Reviews for Paheli Gatha Episode of Hindi TV Serial Byomkesh Bakshi

Episode #27 of Hindi TV Serial Byomkesh Bakshi is a murder mystery titled as Paheli Gatha (The Rhythm of Riddles – Bengali title: Henyalir Chhondo). The fictional incidents explored in this episode are set up in 1964.

Let us take a bird’s eye view to the story explored in this episode.

Once upon a time in 1964 when Byomkesh and Ajit went to Cuttack for some work. However, getting documents he needed from the government office was taking longer than he has expected. So, Byomkesh sent Ajit back to Kolkata (then Calcutta).

Satyavati was not happy with the fact that Byomkesh is not around. Actually, she misses him a lot and her sentiments are expressed in her behavior through anger. Ajit was not very busy these days so he was able to complete his work in almost a couple of hours in a day and then quite free.

During this period, a gentleman named Bhupesh Chatterji came to meet Ajit. Bhupesh was living in the same lodge where Byomkesh, Ajit, and Satyavati lived. He informed Ajit that he works with an insurance company. However, the reason he approached Ajit has nothing to do with insurance. Actually, Bhupesh has some free time and thus he wanted to play the game of Bridge. Bridge requires 4 players to play the game and Bhupesh managed to get three including him. So, he was curious to see if Ajit is free and wanted to play with them.

Ajit was desperate to kill time with some fun activity and hence he affirms.

At Bhupesh’ place, Ajit meets with two fellows named __ and __. Ajit deduce them to be cousins, however, both of them had no relations. The game went on fine and Ajit enjoyed it.

Once, when all 4 bridge players were enjoying their game, Bhupesh got up for some stuff. And when he was checking from his window all of them heard a sound. It was the sound of a blast. Bhupesh suddenly saw someone running away by wearing a shawl! Eventually, they got to know that someone killed the fellow living in the room below that of Bhupesh. They found a pistol there. Ajit decided to inform the police.

Who was killed and who killed him? And why? Whether police will be able to solve the case alone or Ajit will do the things? What role does Byomkesh need to play here?

Written before so many years, this story is still fresh and gripping. What I like the most in this episode is the realistic representation of people and their lives. For example, take a look at the scene appears in the beginning of the episode where Satyavati was angry with Byomkesh and expressing her frustration to Ajit. It shows her love and care for Byomkesh. You can see similar situations in almost all major households where spouse care for each other. This is a typical mindset of any typical Indian woman who is raised with family values and middle-class background. A genius maker like Basu Chatterji only can film it so brilliantly. Ajit’s reactions to the same are also quite interesting.

The wardrobe chosen for the characters is quite convincing. The clothes are what normal people wear in their daily lives. The chappals, spectacles, almost everything is picked properly. Can you imagine that this serial is shot in a way that when the unit visits a location, all the scenes from all the episodes belong to that location are filmed there during that visit? It includes different stories, different age of characters and many more aspects. Only actors with high caliber can act in such a way.

Rajit Kapoor and K. K. Raina prove once again that they are the right choice for the prime characters of Byomkesh and Ajit respectively. Their dialog delivery and gestures are worth watching. Actually, the real test of acting is in how you respond to the act of your colleague. If your timing is not perfect then even the brilliant most act can fall flat. Both Raina and Kapoor are simply brilliant. Sukanya does justice to the role of Satyavati, a typical housewife, a perfect better-half for Byomkesh. Swadesh Mohan is brilliant as Bhupesh. If he hadn’t acted in such a convincing way, the episode could not have been so good, overall, as a product. Rest of the actors trying to justify their roles and most of them are convincing.

The story, as said earlier, has the essence of a thriller. Dramatization of any story requires additional skills. The original story was written many years ago and that too by keeping Bengali readers in the mind. To make it enjoyable and convincing to the Hindi TV Serial audience of the 1990s was a challenging task. And the scriptwriter does his job brilliantly. The dialogs are simple yet effective. The satirical punches and straight-forwardness in the dialogs multifold the impact of the episode.

There are various technical shortcomings as popping up overhead mic or camera stand in a few scenes, which, a good observer will notice.

Doordarshan has made all the episodes of this TV serial available on the public domain of YouTube to watch for free! So, you can enjoy it without paying a single paisa! (Of course, the Internet bandwidth cost is strictly based on your connection and package).

If you love to explore detective fiction, you will love watching this episode.

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Watch out for our views and reviews for the next episode of Byomkesh Bakshi – Season 2 to see which is the next challenge against Byomkesh and how he seeks the truth.