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Feluda (Pradosh Chandra Mitra)

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Satyajit Ray
(1921-92)

PRADOSH CHANDRA MITTER, more commonly known as FELUDA is a thirty-something private eye created by the well known Indian filmmaker, cartoonist, musician and novelist Satyajit Ray. The character made his debut in 1965 in the popular Bengali children’s magazine Sandesh that Ray edited (and which his grandfather had founded), appearing regularly in novellas and short stories until the author’s death in the 1990s.  Usually, a Feluda story would appear in the special Puja (an Indian festival) edition of that magazine, or Desh, a magazine published by the printing house for Ray’s novels and story collections.  Ray also wrote other stories for children.

Feluda lives at 21 Rajani Sen Road, a middle class suburb in Southern Calcutta. He’s tall, athletic, and is no stranger to the martial-arts (although he does occasionally carry a gun). And he also, of course, has a keen analytical mind. Just the thing, of course for solving seemingly impossible mysteries, with his best friend and younger cousin, Tapesh Ranjan “Topshe” Mitra, who plays Watson to Feluda’s Sherlock Holmes.

The two were usually accompanied on their cases by their older friend, pulp writer Lalmohan Ganguli, a buffoon who offered some comic relief, as well as occasional logistical support.  A nice post-modern touch was provided by references to Ganguli’s own detective creation, Prakhar Rudra, whose name phonetically resembled Feluda’s Bengali name.  Ganguli used his nom-de-plume “Jatayu” (a mythical bird in the Indian epic, Ramayana) for his literary output.  His works would be very popular with the young children in Feluda’s stories, much to the latter’s disdain, which would sometimes find a release through cutting comments on various geographical or historical inaccuracies in Ganguli’s stories.  Rudra’s adventures would even share the same alliterative titles in Bengali (eg. Shaharay Shihoron, or Shivers in the Sahara) as Feluda’s early stories.

Although the influence of Holmes is obvious, the stories were aimed at children, and therefore went easy on the sex (in fact, there were hardly any female characters other than aunts and grandmothers) and violence (usually the threat of Feluda’s raised Colt revolver would disarm villains).

Nevertheless, Ray had a real knack for savvy and innovative plotting, which may explain why Feluda was adored by both children and adults, and his depictions of an ever-changing India offer an intriguing and heartfelt commentary on that country, virtually defining almost two generations of Bengalis.  The stories were written in easy to understand ‘spoken” Bengali (as opposed to the more elaborate version of the “good” Bengali literature), and crammed with Indian trivia, much of it courtesy of Feluda himself and his paternal Uncle Sidhu, who had a habit of storing newspaper cuttings in scrapbooks. There is much speculation that Feluda’s character was modeled on Ray himself, as he shares Ray’s love for trivia, his tall physique and a tendency for smoking heavily (Feluda smokes the Charminar brand).  Ray, an accomplished graphic artist, also designed the book jackets and provided the illustrations inside.

Feluda’s only principal villain would be the rich and crooked businessman Maganlal Meghraj, who has appeared in “Joy Baba Felunath” and “Joto Kando Kathmandu.”

Feluda and the gang appeared in thirty-five mostly serialized stories. Other than being one of the most well-known Indian literary creations, the books are bloody good, and not to be missed. And for those whose Bengali isn’t quite up to snuff, many of Feluda’s books have also been translated into English and published by Penguin Books. As well, there have been features films (including two directed by Ray, as well as several directed by his son, Sandip Ray, himself a noted director), numerous TV adaptations and made-for-television movies, radio shows and even a comic strip.  Ray’s directed feature Sonar Kella (1974), the first screen appearance of Feluda, is arguably the most popular Bengali children’s movie ever.

In the films, the role of Feluda was originally played, in two Bengali films directed (as well as edited, scripted and scored) by Satyajit Ray himself, by Soumitra Chatterjee, who had starred in many of Ray’s other movies. Sabyasachi Chakraborty took over from Baksha Rahasya’(1996) onwards. Jatayu was played originally by Santosh Dutta, and Ray even drew the character in his stories based on Dutta.  Later, in Baksha Rahasya, Rabi Ghosh took over the role. Finally by Bibhu Bhattacharya after the death of Santosh Dutta.

There have also been several hour long episodes made for Indian TV (part of the Satyajit Ray Presents, directed by his son Sandip), featuring the adventures of Feluda. In these Shashi Kapoor played Feluda with Mohan Agashe as Jatayu.

SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS

COLLECTIONS

FILMS

 

TELEVISION

RADIO

Other than the BBC versions below, Ananda Publishers have also released an audio version of Baksho Rahasya (“The Suitcase Mystery”), the cover of which is pictured.. It stars the original cast from the first two films in the main roles, along with many other well-known actors from Bengali cinema.  According to the credits, Satyajit Ray directed the radio play, but no other details are provided (including the year of broadcast). From the cast details, it is estimated to be from the early 1980s.

COMIC STRIPS

Evidently the individual strips appeared in The Telegraph (Kolkata), but they’ve also been collected in several graphic novels. Among the story arcs that have run so far are:

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Tipu Purkayastha, with additional legwork by Kevin Burton Smith. About the illustration: Pictured at the top of the page are Feluda and Topshe, as they appeared in their 1965 debut appearance, “Feludar Goendagiri.” The original illustrations–by Ray himself–are what we all remember, and our image of Feluda will always be that.
A final note: Kevin apologizes for his sometimes erratic spelling. He blames it on contradictory source material, but the truth is his Bengal and Hindi just aren’t up to snuff…
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