The Bengali detective is back on screen. He still doesn’t use a cell phone but his mogojastro is as sharp as ever. Sandip Ray tells us about the tricky business of updating Felu Mitter
The bengali cultural milieu is not known for erecting shrines; else one would have surely adorned 27, Rajani Sen Road, Kolkata-700019. It is there that perfection, as the Bengali mind conceives it, resides—in the person of an extremely intelligent, well-read, handsome, athletic and fictional detective, Prodosh C. Mitter. Created in 1965 by Satyajit Ray, his spell over the Bengali imagination had long left the confines of the printed word, conquering succeeding generations, creating fanatic followers and generating conversation as intense as if he lived next door. 

Mitter is referred to as Feluda, Felu being his household name. That name also lends itself to describe the series of 35-odd stories and novellas that Satyajit wrote to chronicle his master sleuth’s adventures, and two popular movies—Sonar Kella/ The Fortress (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath/ The Elephant God (1978)— that he adapted from them. Felu’s delineation as the cerebral detective, whose mogojastro (roughly ‘brain-weapon’) is deadlier than the .32 Colt revolver he carries, may have its echo in Sherlock Holmes, but his personality of the sandesh-loving Bengali with a Renaissance Humanism-inspired love for the liberal arts and sciences has more in common with his creator. Felu, however, is not alone in his adventures: he is always accompanied by his teenage cousin Topshe—the Watson-like assistant, confidant and narrative voice—and often his friend Lalmohan Ganguly alias Jatayu, an enthusiastic but naïve writer of sensational thrillers. 

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