Detective At Large:
Sherlock Holmes is reportedly the most portrayed fictional character in films and television, and the appeal of the eccentric pipe-smoking, violin-playing “consulting detective” just never goes away. Then, Bengali literature has its own canon of detectives—who hasn’t heard of Feluda—so the mix of the two stream creates the new web series, with the odd title of Shekhar Home. It is the Holmes fandom of creators Srijit Mukherji and Aniruddha Guha laid at the door of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Tribute done, the show then proceeds to do its own thing, and has fun with it. Holmes tidbits too peek out sporadically, and the viewer enjoys spotting them.
Kay Kay Menon in his wardrobe of batik kurtas and shirts, mostly lazes around in Mrs Henry’s (Shernaz Patel) lodge in bucolic Lonpur (in West Bengal, circa 1993), playing the rabab and occasionally helping the inept Inspector Laha (Rudranil Ghosh) with a case. But what mischief could the denizens of this sleepy town be possibly getting up to? Laha is both appalled and excited when the he actually lands his first murder case.
By this time, Dr Jayvrat Saini (Ranvir Shorey) has arrived to share the flat with Home, and his plans to meditate at a nearby ashram are junked (“you need thrill,” observes Home) as he is dragged into becoming Home’s sidekick—assistant according to Home, partner according to Saini. Home, solves the case, of course, with his mythical powers of deduction, and canine powers of smell, while having a pleasant chat with the killer.
Since the period is 1993—and there are references to films of the era, though Home is not seen as a film buff—video technology has arrived. and Home is asked by his brother Mrinmay (Kaushik Sen) of the Intelligence Bureau in Kolkata, to help catch a blackmailer of local MLAs, who has incriminating tapes. Unlike Holmes, who is decidedly a bachelor, with just a small flutter in an encounter with opera singer Irene Adler, Home’s actually has a “phir milenge” flirtation with Irabaty (Rasika Dugal).
She reappears with a case, which makes up the episode Bhaskar Villa, which is obviously inspired by Doyle’s best known work, The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
The first four episodes (written by Guha and Niharika Puri, with dialogue by Vaibhal Vishal) are directed with the leisurely air of a coffee house adda by Srijit Mukherji– wherein lies the charm of the show (on JioCinema). Home’s nemesis ‘M’ has already been hinted at, when the crisis hits the city of Kolkata and Rohan Sippy takes over directorial reins to direct the last two episodes, that require a lot of rushing about following clues as to why three important scientists were killed and one went missing. The insertion of a more ‘modern’ plot line would not have been quite as welcome, were it not for the homage to another Bengali icon, Rabindranath Tagore.
The merging of some characters and the end (the mention of which would be a spoiler) is a surprise, but there is also the possibility of extending the series.
Kay Kay Menon, bases his interpretation of Holmes/Home on the way Jeremy Brett played him with his tics and twitches, but also brings his own sense of mischief to the part, his way of saying “Ha” or teasing Jayvrat and Laha or mocking the too serious Mrinmay. Ranvir Shorey makes space for himself without encroaching on Menon’s spotlight.
There is a glimpse of the deer stalker hat, pipe and classic cape at the end, perhaps as a means to convey that there is more to come–six episodes are not enough!
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
