Jalebi Ink

By Shagorika Ghosh, 17

Before all the crime procedurals that flood TV today, before the sharply written witty detective novels, before Castle and Bones and CSI, before Kinsey Millhone and Eve Dallas, there was Feluda. Pradosh  Mitter, better known as Feluda, was a private investigator, created by Satyajit Ray. When I think of Feluda, I always think of the Bhoolbhulaiya. Indeed, this goes back to the first Feluda story I read – The Emperor’s Ring. It was after that that my interest was sufficiently piqued for me to read all the Feluda stories I could lay my hands upon.

An illustration by Satyajit Ray for a Feluda story

Satyajit Ray

I read Feluda as a kid, I was barely 11 or 12. But the sense of wonder that Feluda inspired in me all those many years ago remains even now when I read it as a just-adult. The clever deductions, the seemingly trivial details that proves most important in the end, the loose end that would unravel the whole mystery.

There were more than thirty Feluda stories written by Ray, featuring Feluda and his cousin Topshe who doubled up as his Dr Watson-like sidekick. Soon, from the story The Golden Fortress (Shonar Kella), another character, Lalmohan Ganguly, a writer of thriller novels with the pseudonym ‘Jatayu’ was introduced. Added by Ray as a foil to Feluda, and to use the oft-repeated phrase, to add dollops of humour, Lalmohan Babu became one of the ‘Three Musketeers’ with Feluda and Topshe. He appeared in practically every Feluda story after The Golden Fortress, and was often used by Ray to add a comic element to any situation. The intensity brought to the pages by Feluda’s seriousness was often dispelled by this bumbling, lovable writer of action thrillers; and he played the clown where Topshe played the adoring and admiring satellite.

Feluda seemed to me a man of many talents. He remains one of the most interesting and fascinating characters I had ever read about. He wrote his personal journal in Greek, was a voracious reader, knew karate, had a photographic memory and astonishing powers of observation, knew martial arts, and so many other things that made him seem practically heroic. At the same time, Feluda never seemed an impossible character. He also loved sweets, teased his brother mercilessly and scolded him all the time, making every young reader easily see him as a big brother.

A Feluda book

The Emperor’s Ring, Feluda in London, The Mysterious Case are few of my favourite stories. These are stories I can read over and over again, although they are all rather different, in plot and even setting; one is set in Lucknow, another in Kolkata, and the other in London. One thing about all the Feluda stories that always appealed to me is the fact that they managed to give information about the most random things and yet never seemed to be stuffing you with information. Also, having never lived in Kolkata, which is my native place, I am highly intrigued by this city, and love visiting it. Thus, I relish any insight into old Kolkata, or rather Calcutta.

Ray did not limit Feluda to only print. Soon, the movie Shonaar Kella, based on The Golden Fortress released, and Feluda  was immortalized on the silver screen. Shortly after, Ray made the movie Joi Baba Felunath, based on The Mystery of the Elephant God. I had only the vague recollections of these movies, until I recently saw them again. And now I think I could not get it out of mind.

Shonar Kella

A scene from Shonar Kella

A scene from Joi Baba Felunath

Ray’s excellent translation of the stories into the movies worked its magic. As a bibliophile, and quite frankly as a book snob, I have always been extremely irritated by how stories or books lose their magic when made into movies. Parts cut, descriptions changed, all these frustrated me no end. But I could not fault the two movies by this parameter at all! This is certainly helped by the fact that the writer of the story, screenplay writer, director, cameraperson were all the same! Ray’s painstaking attention to details, and his adherence to the story made watching the movies an amazing experience. Is there a way for anything to seem the same and yet better? Ray certainly found a way to achieve that! The movies seem to me an accurate visual representation of Feluda. So you have Lalmohan Babu who was silly and bumbling and infinitely likeable without seeming ridiculous and stupid, Topshe a perfect combination of an irrepressible teenager both in awe of his brother, and yet not sycophantic, and best of all, Feluda, who had the very air I always imagined Feluda would have!

Soumitra Chatterjee as Feluda

Soumitra Chatterjee (middle, in the foreground) made for a great Feluda, ably supported by Santosh Dutta as Lalmohanbabu (on the right) and Siddhartha Chatterjee as Topshe, his sidekick

Sharp witted and aware, intelligent, always knowing something about everything without being irritatingly know-it-all-ish! There are some scenes that will always stay with me, for example, the knife throwing scene in Maganlal Meghraj’s house. Those among the audience who’d read the story would know that Lalmohan Babu wouldn’t be hurt, but Ray managed to make them hold their breath even as they knew that the old, wheezy Arjun would not hurl a knife into the lovable Jatayu! And what about the introduction of Jatayu himself? How he painstakingly spoke in Hindi, introducing himself in obvious guidebook Hindi! Even the scene where Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohan Babu travel by camels is imprinted on my mind. The part where Lalmohan Babu gets onto his camel, and his hilarious expressions reminded me of when I once got onto a camel, and just for one minute there, I could totally identify with the hapless Jatayu! The very next scene, when they have (successfully with all limbs intact) gotten onto the camels and are making their way across the desert is indeed iconic. The dramatic music, the camels ambling along against the vast expanse of blue sky, all will remain in my mind for a long time indeed.

