Bob Biswas
- Director
- Diya Annapurna Ghosh
- Studio
- Red Chillies EntertainmentBoundscript
- Release Date
- 2 December 2021
- Running Time
- 131 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
Review
Abhishek Bachchan's return to morally complex characters finds fertile ground in Bob Biswas, a film that wrestles with the noir-tinged premise of a contract killer emerging from amnesia with genuine conviction. The actor delivers a nuanced performance that captures the disorientation and creeping dread of a man rediscovering his monstrous past, and his chemistry with the supporting cast—particularly in scenes exploring his fractured family dynamics—lends emotional weight to what could have been a one-dimensional revenge thriller. Director Diya Annapurna Ghosh demonstrates a keen visual sensibility in rendering Kolkata's underbelly, and the film's central conceit of a forgotten killer being dragged back into the underworld offers intriguing thematic possibilities about identity and redemption.
However, the narrative struggles to balance its competing interests, with the daughter's subplot and the multiple antagonistic forces circling Bob feeling more scattered than interwoven. The police investigation and crime syndicate elements, while conceptually rich, occasionally drift into territory that feels overstuffed, diluting the intimate psychological tension that makes the premise compelling. Some supporting characters remain thinly sketched, and certain plot revelations land with less impact than intended, suggesting the screenplay needed either greater restraint or deeper commitment to its various threads. What remains is a competent thriller that mines its premise for solid s
Storyline
A man wakes from eight years of darkness, his mind a blank slate, his past erased like chalk from a board. He doesn't recognize the woman beside his bed who claims to be his wife, nor the children who stare at him as though he's a ghost. What Bob Biswas doesn't know—what no one tells him—is that he was once something far more sinister than a forgotten husband and father. Two shadowy figures from the police force have other plans for him, and they're about to awaken the killer that sleep has mercifully buried.
Life settles into a dangerous rhythm as Bob is fed targets through a burner phone, each face a new debt to collect in blood. Meanwhile, his daughter spirals into the grip of a drug that spreads through the city like poison, her addiction a secret that could shatter everything if he knew the truth. When Bob's bullets find their marks, something far larger begins to unravel—murders that attract the wrong kind of attention, investigations that close in from all sides, and old connections that refuse to stay buried.
In the shadows of Kolkata, multiple forces begin circling, each hunting the same man for different reasons. A dedicated cop smells the truth. A crime lord sends his own bloodhound to investigate. And Bob, caught between a life he can't remember and a life he never wanted to remember, becomes the hunted instead of the hunter.