Despatch review: Manoj Bajpayee, Kanu Behl’s long-winded newsroom drama makes for a laborious watch

Despatch starring Manoj Bajpayee will stream on Zee5 from December 13,2024.

As a critic, I appreciate attention to detail. But when it comes to Kanu Behl’s ‘Despatch’, which premiered at MAMI this year, the details are way too many. For a film based on the life of a journalist trying to uncover the 2G scam, the viewer is bombarded with painstakingly tedious and complicated details which are difficult to follow and massively undermine the overall viewing experience. Joy Bag (played quite earnestly by Manoj Bajpayee) has reached a point where his relationship with his better half, Shweta (Shahana Goswami), is breathing its last.

Despatch Movie: Plot

The couple cannot stand each other. Shweta’s attempt to find intimacy in the relationship is thwarted by Joy, this, as his affair with a fellow journalist-cum-newsroom colleague Prerna (Arrchita Agarwaal) plays out in the shadows—in between hotel rooms, parking lots and public places—the unlikely couple steal a few passionate kisses and more.

However, it becomes clear that there exists a power dynamic between the two where the scale tips in Joy's favour. Prerna is ghostwriting Joy’s book and is very clearly enamoured with the idea of moving in with a senior journalist, even if she is being treated like an ‘option’. Writers Ishani Banerjee and Kanu Behl make one thing clear right off the back: Joy is not a man worth rooting for. It is therefore not a surprise that he violates journalistic ethics many times, all while trying to bring out the truth about the 2G spectrum-GDR case.

Despatch Movie: Performances

Joy quite brazenly assaults an accused in the police custody and goes as far as interrogating him. In another gross negligence of journalistic norms, Joy poses as a member of the Vigilance Wing to get information on the files allegedly destroyed by those in power. He even walks into a police station, asking for a flat in exchange for not covering a news story which portrays the government in a bad light.

In between the death of a D-company member, pressure from the CBI, and the usual underworld run-ins, Joy must also fight the potential takeover of his newsroom by a baron with a history of tax evasion. Will Joy be successful at breaking this story of a lifetime? Despatch is difficult to follow in places precisely because how deep it goes into the case. Too much information isn’t a problem as long as it is delivered in an digestible and lucid manner which isn’t difficult for the viewers to follow.Despatch Movie: Writing And Direction

Even as a journalist myself, I found it difficult to connect the dots, more so because of the lack of subtitles in the screener copy. As I perused the long-winded, 2 hour, 33 minute-long director’s cut of the film, all my intellectual faculties were spent in trying to decipher the truth behind Shetty’s murderers, the server room theft, GDR’s involvement and more. All of this as I barely felt anything for the characters, barring a general disdain for Joy.
Instead of giving us a bird’s eye view of all the key players in the 2G scam case, Despatch unfolds in a way that we are introduced to them as the plot progresses. Names like Wadhwa, Sylvia, Sundaram are thrown around as if the viewers are expected to have familiarized themselves with all the key figures of the scam prior to watching the film.

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Despatch Movie: What Works, What Doesn’t

Pray, why are there no proper character introductions? Or at least some context to the events unfolding on the screen? Why are we discovering the case as Joy is investigating it? If the viewer doesn’t know how high the stakes are, it is no surprise that they aren’t immersed in the world of the film. The fact that Joy, many a times, comes across as a clueless journalist while speaking to leads and key players doesn’t really help the cause.

Was this intentional (perhaps a statement on how incompetent men like Joy make their way to the topmost positions in the newsrooms?) Maybe. But I was thoroughly confused when his partner-in-crime Varsha Raput (Parvati Sehgal) and fellow journalist, agreed for a shared byline for a front-page exclusive when she could have very well covered the story without Joy’s support. Simply put, Despatch is too long-winded and bloated. You barely feel interested in the uncovering of a Rs 8,000 crore scam which shook the nation. Neither do you feel much for the journalists trying to uncover the truth.

Star rating: 2 / 5 stars

Despatch is now streaming on ZEE5.