The Return Of Feluda

THE enduring appeal of Feluda, the inimitable fictional sleuth created by Satyajit Ray, is the principal propel-lant in Baksho Rahasya (The Mystery of the Suitcase), a 90-minute tele film scripted and directed by the late master's son, Sandip. But what stands out in this taut, gripping, well-mounted whodunnit is the remarkable sureness of touch that the director demonstrates: there's no trace of artifice in the sustained economy of means. It flows naturally from his steadfast eschewal of the temptation to 'please'.

Yet, Baksho Rahasya has much that is intrinsically pleasing. Sandip Ray gallantly bears the onus of skirting around comparisons with Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath, the two Feluda adventures that his father filmed with phenomenal success. And what's more, he succeeds. The film, bankrolled by a private producer, Chayabani Pictures, is a confident essay that is perhaps Sandip Ray's best answer yet to his detractors.

If not the film itself, the overwhelming popular response to it certainly is an eloquent reply to the snide criticism that Ray Jr has for years been subjected to.Baksho Rahasya was expected to be telecast on Doordarshan on May 2, Satyajit Ray's 75th birth anniversary. When that did not happen, a video release, the first-ever of its kind, was planned at Nandan's Auditorium II. It was meant to run for only one week but kept going for four. No film has ever given Nandan the kind of revenue that Baksho Rahasya has. Not surprisingly, a rerun is being planned for July.

Bengali TV star Sabyasachi Chakraborty as private eye Pradosh Mitter a.k.a. Feluda is the film's mainstay. The tall, wiry actor grasps every shade of the character with as much felicity as Soumitra Chatterjee, who played Feluda in the Satyajit Ray films. And that, as any Feluda freak-cum-Soumitra fan will vouch, is saying a lot indeed.

On a rail trip, a suitcase gets interchanged with a similar piece of luggage. The owner turns to Feluda for help—the missing bag has to be recovered at all cost because it contains a priceless manuscript of a Tibet travelogue authored by a man who died in 1923. The adventure takes the detective to New Delhi and Shimla, via the dark, dank bylanes of Calcutta and many twists and turns, as he grapples with lurking danger at every step.

Besides proving the timelessness of the world he resides in, the return of Feluda in a new avatar marks a triumphant twist in Sandip Ray's career. The next turn will be awaited with interest.