Perhaps the magic, as I keep referring to it as, was possible only when Ray was at the helm of affairs. Or perhaps the actors, Soumitra Chatterjee as Feluda, Santosh Dutta as Lalmohan Babu and Siddhartha Chatterjee as Topshe were the ones who spun the magic. A few months ago, I watched Gorosthaaney Shaabdhaan, based on The Secret of the Cemetery, made by Satyajit Ray’s son, Sandip Ray.

Made several years after the ones made by his father, Sandip Ray obviously employed other actors, who in my opinion fell short. Sabyasachi Chakraborty as Feluda was fair enough, if quite older than the 27 years or hereabouts that Feluda’s age was. Saheb Bhattacharya as Topshe struck me rather too urban than what I had envisioned Topshe to be. And Bibhu Bhattacharya just ruined Lalmohan Babu for me. Throughout the movie, his attempts to capture the childlike quality that Lalmohan Babu possessed fell flat, and he only made Lalmohan Babu seem ridiculous and as though he was trying too hard to be funny.

A scene from Gorosthane Sabdhaan. This is one of the fresh Feluda films made by Satyajit Ray's son, Sandip Ray

The Feluda stories and the first two movies are set almost four to five decades, the latest movie puts it right in urban, 2009 Kolkata. With Zens zooming around, Internet cyber cafes replacing the libraries the storybook Feluda favoured etc, the movie, in my opinion, failed to capture the charm and essence of the earlier movies. So when I got home, I dove into my copy of The Complete Adventures of Feluda. And read and reread the story until Ray’s story drowned out his son’s screenplay. And it was then that finally, all was well with the world.

A young Satyajit Ray

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MORE ON RAY AND FELUDA ….

1. Have you come across the Feluda comics series? They are available at all bookstores in the city. If you have, tell us if you liked them at jalebi.ink@gmail.com

2. Radio Mirchi has been dramatising some of Ray’s suspense/ horror stories every Sunday. Called Sunday Suspense, you can now get a 2 CD- pack audio book at book stores of the same.

3. This site has some great links to photographs of Ray on the sets of his films and of his illustrations. Check it out: http://raylifeandwork.blogspot.com/

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DRUMS, GHOSTS AND WARS

By Ayesha Sultana Mohiuddin

One of the most popular Bengali children’s films, directed by the late Satyajit Ray, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is a musical that has continued to bewitch one and all for ages with its charm and naivette. Winner of three National Film Awards and nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 19^th Berlin Film Festival, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is the story of a foolish young man, Gopinath Kyne (brilliantly performed by Tapen Chatterjee), the son of a poor grocer, who lives in the village of Amloki.

Gopinath nicknamed as Goopy, wants to be a singer, but was never gifted the voice. When he discovers a tanpura at his master’s house, his love for singing erupts again and he decides to make an audience of a group of Brahmin elders. Persuaded by the village elders to sing for the king, he does so and is driven out of Amloki on a donkey for waking the king with his terrible singing. Thus exiled into the forests, he meets Bagha, played by Rabi Ghosh. Bagha is another exile from the nearby village of Hortuki –he has been thrown out for playing the drums badly.

The film makes quite a few subtle comments on the rigorous caste system that was very much in practice those days. The best instance of this can be found at the beginning of the film when Goopy sits apart from the village elders, who are a group of card-playing, treacherous and good-for-nothing lot. Ray also tries to show the audience how the village elders take advantage of the more servile breed of humans like Goopy, giving them false information.

Goopy gets attracted to the sleeping Bagha by the sound of water falling on his drum, a very clever way of showing Goopy’s love for music. On encountering a tiger, the camera freezes on their scared reaction. Bagha begins to play the drum after the tiger disappears from the scene, which in turn fascinates a group of ghosts.

The next fifteen minutes of the film showcases the various dance performances put by the ghosts. Ray’s dance scenes have been most carefully and most beautifully shot. The king of ghosts, who looks like Dracula right out of a Bollywood movie, grants them three wishes.

They ask for food and clothes whenever needed, a pair of magic slippers to travel anywhere they want and the ability to hold people in thrall (the beauty and simplicity of their music renders people motionless literally) with their music. They travel to Shundi for a music festival, where they are appointed as court musicians for their magical singing prowess. The courtiers of the King of Shundi whose voices were taken away in a plague, were never able to talk. The king alone was not affected by the plague. When the two find out that Shundi is in trouble because their neighbouring city Halla, wants to make war on them, they try to bring the lost brother back to Halla. The king of Halla plans the attack after being poisoned with an evil magic potion, given to him by his self-centered prime minister. But with the help of their songs, Goopy and Bagha manage to stop the war, and also manage to help the people of Shundi by giving them back their voices. They are married off to the daughters of the kings and, like a fairytale, everything comes to an end and they live happily ever after.

A film that gladdens many a heart, this simple story that portrays two very simple men and their fight against a greedy world, is one of Ray’s most well-known films in India and the least known elsewhere in the world. Written and created by Ray’s grandfather, Upendra Kishore Roychowdhury, the story became a full-fledged film only after Ray’s son requested the filmmaker to make a film for his younger audience. Released in English as The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha, the film was followed by Hirak Rajar Deshe, which was released eleven years later and Goopy Bagha Phire Elo after almost twenty-two years.

A must-watch for all age groups, the story of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne will leave you humming its capricious tunes.