Feludar Goyendagiri: A treat for Feluda followers

While the OTT platform Addatimes betrayed millions of Feludaholics big time by not releasing the much-awaited second season of Feluda Pherot, the famed moviemaker Srijit Mukherji has brought back smiles to our faces by giving us a super delicious treat the ‘Feludar Goyendagiri’ Season One on Hoichoi.

Or has he?

Certainly, this invites, and also demands, a great deal of discussion and debate. It asks a very fundamental question: is Mukherji’s interpretation of Darjeeling Jawmjawmat, the original Feluda story penned by the maestro Satyajit Ray, any good? Has the son-in-law of Bangladesh been able to reach the level of expectations Feluda followers nourish every time a new Feluda adaptation comes their way?

To be honest, I am not writing this piece so that Srijit Mukherji gets yet another link to share on his Facebook page without even reading halfway through the article. However, I can say with conviction that yes, he has done a great job portraying a fresh but authentic Feluda for streaming.

Though Tota Roy Chowdhury does not always look and talk and walk around like Asia’s Brightest Crime Detector, he shines bright on his merit. Maybe he could have shone much brighter, only if the director had not opted for using a sepia tone throughout the series to provide it with a periodical flavour.

I believe the sepia experiment was completely unnecessary as long as you could master some mise-en-scène, and make every scene trustworthy by inserting some more meaningful periodical elements and not just Maradona’s Hand of God or Gorkhaland references. A wider view of Darjeeling Mall would also have worked.

Tota, who has a large volume of work to his credit that goes way beyond his role in the popular TV serial Sreemoyee (with two double-e’s), is a brilliant actor. But he is not a method actor. Instead of being natural and instinctive, sometimes his body language seems a bit robotic. But that’s okay. At least in the latest Feluda flick, he is not as mechanized as he looked in Chhinnamastar Abhishap. Perhaps he has got himself rid of that curse.

Eyes are very important for a detective of Feluda’s nature. Undoubtedly this Feluda version of Srijit has near-perfect observation prowess as always. Still, those eyes often get overshadowed by his way-too-revealing facial expression. This is one place he has room for development.

Please stop concentrating all your acting ability on that face only. Also don’t think I am only judging you. I believe that so far you are the third-best Feluda after Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakraborty. Maybe soon, you can even enter the GOAT debate, but not yet.

Sometimes doing the obvious can also put your head and shoulders above the rest of the pack, and that’s exactly what happened with Srijit when he cast Eken Babu’s look-alike Anirban Chakrabarti as our beloved Jatayu aka Lalmohan Ganguly.

Most of the time Anirban carries himself magnificently in the shoes of Santosh Dutta, Rabi Ghosh, or Bibhu Bhattacharya — acting powerhouses who previously donned the character and immortalized it. His comic timing is also just about perfect. Having said that, the sudden-loudness of Eken Babu’s Lalmohan Babu is hard to digest. Why on earth would he be so happy hearing the demise of any person, let alone someone whom he had past acquaintance with?

As far as Topshe is concerned, it’s quite disheartening to see him reduced to such insignificance. He deserves to have a more prominent role. However, the silver lining is that Kalpan Mitra is improving. Hopefully, he will get his hands on a better-written role for the next installment.

I must say, Rahul Banerjee, is one gem of an actor. He becomes a genuine Pulak Ghoshal during the series. Every time he opens his mouth to call his dear Laluda, we fall in love with the film director who can even give the likes of Shirish Kunder good competition.

Among others, Barun Chanda as Birupakkha Majumder is truly mesmerizing. It’s also nothing sort of wholesome to see someone today be physically present in a Satyajit Ray adaptation who had once also worked with Ray himself more than half a century ago.

Frankly speaking, I did not enjoy the new Feluda theme. The previous one used for Feluda Pherot is still music to my ears. But the idea of embedding original Ray illustrations into the intro was a great idea.

Srijit as a director is always a case of hit or miss. This time he does hit and hit hard. And he succeeds. I don’t quite understand why most people dislike the idea of Birupakkha getting stabbed in his chest again and again in Feluda’s imagination. I also don’t understand why some people fail to enjoy the film language Srijit brings into play, especially that particular murderous montage!

What’s also surprising is the multiple Byomkesh references. Is Srijit planning to work on Byomkesh in near future as well after getting his hands dirty with Satyajit Ray and Sunil Ganguly’s creations? Is he planning to create his multiverse of madness (of making a multiverse)? Or is it just another example of Nolan of the Poor’s post-modern cheekiness?

Whatever the case may be, I am also on my way to giving a Truth-Seeker reference.

Ray himself was never a big fan of whodunits, as he expressed his dissatisfaction many a time over Chiriyakhana’s failed attempt to bring the whimsical flavour of whodunits on the big screen. And hence, he purposely applied dramatic irony (when the audience seems to know more about an event, a situation, or a conversation than the characters do) in the screenplays of his two Feluda films. Sandip Ray also followed in his father’s footsteps.

But here, in the age of Incredible India of Infidelity, Srijit decided to stay loyal to the original text. A few changes here and there, of course, he made, but not to the main structure of the story. So it was a big challenge for him to still keep the audience guessing till the magical moment of the Great Revelation.

Is Srijit successful in doing that? Of course, he is. And when he successfully explores an area where even the Mastermaker feared to tread, it speaks volumes of how good Srijit has been in bringing a proper Feluda story into life.