When one loses trust in authorities, who does one call? In India, one may turn to private detectives like Rajesh Ji, protagonist of THE BENGALI DETECTIVE, and his friendly band of quirky associates. From cases involved in the selling of counterfeit Indian hair products to solving unexplained, horrifying murders, Ji and his detective-mates stomp around Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) cleaning up the dirty work of unreliable officials in the midst of their own everyday happenings. THE BENGALI DETECTIVE fuses a good detective story with a look into middle-class Indian life from a genuine, personal account.

     

Perhaps what may be one of the most intriguing factors of THE BENGALI DETECTIVE is its set-up of a personal documentary, brimming with one man’s personal journey with an unfiltered, non-Hollywood-dramatized India as its backdrop. The film follows Ji to reveal a seemingly simple but captivatingly poignant life of a man who needs to make a living, just like everyone else, but does so by playing detective in a country that lacks significant law enforcement systems. We see Ji on the job, communicating with clients needing a watchful eye for suspiciously behaving husbands or reenacting murder crime scenes to dig out hidden clues. We see him at home nurturing his sickly wife as he admittedly holds tight to a mental girdle in attempts to stay strong for her and light-hearted for their young son. We see him playfully rehearsing at Bollywood dance practice, embracing a much-needed comic relief with his detective-mates away from the heaviness that exudes from home and work life. We see all this with gritty images including India’s dusty streets and heartbroken outbursts of the murder victims’ family members as if the camera was just another pair of eyes amongst the chaos. 

 

The seemingly first-hand experience that these images bring to the audience adds a social commentary component to the film that is justly non-dogmatic. Instead, it is revealing from a pragmatic perspective, allowing the viewer to discern the pervasive situations in India at hand through a colorful protagonist like Ji. Touching in its authenticity, THE BENGALI DETECTIVE shines in its reverberating impact.