The great Bengali detective

“…..Shamasta jibantai geometry( the entire life is about geometry).”

In the 1970s, this line had been penned by the legendary Satyajit Ray. He had expressed this thought through the voice of Prodosh C. Mitter, one of his best created characters. Prodosh C. Mitter , alias Feluda, has remained the favourite private investigator of Bengalis for more than three decades. Just like everyone else, he is my favourite too. He might be called the Bengali Sherlock Holmes.

Feluda continues to rule our hearts even today. He was introduced to the world in the book , ‘Feludar goyendagiri’(Feluda’s investigations). After that, Satyajit Ray wrote 37 more Feluda adventures. Among them, the most famous ones are ‘Shonar Kella’( Golden Fort), ‘Joy Baba Felunath’, ‘Gangtok-e Gondogol’( Trouble in Gangtok), ‘Jata Kanda Kathmandu-te’( All happenings at Kathmandu), ‘Badshahi Aangti’( Badshahi Ring) and ‘Kailashe Kelenkari’(Mishaps at Kailash). In all these stories, Feluda’s intelligenge, bravery, skill of disguising himself and his general knowledge has impressed us and has made us love him and respect him from the bottom of our hearts. The way Feluda keeps his mind cool even in the worst situations deserves special mention. Along with his cousin Topshe and his friend Lalmohan Ganguly( popularly known as Jatayu), Feluda has traveled from Jaisalmer to Varanasi to Bombay. He even traveled to London once.

Feluda films are also a real treat. Satyajit Ray himself directed two Feluda movies (based on the stories ‘Shonar Kella’ and ‘Joy Baba Felunath’) which entertained and continues to entertain everyone from 9 to 90. In these two movies, Soumitra Chatterjee excellently portrayed the role of Feluda and Santosh Dutta ‘s Jatayu will remain unmatched as long as humanity exists. After that, Satyajit Ray’s son Sandip Ray directed a few Feluda telefilms on the small screen. Then, in 2003, Feluda once again came alive on the big screen with the movie ‘Bombaiyer Bombete’(Mumbai’s miscreants). Sabyasachi Chakraborty as Feluda was very impressive too. Parambrata Chatterjee played the role of Topshe and gave a quite satisfactory performance. But, Bibhu Bhattacharya as Jatayu was not that good. As I said before, nobody can make us laugh as Santosh Dutta did.

Now, in 2007, Feluda is back once more on the big screen with ‘Kailashe Kelenkari’. And, on the auspicious occasion of Christmas, I’ll be watching it with my parents . I’m really excited. The cast is the same as ‘Bombaiyer Bombete’.

Merry Christmas to all of you!