That the film was made with a lot of brain behind it, is a given. But like people say too much of something is never too good, Meghnad Bodh Rohoshyo is an example to support this testament.

Anik Dutta is a well read and knowledgeable man. He tried to put an intellectual touch to his thriller. It is different from the thrillers we see from the Shobor brand by Arindam Sil, and the Byomkesh and Feluda styles as well. You cannot clearly label this as a thriller of now or a thriller of then, like you can do with the others. It is a mix of both the worlds. There aren't any songs or terrific background music to give that somewhat extra plus to the audience. Songs in a detective film really find no meaning, but they are just there to give the audience something more to nibble on. However some nice spine chilling background music has always been loved. This isn't a fast paced crime film. It is a film which takes its own sweet time, a good 30 minutes more than it should have. It has a slow Miss Marple feel to it all. In fact, slight tones of anglicism are also noticed. Like the play on the name of Asimavo (the protagonist or antagonist? Or both? That's for you to find out) with Isaac Asimov, Asimavo spending a major portion of his life in Oxford and Indrani's daughter having lived mostly abroad.

The character build ups were fine, everyone was at the top of their game, dialogues were well written, but why did Anik Dutta include the paunchy detective and his sidekick for absolutely no reason at all? This entire scenario is like reading the big fat The Book of Rules, trying to absorb it and follow it till you feel you can, and then flinging the book right out of the window because well, fuck this shit. This is what exactly happened in the film. Someone disappeared, so bring the cops in, make them go about asking awkward questions to everyone, show some loopy alibis. Justified. Did the cops really have to be this dumb? You want to show that a detective need not always look sharp and suave. Fine. True that being a sleuth is not based on how you look but how you think. So in that case shouldn't the cops have an ounce of intellect about them? About the way they talk? Ignoring these, if introducing those two cops was a matter of bringing some comic relief into the otherwise serene film, then it is a fail again. Because the only reaction the duo could illicit from the audience was misery. All we could think of when they were on screen is when would they NOT be on screen. Even if the cops were brought in, where did they vanish? In the middle of solving a crime, they were pretty much sent poof into thin air. And surprise surprise or maybe no surprise, who is made to untangle the mess? Abir Chatterjee again. Yes, no doubt he is our favourite sleuth in the state right now, but give him something else to do as well. The detectives were brought in just for the sake of some rationality rules that are demanded for certain arenas, we understand. We also understand that Abir needed to be given a meaty role so this is what the director allocated him. But there should be something to bind the entire plot together, something which links the scenes and the characters. Sadly this wasn't there and it clawed away a MASSIVE portion of the charm this film could have otherwise created.

Moving on from the bits that irked us to the bits that we liked. Sauraseni as a new comer was pretty good. Her acting chops are in place. Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Gargi RoyChowdhury are veterans, so a good performance from them is nothing but expected and that is what they deliver as well. Vikram Chatterjee was good too.

If you would like to know about how the film ends, then being the most optimistic as far as possible, it definitely could have ended better. It almost gives you hopes and then snatches it away from you and leaves you with a slightly unsatisfied filmy soul.

However the way in which the name of the film has been justified is nice. Figuring out who is Meghnad and who is Bibhishon in this tale, on a rainy evening is worth one watch.

For those of you who have missed this movie in the theatres, you can catch it in Netflix here