Crime reporter Joy Bagg (Manoj Bajpayee) Not like the journalist we often see in Hindi films. His favorite companion is his rucksack, as he criss-crosses the city on his bike, in search of the latest story. He’s been doing it for a while, because he talks to his superiors as equals, but at heart he’ll always be a bad newsman who likes nothing better than chatting up shady contacts over a cup of cheap cutting chai, which he prefers to pizza. His wife serves unnecessary parties at home.
Director Kanu Bahl’s sharp exploration of the ugly, sordid aspects of life made his debut feature Titli a fun watch, in which a delinquent family on the fringes of Delhi tries to make ends meet with varying degrees of success. Bahl’s way of examining the construction of norms of masculinity, and the damage stuntedness can cause, was the most interesting part of his underwhelming film ‘Agra’.
His latest, ‘Dispatch’, uses Joy and the scandals he tries to uncover- this is at a time when 2G is in the news, as well as its connection to ‘T20’- to look at the hidden nexus between the hawala kingpins. Building barons in the UK, Mumbai, clever men playing for big stakes, grabbing power and money in places unknown to the common Indian. There is a resonance between the time in which the film is set – as the old-fashioned Nokia phone bag used indicates this – and now, when all these elements are at play.
Watch Dispatch Movie Trailer:
But the film doesn’t cement its pieces together enough to create a coherent picture. Its narrative feels disjointed, and its characters come and go, leaving us in limbo. The only character who looks complete is Bajpayee, admirable in his commitment to his not-so-likable part. On a personal level, he is quite the sleazebag, and Bajpayee doesn’t hesitate to play him as one. He has a wife (Shahana Goswami), whom he loathes, or dislikes, the rift between them is clear but somewhat ambiguous. He has a bit on his side, a colleague (Archita Aggarwal), who has hot and heavy assignments in parked cars and empty flats. Professionally, too, he seems to have spiraled out of control.
It will be fun to see Joy in a better film. Here, his sweaty sexuality – which Bajpai fully commits to – colors him too. His struggles, as he plunges deeper into danger, are more interesting to him than to us. He doesn’t get out. And, in the end, he didn’t get the film he deserved.
Dispatch Movie Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Shahana Goswami, Archita Aggarwal, Ree Sen
Dispatch Movie Director: Kanu Bahl
Dispatch Movie Rating: 1.5 stars
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