Feluda @ 50

by Boria Majumdar

In 1965, Satyajit Ray, drawing from the detective tradition made popular by characters such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, created a character who would go on to influence Bengalis of an entire generation: Feluda. And when Soumitra Chatterjee played the dapper detective in the film Sonar Kella, a cult was born. Fifty years later, the cult endures. Every new Feluda film has the box office in a tizzy.

Feluda@50 seeks to explore the phenomenon. What makes Feluda tick? What is it that we love about this man? Why is it that every Feluda film continues to run to packed houses for weeks and months on end in an otherwise struggling Bengali film industry? What is the way forward for the franchise in the years to come? What role do Feluda's sidekicks, Topshe and Lalmohan-babu, play? The book also delves deep into Ray's motivations for keeping Feluda cocooned from contemporary politics and never allowing him to have a love interest.

Also including in-depth interviews with the three stars who have played Feluda onscreen, this is the quintessential fan tribute and a celebration of Feluda on the occasion of the sleuths fiftieth anniversary.

Genres: Nonfiction, India, History

216 pages, Paperback

Published February 17, 2016

About the author

Boria Majumdar, a Rhodes scholar, is a Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne. He has taught at the Universities of Chicago and Toronto and has written extensively on the history and politics of cricket in India and across the world. Deputy Executive Academic Editor of the International Journal of History of Sport and Executive Academic Editor of Sport in Society, he is General Editor of the Routledge Series, 'Sport in the Global Society'. Some of his books include Twenty-Two Yards to Freedom: A Social History of Indian Cricket (2004), Goalless: The Story of a Unique Footballing Nation (2006) and The Illustrated History of Indian Cricket (2006).

Reviews

[Vikas Singh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only saving grace about the book is the brilliant and nostalgic interviews with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, both of whom have essayed the role of Feluda. The articles by Rochona Majumdar and and Sovan Tarafder are horrible to say the least and guaranteed to give you a headache. There is hardly any indepth analysis of Feluda. Rather it appears to be hastily compiled potpourri of some articles. Avoidable read

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a love-letter penned to Feluda by several celebrities and intellectuals. It would probably be considered as a collector's item by lots of fans. However, those of us who had been privileged reader of the Sandesh issue called 'Feluda 30', published more than twenty-five years ago, had read and seen much better stuff with respect to our hero.
It’s also to be realised that over the centenary celebrations, Ray's creations and their portrayals have come under severe scrutiny. The women-less artificial world of Feluda have become lifeless for many of us, with special inputs from Sandip Ray's vapid films.
Unfortunately, this book doesn’t address any of those issues. Instead, it keeps celebrating an icon using same materials that have been presented to us again, and again, and again.
Disappointing, really.

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometime ago, I recommended Feluda by Satyajit Ray to my friend for his daughter to read. And his reaction was "Satyajit Ray ? Wohi Satyajit Ray ? For children ?".
I discovered Feluda quite late despite being a voracious reader as a child. And the blame lies with the librarian of my municipal library who shared the same thoughts as my friend and placed Feluda stories in the adult section. And quite by chance, when my wife was ill I brought her some of the longer Feludas published as individual books bcoz she wanted something light to read. And when she recommended them to me, I was thinking the opposite ! Should I read Feluda too after reading Gone Girl & co, no, not at 35 !
Little did I know that Feluda was dearly loved by Bengalis aged 8-80. I picked up a story and loved it and ended up reading all. And now Feluda stories with its relatively simple English, its settings, its length and the relative lack of violence and sex, is my #1 recommendation for kids around the age of 10. Infact would place them above Tintin and Famous Five etc because for Indians the language and setting would be a little familiar.
This book is a celebration of the Feluda stories and even more so, the Feluda movies. Since the movies are in Bengali and us non-Bengalis probably have not seen them, you may miss some of the charm of these essays and discussions. However, it was an enjoyable quick read for a Feluda fan like me. And I do hope to read Satyajit Ray's Collected Short Stories and Shonku too soon.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pathetic.

