- Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is set in the 2nd World War torn Calcutta during the 1940s. Enter a magical world of nostalgia and 'Expect the Unexpected'.
- "CALCUTTA 1943 A WAR - A MYSTERY - and A DETECTIVE" Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is based on the early exploits of India's first true-blue detective, created by Bengali bestseller writer Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. Directed by Dibakar Banerjee, the film is set in the Second World War torn Calcutta during the 1940s and follows the first adventure of Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant Singh Rajput), fresh out of college, as he pits himself against an evil genius who is out to destroy the world. Using his wits against the most villainous arch criminal the world has seen, in a world of murder, international political intrigue and seduction.—Official source
- In 1942 Calcutta in British-ruled India, some time ago, a vicious fight broke out within two gangs at the Calcutta docks where gangster Yang Guang brutally blinds one rival and is then thought to be killed.
Sometime later, in Calcutta, student Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant Singh Rajput) is approached by a classmate, Ajit (Anand Tiwari), whose father Bhuvan Banerjee, a chemist, has been missing for more than two months. Byomkesh believes that he has been killed and his dead body kept hidden somewhere so that the case remains that of missing person. Initially, Byomkesh refuses helping finding Ajit's missing father Bhuvan Babu and even suggests Bhuvan may be mixed up in dodgy business, at which Ajit angrily slaps him.
Byomkesh's girlfriend Leela (Moumita Chakraborty) plans to marry an employed chemistry student instead of him and tells him on the same day. After that Byomkesh finds Ajit and agrees to take a look. He checks Ajit's father's belongings and is convinced that there is more to it than what meets the eyes. He tries to find out more by going to Bhuvan's lodging home and ask the residents namely Dr. Guha (Neeraj Kabi), Ashwini Babu (Arindol Bagchi) and Kanai Dao (Meiyang Chang) who is a government licensed opium merchant. He also finds Bhuvan's Paan box hidden in his room by his roommate Ashwini Babu who seems to be addicted to the betel Masala in it. Byomkesh deduces that since Bhuvan did not take his money and other belongings, he was not planning to go anywhere so the most likely scenario is that he must be dead.
Byomkesh finds the factory where Bhuvan worked. There he meets an actress, Angoori Devi (Swastika Mukherjee), who offers him a ride home. During the journey, Byomkesh asks her about Bhuvan, but she seems frightened and tries to hide something in her handbag, which is later found out to be blackmail letters addressed to Gajanan Sikdar, a local politician who is the owner of the factory and also a friend of Angoori.
Byomkesh deduces, with the help of Dr. Guha, that Bhuvan tried to blackmail Sikdar and was killed by him. He goes back to the factory with Dr. Guha and finds Bhuvan's rotting corpse stuffed inside a machinery. Sikdar is brought in by police commissioner Wilkie (Mark Bennington) for questioning. Simultaneously Byomkesh finds some clues which prove that Sikdar is being framed. He immediately goes to the police station and rectifies his mistake, where he is also detained afterwards for impersonating a police-officer previously.
Sikdar is freed and Byomkesh follows him home but is stopped by Angoori before entering Sikdar's room. She takes him to another room and tries to kiss him. He gently rebuffs her but when he goes to meet Sikdar, the latter is already poisoned and dies in front of Byomkesh. Suspicion falls on his rebellious nephew Sukumar who has opened a rival political party and is militant about India's freedom from the British. Meanwhile Dr. Guha manages to vanish but sends Byomkesh an envelope containing the post stamp, indirectly admitting he was blackmailing Sikdar, not Bhuvan Babu.
After that Sukumar's sister Satyawati (Divya Menon) pleads with Byomkesh to help her brother, who's driven off earlier in a cab which Byomkesh used to follow Sikdar till his home. Byomkesh finds the Sikh cab driver who takes him to the point he dropped off Sukumar, which turns out to be a clinic of the Japanese dentist Dr. Watanabe. In the clinic the dentist's secretary says Watanabe is at the temple. Byomkesh and Ajit go to the temple, pretending they have a link with Sukumar's political party, but Watanabe is suspicious. Another member of Sukumar's party recognizes them and follows them at Watanabe's orders. Byomkesh and Ajit confuse him by changing their costumes and then follow the student back to the dentist's - where they find both the secretary and student brutally murdered with a shadowy character escaping in a car.
Byomkesh takes a paper out from the student's pocket which they later find out is a map of Calcutta's river route. They return to the lodgers' house where Byomkesh feels low. He tries some of Bhuvan's betel Masala, gets high, and makes a wall-painting of the entire crime. Next day he goes to get his blood tested, as well as a chemical analysis of the Masala. It is revealed that his blood had heroin presence confirmed by Leela's chemist husband who says this heroin is very hard to trace and made from opium which Dao, who later is revealed to be an undercover cop, tells Byomkesh has practically vanished from the city. Also, the Masala is literally clean, i.e. there is no trace of heroin in it.
Byomkesh finds there are two plots together here. The first is the Chinese gang warfare over opium, turned into untraceable heroin by Bhuvan Babu's secret formula. The second is of Sukumar's political party being told by the Japanese army that they will land in Calcutta via its river routes and liberate the city from the British. The link between the two deadly plots is the mysterious Yang Guang. Yang Guang is presumed dead in a gang war sometime back, but in light of recent events it is understood that he is very much alive and in Calcutta itself.
Meanwhile, Dr. Guha returns to the lodging house and tells Byomkesh he's a nationalist fighting for India's freedom. He offers Byomkesh a role to play in the struggle and says that the murders were collateral damage. Byomkesh refuses.
Later Byomkesh asks Dao to take him to the Chinese gang which tells him about Guang. Byomkesh divulges some of the facts to commissioner Wilkie and asks him to sound all the air raid sirens of Calcutta at 4 AM on Basant Panchami, because he realizes that Sukumar and his sister were mere pawns in the plot and they will come in harm's way one way or another. He is convinced the Japanese will attack Calcutta through its river routes then and Guang will help them, so that they let him control the hugely rich opium trade and turn Calcutta into the drug capital of the world.
Byomkesh sends Dr. Guha a letter inviting him to the lodging house. Dr. Guha, Sukumar, Watanabe and Satyawati come there, as does Angoori who told Byomkesh she loved Guang from their days together in Rangoon and has been trying to mislead Byomkesh on Guang's orders. She hasn't seen him recently though and doesn't recognize him - not even when Byomkesh reveals Dr. Guha is actually the dreaded Yang Guang.
Angoori tries to stop Guang from helping the Japanese conquer Calcutta, but he brutally murders her. The Chinese gang hidden by Byomkesh in the lodging house then attacks and takes away Guang who got distracted by the air sirens going off. Byomkesh, playing a bluff tells the Japanese doctor their game is up, and the British army will crush their forces if they try to attack. Watanabe gives up and leaves in a hurry to warn the Japanese army. Byomkesh then tells Ajit that he would like to believe Bhuvan is innocent. On realizing the danger of his invention, he tries to prevent it from falling into wrong hands and gets killed. Byomkesh then proposes marriage to Satyawati, who complies.
In the epilogue, Guang manages to kill the entire Chinese gang and - though injured - escapes, promising Byomkesh revenge.
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