Despatch Review: Falls Short of Expectations

Zee5’s Despatch follows crime journalist Joy Bag, as he tries to manage the hindrances that he faces in his professional and personal life with determination and desperation. Unfortunately, the former takes him down a dark and dreary path through Mumbai’s seedy underbelly, resulting in him facing his worst fears.

Despatch Review

Joy Bag’s desperation to prove his worth in his professional life is a testament to how he tries his hardest to keep a grip on the different aspects of his life that slowly start to unravel and slip out of his grip. The film, at 153 minutes, is a long-winded look at him slowly chipping the surface of a Spectrum Scam as he investigates the murder of a gangster in broad daylight. Joy’s life is basically in shambles – print journalism is going out of fashion, his work lacks sensationalism and his relationship with his wife has all but evaporated as he engages in an affair with a colleague.

With these different issues to cope with, his one outlet is this new murder case but maybe Joy himself was unaware of how dangerous this investigation would turn out, ultimately resulting in him facing some harsh consequences. The film is meaty in parts and thrilling in others – the central plot involving the scam is twisty and well-done, with some notable situations that will pique your interest thoroughly. The story isn’t totally senseless and it mostly doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be something that it is not.

Moreover, Despatch feels more like a character-driven film than a plot-driven one. The central conflict, somehow, feels like it’s Joy Bag himself instead of everything around him. He is such a mess and makes such a mess of the things that he attempts to solve that you sometimes find yourself a little irritated. Not only is he thoroughly unsympathetic towards both his wife and girlfriend, but his absolute desperation to prove himself in front of others becomes a huge part of the viewing experience. Although I agree that it makes for an interesting conversation that adds to the film, it also makes you feel unsympathetic to him, eventually leaving you feeling a bit cheated.

On that note, Bajpayee’s Joy is just so annoying sometimes. The writers and director have tried to add some subtle humour through his character that works for the most part and sometimes he does impress. But for most of the runtime, he is so grating that it is difficult for viewers to sympathise with him. He rarely, if ever, thinks about anyone else but himself which is such an annoying thing to witness especially when such a shocking scam is underneath it all. The film could easily have been cut down to deliver a tighter and more impactful film but it’s so lengthy in every way that viewers might find themselves glassy-eyed sometimes. Moreover, the sheer number of raunchy sequences feels not only uncomfortable but also thoroughly unnecessary.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Despatch is very entertaining and arresting in bursts and will leave viewers hooked during those moments. However, it’s the scenes in between that take you out of the viewing experience. They are long-winded and sometimes even boring and other times far too sexual for anyone’s comfort. A shorter, crisper story would’ve really delivered the punch this film had the potential to bring out. In the end, however, it did somewhat disappoint me.

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