in the film is also left unexplained.
Abhishek A Bachchan gained weight to fit the part. His appearance is also changed. He tries his best to be a sweet-talking insurance agent who does not have a clue as to why he kills people but somehow, something is missing in his portrayal. It does not seem right. Chitrangada Singh as his wife Mary looks tired and there is no chemistry between the lead players. The other actors, especially Paran Bandopadhyay as Kali Paul, are good but Purab Kohli and Amar Upadhyay are wasted in insignificant roles.
