Despatch (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – News has turned digital, leaving veteran crime journalist Joy at the cusp of irrelevance. Determined to break the next big story and refashion his complicated personal life, Joy embarks on a relentless odyssey through the heart and gut of Mumbai, stumbling into its darkest corners.

My Take – Who doesn’t love a good investigative journalism story? An intriguing underdog story where a single (or a group of individuals) go neck deep into the dark side to bring down a powerful individual (or an organization).

At first glance, this latest Zee5 release seems to hold the same promise, with its premise reminiscent of the gripping narrative style of Nightcrawler (2014). Especially considering it was helmed by director Kanu Behl, whose earlier efforts, Titli (2014) and Agra (2023), proved that the filmmaker had a knack for reflecting dark shades of everyday reality, where desperate characters struggled to cling to their little power structures and, in the process, left strong impressions on the audience.

Unfortunately, this time around he fails to deliver a similarly compelling experience. Unfolding over a laborious length, the film, loosely inspired from the life of slain journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, is weighed down by unnecessary elements that detract it from its potential. This lack of focus undermines the entire narrative, leaving us frustrated and disengaged.

What could have been a thought-provoking exploration of media and morality devolves into a disjointed series of events. To make matters worse, director Behl and co-writer Ishani Banerjee demand a lot of patience, yet never reward us with a sense of release. All of it seems intentional to create an experience that is not exactly gripping or even minutely reminiscent of a taut journalism-thriller.

You wonder how good this endeavor could have been if handled correctly, reminding us why the similar story that was better dramatically explored in Hansal Mehta’s Netflix series ‘Scoop’ was so watchable.

Set in 2012, the story follows Joy Bag (Manoj Bajpayee), a part time author and full time veteran crime reporter for a Mumbai-based newspaper called Despatch. A leading daily that is on the brink of the digital news era. In his desperation to keep the print flame burning, the frail, middle-aged print journalist sets out to find the right kind of front-page breaking story that will once again put him in the spotlight. Even though is personal life is in shambles.

Joy is stuck in a joyless marriage with Shweta (Shahana Goswami), and is planning a future with Prerna (Arrchita Agarwaal), his much younger colleague with whom he’s been having an affair for a while. And when a well-known currency smuggler is shot dead in broad daylight, Joy seizes the opportunity.

But the Underworld story also assumes a digital footprint. As he sets out to join the dots, his sources caution that he is punching way above his weight. But Joy is driven by an inexplicable passion for his job, which send him down a dangerous path, from where there is no coming back from.

Here, we are introduced into a morally agnostic world where information is currency, silence is traded, and relationships are strictly transactional. From the beginning, we know Joy is not your larger-than-life scribe out to change the world, but instead he is a morally dubious character with garish flaws. However, the efforts here feel engineered to make this journalist as repulsive as possible.

Joy is difficult to root for, be it with his rash decisions, dodgy journalistic ethics as well as his manipulative nature with women around him. Most importantly, the film never cements its pieces together enough to create a coherent puzzle.

The premise is interesting but is told in a bland way that never keeps you invested. While the story had an intriguing foundation, it fails to build upon it effectively.

The pacing is uneven, and the screenplay does little to sustain interest. Throughout we are subjected to convoluted details where names like Sundaram, Sylvia, Wadhwa, are constantly thrown at you without much explanation about the story.

For most of its runtime, we see Joy meandering aimlessly and as we await the scooping of the answer together. But we get no major revelations or new piece of information, it is just a few questions asked here and there and suddenly the film jumps to Joy’s domestic issues.

It also irks to see the sub-plot of Joy’s relationship with his wife to have been left incomplete after a range of compelling sequences that underline their toxic complexity. It edges to become all the more chaotic as it reaches the final ac which is not pitiable at all.

Performance wise, Manoj Bajpayee does what he does best. He is the epicenter of the film and too experienced of a performer to go wrong. Shahana Goswami is reliably brilliant in a thankless role.

Debutante Arrchita Agarwaal is impressive as a fierce feminist and manages to showcase a variety of emotions. Rii Sen is admirable in her commitment to her not-very-likeable part. On the whole, ‘Despatch’ is a muddled investigative thriller that despite its talented cast’s efforts is marred by unnecessary distractions and a poorly executed narrative.