Dharitri Ganguly
Is Saswata Chatterjee the new bohurupi? In the ancient city where the Ganga flows like a silver thread through time, where every alley hums with secrets and every ghat has a ghost of its own, one man wears many faces — or perhaps many men wear the same one. In The Eken – Benaras e Bibhishika, the ace actor Saswata Chatterjee doesn’t just enter the story. He weaves through it, shapeshifting through roles like a whisper through temple bells.
In the film, Saswata becomes a mystery in motion, slipping into a striking array of identities. In this upcoming theatrical release on May 16, directed by Joydeep Mukherjee, Saswata appears as an old man with eyes that seem to carry the weight of untold stories; a quiet, composed police officer with secrets just beneath the surface; a towering Punjabi with an unmistakable edge; and an everyday local in slippers and gamcha, effortlessly blending into the backdrop of the ghats.
He transforms into a saffron-robed monk with dark sunglasses, exuding both calm and contradiction. He is also a bleach-blonde Goan — quirky and loud, bringing with him a strange charm and chaos. There’s also the unassuming man in trousers, shirt, and cap — someone you’d pass without a second glance, but who might just be hiding the biggest secrets of all.
Each look deepens the intrigue: are they disguises, multiple characters, or facets of the same person? The answers drift somewhere in the smoke, the silence, and the ever-shifting shadows of Benaras.
Set against the mystical and layered backdrop of one the world’s oldest cities, the film follows the eccentric yet endearing sleuth Eken Babu, played once again by Anirban Chakrabarti, as he is drawn into a chilling conspiracy. What begins as a curious trail of clues — a series of peculiar paintings, a pendant hiding a secret, coded messages in Morse — soon unfolds into a high-stakes investigation where the city itself seems to be guarding its truths.
All of this builds up to the eerie and visually arresting festival of Masaan Holi, where tradition, celebration, and terror collide. And somewhere within this maze of stories and shadows, Saswata’s characters appear and disappear like mirages — never revealing too much, always leaving you guessing.
The film is a clever nod to classics like Joy Baba Felunath, with Benaras playing more than just a backdrop — it becomes a character. Narrow lanes, ancient ghats, whispering walls and smoke-cloaked rituals all lend a nerve-wrecking energy to the story.