RSVP Movies’ Despatch is the story of a crime journalist.
Joy Deb (Manoj Bajpayee) is a crime journalist who is trying hard to get into the details of an explosive and exclusive crime story he has chanced upon. There is a lot of secrecy and mystery around the crime and so it is not at all easy for him to get enough leads and details. But he perseveres and meets with success at various points. In his personal life, he is battling incompatibility with his wife, Shweta (Shahana Goswami). He is also into relationships with his one-off girlfriend, Prerna Prakash (Archita Agarwaal), and also with his colleague, Noori Rai (Rii Sen). Before he knows it, the criminal has marked him to be bumped off before he can break the explosive story. Joy tries to save himself but it isn’t easy because he has landed himself in such an ugly mess that there is no escape route.
Ishani Banerjee and Kanu Behl have written a story inspired by the story of crime journalist J. Dey. Although it is not an exact account of the late journalist’s story, it borrows liberally from his life. The writing is not very simple and also not very engaging. The duo’s screenplay has very few interesting moments but it is unable to keep the viewers hooked on to the drama all through. The intimate scenes between Joy Deb and his partners seem to be unnecessary add-ons which take away from the main plot while not adding much because the actor playing Joy Deb (Manoj Bajpayee) does not have a sexy image.
Manoj Bajpayee does a fine job. Shahana Goswami is very natural as Joy’s wife, Shweta. Archita Agarwaal makes a nice mark as Joy’s girlfriend, Prerna Prakash. Rii Sen gives a realistic performance as Joy’s colleague, Noori Rai. Veena Mehta has her moments as Joy’s mother. Mahinder makes his presence felt in the role of Joy’s brother. In a special appearance, Kabir Sadanand creates a fine impression as Wadhwa. Jitendra Vashisht (as Chetan), Ajoy Chakraborty (as Somak Majumdar), Parvati Sehgal (as Varsha Rajput), Riju Bajaj (as Joy Deb’s boss), Nitin N.S. Goel (as Sangli), Nikhil Vijay (as the informer), Sajan Kumar (as the waiter), Anand Alkunte (as senior inspector Bhonsle), Abhishek Bhalerao (as hawaldar Kailash Samant), Prithvik Pratap (as Jeetu), Avinash Soni (as the real estate broker), Rajarshee Moitra (as Suresh Mhatre), Purnendu Bhattacharya (as Malik), Salim Siddiqui (as Ameelbhai), Hansa Singh (as Nisha Lodha), Rajneesh Khullar (as Chintu Singh), Arun Behl (as Suresh Contractor), Haresh Khatri (as the lawyer), Mishka Gambhir (as Noori Rai’s daughter), Harmeet Singh Mamik (as Silva), Hirdeyjeet Singh (as Rob Kapoor), Salim Arif (as Nadeem Rizvi) and the others are adequate.
Kanu Behl’s direction caters only to a thin section of the audience whom one refers to as class audience. Sneha Khanwalkar’s background music is appealing. Siddharth Diwan’s cinematography is quite nice. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are quite thrilling but ought to have been more exciting, especially for the masses. Shruti Gupte’s production designing, and Dayanidhi Patturajan and Amrish Patange’s art direction are so-so. Manas Mittal and Samarth Dixit’s editing ought to have been crisper. The film does get loose and boring at several places.
On the whole, Despatch is too ordinary to make a universal mark. It might appeal to the elite audience but that’s about all.
Released on 13-12-’24 on Zee5.
