Rot within: Manoj Bajpayee, Kanu Bahl on ‘Dispatch’

In 2017, journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru. Among those disturbed by this incident – ​​and the larger trend of deaths of journalists and scholars in modern India – was filmmaker Kanu Bahl. Known for dark, masculinity-examining films like butterfly And AgraBahl wanted to come out of his shell and try something new. Along with screenwriter Ishani Banerjee, he threw himself into the research, which lasted 18 months.

“We attended court sessions, talked to crime journalists, lawyers, police, even some underworld sharpshooters,” explains Bahl. Josie Joseph is a Delhi-based investigative journalist whose book, festival of vultures, Was widely acclaimed, was one of the resources. Everyone had the same thing to say: a criminal-political-corporate nexus distorts and distorts our unequal world, making the search for truth nearly impossible. “A bigger story began to emerge from our little story.”

resulting film, dispatchStreaming began on ZEE5 on 13 December. Tense and dull, it wears the veneer of a straight-up thriller. Manoj Bajpayee is Joey Bagg, a crime journalist investigating a shooting and entering forbidden waters. The character is closely and obviously based on Mumbai star journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, who was shot dead by bike-borne assailants in 2011. Bahl says that he never saw the story as a true-to-life one, unlike Hansal Mehta’s story. Scoopwhich refers to the J-Day assassination as its central trigger.

“I saw it as a Faustian exploration of one person’s actions,” says Bahl, who had Alan J. is crazy parallax view And all the president’s men– Masterwork of the Paranoid Press procedural – held in high esteem.

“In real life, journalists are fallible, fragile, greedy and troubled. If our system is changing into something we don’t like, are our people also changing into something that we don’t like?”

Chances are, admittedly, not one of Joey’s strong suits. He is not a family man; His marriage to Shweta (Shahana Goswami) is falling apart, and he is involved with two other women, both played by journalists Archita Agarwal and Ree Sen. It’s a lustful, libidinous performance by Bajpayee, who closes the year with another sex-driven role. after a bloody soup,dispatch “This is probably the most sex I have had on screen,” laughs Bajpayee, 55, adding, “There is a unique dynamic in all three relationships, and that is replicated in the love affair as well.” ‘

Bajpayee first met Bahl at a party, and praised him for his first feature, butterflyThis was standard; Bahl was surprised by a follow-up call the next morning. “I was surprised that he wanted this, and really wanted to collaborate,” says Bahl. On the sets, Bajpayee sometimes had to do 40-45 takes. As he says, the process was difficult and tiring, yet rewarding. “That’s what keeps me alive,” says Bajpayee. “I can’t carry dead meat on the set. I can take everything but I can’t bear boredom.

Shot by cinematographer Siddharth Dewan, dispatch Dirty and Beautiful, shot in the concrete jungles of Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and London. One scene, which ostensibly takes place inside the Gurugram data center but is actually shot in Mumbai, finds Joy out of her depth and running for her life. It reflects the mix of desperation, improvisation and flow-blowing nervousness that is the precarious trade of crime journalists. “A journalist is not an intelligence man,” comments Bajpayee. “He is learning things on the fly, trying to get to the truth. But in Joey’s case, he’s trying to get there faster. He is always in a hurry.”

Kanu Bahl and cinematographer Siddharth Dewan on the sets of ‘Dispatch’

dispatch was shown at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in October; Another Bajpayee-starrer, Rama Reddy’s magical realist yarn fableAlso displayed in the festival. Even at his age and stature, Bajpayee continues to find time for indie-er, experimental projects. He says this has always been his way. “I can either chase the pay or chase the excitement of going on set.”

in an early scene dispatchJoy, associated with Mumbai underworld, says, “There is a new king now… (There is a new king now)”. This is a title TruthBhiku Mhatre famously claimed for himself 25 years ago, proudly and rhetorically asking, “Who is the King of Mumbai?” Bajpayee reflects on how his cinematic journey is deeply connected with the changing face of the city.

“In the olden times, even with the mafia, crime and shootouts, there was a tinge of cultural warmth in the city. We had Govinda and Ganesh Chaturthi. But now, with continuous vertical expansion, the local ‘Mumbaiya’ feeling has been lost. That’s how these white-collar crimes have come to the fore – with skyscrapers.”