Manoj Bajpayee is enjoying a career resurgence for the fourth time. Since his stunning debut in 1998 in Satya, he saw a revival with Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012, and then again the Prime Video series The Family Man in 2019 brought him back for the streaming generation. The 2020s are now seeing him fit into the storytelling by a new breed of filmmakers unafraid to experiment with form and format. In Zee5's new movie Despatch, directed by Kanu Behl, Bajpayee plays a version of the journalist J Dey. Dey was shot dead while riding his motorcycle in 2011 in Mumbai, allegedly by the mafia. The film is an unapologetic take on journalism, especially the crime beat. It uncovers a toxic mix of cricket, real estate, money laundering, and the mafia and yet there is nothing romantic about the way it depicts journalists. With the media in a particularly vulnerable position currently, it is a timely reminder that the rot set in much earlier (the movie is set in 2012). Bajpayee strips himself, literally and figuratively, for the role and is happy to let himself do repulsive things at times. In Raam Reddy's The Fable, he plays the inheritor of a large estate who could or could not be an angel on earth with the wings of a hawk. The movie has some spectacular shots of the mountains as Bajpayee soars above the clouds. Is he an angel, is he a mythical fairy? The film doesn't answer the question but it does detach itself from the here and now. It also has the most gorgeous pair of wings I have ever seen in a movie. The Fable has been shot in 16 mm and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. It's an extraordinary feat of filmmaking, shot in natural light both during the night and day. When technology meets breathtaking beauty something like The Fable emerges. Bajpayee's ability to be the vehicle for a new generation of storytellers is a testament to his powers of reinvention. He is also part of a new kind of narrative that doesn't rely on obvious tropes and is able to chronicle new concerns, from the state of the environment to freedom of the press and corporate censorship.

Gaurav Arora

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