Just like Kahaani, Bob Biswas keeps you hooked and perplexed right from the first minute and ends with a lot for your intellect to decipher. Abhishek Bachchan outdoes himself and aces as Bob. His impactful portrayal appeals the most in this smart-thriller that has been directed in such a quirky way by debutant Diya Ghosh.

A spin-off to the 2012 thriller Kahani and based on a character of the same, Bob Biswas is a suspense-thriller that has more suspense than thrills. And this suspense, just like Kahaani is kept to brew until the last minute when it takes a hefty toll on your intellect to decode. Having said this, the thrills are there. Just delivered in a different manner. Killings are happening against the backdrop of indie-pop music and so casually just as Bob always did. These thrills will take a while to reach your spine but will for sure.  

This film seems to have taken off from where Kahani ended for Bob Biswas. An accident, which has erased Bob’s memory. Now, after 8 years, he must return to work. But he doesn’t remember anything. This is how Bob’s origin story is brought to you as he himself is out on a quest to figure out who he is and what his life was like.

Directed by Diya Annapurna Ghosh, the daughter of the Kahaani director, Sujoy Ghosh, Bob Biswas also follows the latter’s peculiar style of direction while the story is also written by him. The screenplay is crisp and the editing smooth. Kolkota has again been used as a character in this film and has been so well brought on screen with the fantastic capture of the socio-cultural milieu and aesthetic cinematography and production design. To make such a complicated film on a character so dark, loony, and psychoneurotic, takes guts and Diya along with Sujoy Ghosh have done justice to the character.

On the performance front, Abhishek delivers beyond expectations and is fantastic as Bob Biswas. It is chilling to see him and the variety of emotions he carries in a very seamless way without a lot of dialogue. With his ability to pull off the Bengali accent to being able to carry so much just with his face, it is safe to say that no one else could have played Bob Biswas better than Abhishek. Chintrangada Singh is great as Bob Biswas’ wife Marry with her organic performance. Other actors including Samara Tijori and Paran Bandopadhyay add so much.

This film still leaves a lot of questions unanswered and a lot is kept open for the audience to decipher. On the whole, for the lovers of the suspense-thriller genre, your Bible is here! For the others, keep some almonds handy!