[Diptakirti Chaudhuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a way, writing a book on Feluda could be a thankless task. Millions of Feluda fans across the world are sure to jump up and throw in their two bits on what the book missed.
Boria Majumdar takes on this thankless task and manages to do a more than decent job of writing and compiling a set of articles on various aspects of Feluda.
Indrajit Hazra's piece is the pick of the lot where he analyses Feluda's quintessential bhadralok-ness. Abhijit Bhaduri marries his professional expertise with personal fandom and comes up with a list of things Feluda can teach the modern corporate professional. Rochona Majumdar puts forward the thesis that she is (or could be) Topshe. Boria Majumdar himself interviews the three screen Feludas (Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Abir).

As a Feluda devotee, I can list down a whole lot of perspectives the book could have covered. But within the scope it defines for itself, Feluda @ 50 is a nice collection of thoughts and memories that (at least partly) explain why Prodosh C Mitter still climbs bestseller charts and packs cinema halls.

[Soham Marik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, an in-depth look at Feluda - the character who I grew up reading and watching on screen, and with whom my love for detective fiction started. Reading this book made me revisit my childhood icon with a fresh perspective on his character traits, stories, films and the influence he has had on Bengali culture.

The interviews with the three Feluda actors was the best part (followed by the chapter "Going Backstage with Feluda"), primarily because of the anecdotes of what went into the making of the films. The fact that so many Feluda films got made in spite of the numerous difficulties faced amazes me. It was also a pleasure to see, for instance, that Sabyasachi had started emulating Feluda right from his childhood days; his eventual bagging of the role years later could only feel like a fanboy dream come true.

Reading Abir's interview in 2019, however, I couldn't help but feel sad reading about his visible excitement on being the new Feluda and playing this role in the years to come. As we all know, he was set to reprise his role for future movies, but ultimately didn't. The only consolation is to see him put his heart and soul into playing Byomkesh and doing such a fine job.

The analysis of how Bengali culture reflected itself in the stories, their isolation from politics and various other essays also made for insightful reads. They opened my eyes as to how much meaning we can take away from a seemingly simple series of detective fiction. Overall, the book does an excellent job in paying tribute to one of Satyajit Ray's greatest creations.

[Amrendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful way to reminisce about the magical effect of Feluda than to research his origins, talk to his creators, chitchat with the actors who played the famed private investigator and have a book compiling all these pieces with a little of self perspective thrown in. Boria Majumdar has done a fitting job of introducing Feluda to his readers in a most elementary and factual style. The book has 9 chapters - articles, shooting details, character exploration and 3 being interviews with Saumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakravarty and Abir Chatterjee. Feluda was not just any detective but a hugely popular apolitical figure who was the embodiment of Bengaliness. Feluda was Ray's popular rendition of the renaissance man: intelligent, well read, intuitive, argumentative (but not verbose), brave, honest and socially committed. Boria reminds us of all this and more in this book which is a fitting tribute to the sleuth who began in 1965 on his 50th anniversary.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A neat collection of essays and interviews on Feluda, probably the most famous fictional character in Bengal and amongst Bengalis. Every essay is a tad too effusive about the Rays and Feluda, and there's nary a murmur of criticism to be found.

[Padma Baliga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched. Comprehensive. Hagiographic

[Suryendu Bhattacharyya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, Nostalgic and throws an analytic perspective on Bengali's favorite hero.
:)

[Debasmita · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an unputdownable book for fans of Bengal’s most favorite sleuth.

[Anirban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feluda@50 is an enjoyable read by Boria Majumdar for all the Feluda fans. It all started with Feluda for Pujo special issue 50 years. It does have talks with people of different fields where they explain about how much special Feluda became for them or Bengalis who were able to read the books by none other than Satyajit Ray. It does have talks by the author with the three actors of Feluda with their experience