Despatch Movie Cast/Actors: Manoj Bajpayee as Joy Bag, Shahana Goswami as Shweta Bag, Arrchita Agarwaal as Prerna Prakash and others
Despatch Movie Director: Kanu Behl
Despatch Movie Movie Production House: RSVP Movies
Despatch Movie Release Date: 13th December, 2024
Despatch Movie Available On: Zee5 OTT Platform
Despatch Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Despatch Movie Runtime: 2h 33m
Despatch Movie Critic Review:
“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” warn half-a-dozen faces – an assortment of builders, cops, politicians, media colleagues.
Similarly, be warned, you don’t know what you’re getting into, if you switch on writer-director Kanu Behl’s ‘thriller’.
Loosely patterned on the daylight murder of real-life investigative reporter J Dey of Mid-day in 2011, Behl and co-writer Ishani Banerjee manage so much incoherence that the only takeaway is of a man flawed by contrasts.
Joy is brave-foolhardy. Ambitious-haphazard. Focussed on a story-distracted by absence of moral fibre. Bravery-blunder. The list is long but to keep it short, Joy is not exactly a bundle of joy. Not for wife Shweta (Shahana Goswami) who craves his attention. Not for girlfriend Prerna (Arrchita Agarwaal) who could do with a more ballsy man. Not for the series of folks, shady, sleazy and otherwise, that he meets to piece together his story.
Joy is a little like Behl’s writing and direction. Difficult to decipher.
‘Despatch’ is the newspaper where he specialises in breaking stories steeped in crime. Despatch, the paper that’s on the verge of being swallowed by digital demands.
Disjointed scenes follow. Of Joy on the trail of a scoop, getting bashed up while accompanying cops to a crime scene, escaping a scene where he’s broken in without James Bond’s skills, several meetings with a potpourri of people who warn him to lay off.
The distraction is all over. Are we watching the story of a senior journalist who was killed on the crime beat? We are but what leads to it is an incomprehensible series of scenes. Who did exactly what and why, we dunno.
Are we watching the personal life of a flawed male? Perhaps, as Kanu Behl films French kissing (Joy-wife; Joy-girlfriend; Joy-colleague) and Joy in the raw. Why do they crave him so desperately? Does it all add up to tell a compelling story? If only.
The film leaves you clueless about Joy’s story or why does what he does to the women in his life. Inadequacy in the face of plenty?
When a script goes meandering, Manoj Bajpayee steps in to centre it. He does portray Joy’s complexities of confusion rather effectively.
Despatch Movie – Watch Or Not?: There’s no fear of missing anything pathbreaking if you skip it.
Despatch Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Despatch Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: Zee5
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