Mystery/adventure stories are definitely a part of literature because they talk of human nature and human conditions. Some Nobel laureates in literature have also written in this genre. If language is the carrier of a narrative, then any serious dramatic narrative will suffer from its failure and if it is successful then even a detective story will be literature worthy.

The Bengali detectives selected for studies and films were created by the likes of Priyonath Chattopadhyay, Girish Chandra Basu, Kaliprasanna Chattopadhyay, Panchkori Dey, Mihir Kumar Sinha, Dinendra Kumar Ray, Nihar Ranjan Gupta, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, Satyajit Ray, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Suchitra Bhattacharya. And then two very important detectives were born in the dingy lanes of Beniapukur, created by singer-songwriter-director and actor Anjan Dutt — Rudra Sen and Subrata Sharma.

Okay, so what IS a heist series? It’s a series whose plot and theme centre around a large heist, or a series of heists. But “heists” have to play the weightiest roles in their series, a series in which there are, say, a whole slew of bank robberies, but the whole thing is ultimately about the relationships. If the series is mostly about some element surrounding a failed heist, like The Usual Suspects, or uses the setting of the failed heist to tell another kind of story, like Dog Day Afternoon or Goodfellas, it’s not on this list. The one man who can definitely set up a heist film in the hills of north Bengal is none other than Anjan Dutt.

Among all Bengali OTT spaces, Dutt is the only storyteller where characters are extremely important than events/incidents. Knowing him personally, I know that much before we were introduced to the world of OTT, Dutt, with numerous cups of black coffee, leaning on this favourite sofa, watched episodes of Homeland, Breaking Bad, and Money Heist. A video library was the only source of survival and access to foreign films and series for cinema lovers.

The story of Seven goes like this — five friends, Subir, Bibek, Ananto, Namita and Ria, embark on a leisure trip to a homestay. On their journey, they stumble upon a bag full of money and a gun. Subir takes the bag, hoping it will solve all their troubles. But the bag and gun soon cause a heated disagreement between them.

So here comes a subversion of Brecht’s Seven Deadly Sins and here it is greed, pride, attachment, jealousy, lust, anger, and freedom. Dutt was also one of the finest theatre practitioners in our country. His approach to Brecht was among the most authentic of our times.

I feel both Brecht’s and Dutt’s perspective was Marxian, and his intention was to appeal to his audience’s intellect in presenting moral problems and reflecting contemporary social realities on screen. He wished to block their emotional responses and hinder their tendency to empathise with the characters and become caught up in the action. To this end, he used “alienating” or “distancing” effects to cause the audience to think objectively about the scenes, to reflect on its argument, to understand it, and to draw conclusions.

Dutt, with all his works, especially thrillers, taught us that as an artiste you have to be open-minded because when creativity comes to you, when the muse comes to you, you have to be receptive. You have to be ready when a series like Seven visits.

Dutt is always interested in self-consciously retelling a story rather than realistically embodying the events of a narrative. His techniques encourage the spectator to view the way in which actors present the tale, exposing the mechanisms of modern method acting and promoting an attitude of curiosity rather than the emotional and empathic response to the acting, typical of the naturalistic and expressionistic forms, dominant in Bengali series of our times.

Incredible actors are present in the series with special mention for Ankita Chakraborty, Rahul, Gaurav Chakraborty and Suprabhat. Sujan Mukherjee and Ridhima Ghosh are equally brilliant. I hope that a series like Seven provokes conversations and dialogue.

Suprobhat

Most of Dutt’s films and series include songs, which allow the performer to comment upon the action and illustrate the characters’ emotions in an artistic mode without manipulating the spectator to empathise directly with the characters in action.

Neel Dutt has always been the best when it comes to music for thrillers. However, my personal favourites would always be Cholo Let’s Go, Madly Bangalee and Ranjana Ami Aar Ashobo Na.

The cognitive disruption provoked by all of Brecht’s techniques serves to alter the spectator’s habitual way of thinking about the way things are. Seven will remain as one of the best series for Zee5 Bangla.