Feluda Ferot @ Addatimes

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So now we have a new Feluda in the form of Tota Roy Chowdhury, a new Topshe in the form of Kalpan Mitra and a new Jatayu in the form of Anirban Chakrabarti. Its really nice to see another adventure of Feluda, this time at Addatimes. This adventure is called 'Chhinamostar Obhishaap'. We bongs really need a new Feluda film or series after every few years to bring some sort of excitement into our boring lives.

The great Satyajit Ray’s quintessential and much loved Bengali private detective Prodosh Chandra Mitter a.k.a. Feluda, who stays at 21 Rajani Sen Road, makes an adventurous comeback in this webseries directed by none other than the great Srijit Mukherji. Once I saw the trailer, I was really looking forward to watch it at Addatimes. I was not a subscriber of Addatimes and I only subscribed to this OTT platform just to watch the new Feluda. 

Over the years Feluda has been portrayed by Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Shashi Kapoor, Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Ahmed Rubel and now Tota Roy Chowdhury. Obviously Soumitra Chatterjee is still the best Feluda ever. Sabyasachi Chakrabarty comes in at second place. And now I would place Tota Roy Chowdhury in the third place. I loved Tota Roy Chowdhury as the new Feluda. He looked as if he straight away walked out from the illustrations of the Feluda story books. The hairstyle, the clothes, the mannerisms all looked perfect. Sometimes too perfect. But in some scenes he looked as if he was very conscious of his acting in this role. However I guess with more Feluda stories in the future, he would ease into this role and give much better performances. 

The new Topshe and Jatayu were okay-ish. The director has remained loyal to the original storyline. Thank God Feluda does not have a mobile phone! All the other characters have acted really well. Dhritiman Chatterjee was at his usual best. Rishi kaushik gave a superb performance. Arindam Ganguly also was very good here. I really loved the word-plays in this story. Also loved the reference to rabindrasangeet playing at traffic signals!

Loved the theme song which featured the three famous singers - Rupankar Bagchi, Rupam Islam and Anupam Roy. Many years back there was a song titled 'Feludar Gaan' sung by Anjan Dutta, Kabir Suman and Nachiketa Chakraborty. Loved the line, 'Lalmohon aar Topshe taro eki dosha dekhtey pai, Ichhey korey sobai miley notun kichhu kortey jai, Tokhon abar golpo hobe rohoshyo tei bhor korey, Chhutbey abar kolponata Satyajit-er poth dhorey'. Also remembered Anjan Dutta's line, 'Topshe tai ba keno lekha bondho korey dilo, Feluda kichhui bolchhey naa' from his song 'Calcium'. We bongs really need more and more of Feluda in our mundane lives. We just cannot live without him.

I do not have any recollections of 'Kissa Kathmandu Kaa' where Shashi Kapoor was Feluda, Mohan Agashe was Jatayu, Utpal Dutt was Maganlal Meghraj and Alankar Joshi was Topshe. This was shown in Doordarshan in 1986. I have very faint recollections of 'Ghurghutiyar Ghotona' and 'Golokdham Rahasya' which were directed by Bibhash Chakraborty. These two telefilms were shown in DD Bangla in 1992. However I clearly remember 'Baksho Rahashya', 'Gosaipur Sargaram', 'Sheyal Debota Rahashya', 'Bosepukure Khunkharapi', 'Joto Kando Kathmandu-tey' which were shown in DD Bangla around 1996. At that time I was in school and me and everybody around me were very excited with this series.

Over all these years I remember watching 'Bombaiyer Bombetey' (2003), 'Kailashey Kelenkari' (2007), 'Tintorettor Jishu' (2008), 'Gorosthaney Sabdhan' (2010), 'Royal Bengal Rahashya' (2011), 'Badshahi Angti' (2014) and 'Double Feluda' (2016). Except 'Badshahi Angti' which was released in the month of November, the rest of them were all December releases in film theatres. For many years in West Bengal, December meant that Sandip Ray would come forward and gift us a Feluda movie. All Feluda fans started looking forward to the month of December. It was like a Christmas gift from Sandip Ray.

Most probably when I was ten years old, my cousin sister had gifted me a Feluda storybook. It was the English translation of 'Sonar Kella' by the Penguin Publishers. I still have this book with me. In my childhood days there used to be a programme called 'Chhuti-Chhuti' on Doordarshan Bangla (DD7). I remember watching Satyajit Ray's films 'Sonar Kella' and 'Jai Baba Felunath' in 'Chhuti-Chhuti'. In my teenage years I used to regularly borrow the Feluda storybooks from my school library and read them on those lazy afternoons. As a child, I did not like the name 'Feluda' and often wondered if the great detective used to fail in his subjects in his school days! 

Lastly I must say that we need more of Feluda, Professor Shonku and Tarini Khuro in our lives. Directors must experiment with these stories and also with the other short stories of Satyajit Ray. Some people will like them. Some people will not like them. That is part and parcel of this game. But directors must not shy away from more experimentations with the creations of Satyajit Ray. Looking forward to more such experimentations in local, national and international spheres in future... 

     

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