21 Rajani Sen Road, Kolkata is Feluda’s residence. No such property exists. Just like the ace sleuth himself. For millions of Bengalis, the six feet two, casually sexy sleuth has always remained 35 even though they grew up reading about him and could perhaps have now turned 60! Prodosh C Mitter is not just part of Bengali folklore; he and Topshe are part of the family. The trio of #SoumitraChatterjee, #SiddharthaChatterjee and #SantoshDutta took the myth even further with Dutta playing the iconic Lal Mohan Babu. #UtpalDutt joined them in #JoyBabaFelunath and made the character of Maganlal Meghraj iconic!
Never easy to recreate yet another version of Feluda, but #ShabashFeluda on #Zee5 is a contemporary take on #SatyajitRay’s 1971 story Gangtoke Gondogol. #ParambrataChatterjee plays the sleuth with elan. The script by #ArindamSil and #PadmanabhaDasgupta has the Bengali Holmes and Watson duo embrace technology to solve the mysteries. The telegram is replaced by whatsapp messaging and there is a lot of google search and navigation on the cards. Thankfully enough, Feluda still relies on his Mogojastro, even though he has now quit smoking his favourite Charminar cigarettes!
The story goes back to 1970 when Sikkim was not part of the Indian union and has a lot of references to China and Dokhlam. Shivkumar Selvankar goes from Mumbai to Gangtok in search of his missing son and a Tibettan statuette lands up in his hands. The sudden murder of Selvankar causes Sashadhar Bose (#RitwickChakraborty) to rope in Feluda. Topshe is played by #RwitobrotoMukherjee and is an able sidekick to Feluda but keeps repeating the plot again and again. #RudranilGhosh plays a ‘Jatayuesque’ Nishikanta Sarkar. Fans will recollect that #ParombrotoChatterjee has himself played Topshe in earlier productions and is no stranger to the Feluda stories! In this show, there is a lot of intrigue, investigation and recreation of the murder scene before Feluda brings the criminal to book!
The cinematography is top notch, capturing the scenic locales of Gangtok and the production design gives a plush, premium feel especially the indoor winter scenes. There are, however, issues and loopholes with the screenplay and this leads to lack of the engagement you would typically associate with Feluda content. #SauraseniMaitra plays the cop Rinchen Gompo; her screen presence punches above the weight of the role and the dialogues. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Feluda stories never had any place for romance or attention from the opposite sex. In #ShabhashFeluda there are definite vibes around this and I am not sure if this is deliberate.
#Feluda first appeared in the Sandesh magazine in 1965 and has inspired generations with his intelligence, sophistication and wide spread knowledge of geometry, history and varied other subjects. The role has been played by #ShashiKapoor, #AbirChatterjee, #TotaRoyChowdhury, #IndranilSengupta and #AhmedRubel. Feluda is the quintessential boy who never grew up. His cases are simple crimes - theft, impersonation, forgery, sometimes a straightforward murder. Solving his cases do not call for action, physical prowess or rampant technology. It is the power of the human mind at its brilliant best. The character is so etched in the psyche of the Bengali mind that when the Covid19 paper strip for testing was developed, the scientists called it the Feluda paper! Needless to say, retreating any tale with such an iconic character is bound to polarize audiences. #ShabashFeluda does that and more but at the end of the 10 episode long show, Felu Mitter did leave me with an indulgent smile on my face!
