Satyajit Ray’s novel The Mystery of the Elephant God begins with a peek into its creator’s precise mind. The private detective Feluda bera...
Satyajit Ray’s novel The Mystery of the Elephant God begins with a peek into its creator’s precise mind. The private detective Feluda berates the hyperbole-prone novelist Jatayu for describing the Durga puja celebrations in Varanasi as “spectacular”.
The word is banal and doesn’t explain why the event is important, Feluda tells Jayatu. When Jatayu elaborates, “I still remember my eyes and ears being dazzled by what I saw,” Feluda finally approves. This description appeals to the senses, he says.
Ray adapted the book into a movie in 1979. Joi Baba Felunath was Ray’s second Feluda adaptation after Sonar Kella. In both films, the same set of actors played the casually sexy sleuth, his loyal cousin and sidekick Topshe and their hilarious pulp fiction writer friend Jatayu. Giving Soumitra Chatterjee, Siddhartha Chatterjee and Santosh Dutta company in Joi Baba Felunath was Utpal Dutt as the sinister Maganlal Meghraj.
The Bengali-language movie, which is being streamed on Mubi India, is entertaining enough. Yet, it underscores the conundrum of a brilliant director unable to keep up with his brilliant writing. Ray cut out the plot points that were possibly difficult to film and changed the ending, weakening the mystery in the process.
The Feluda stories have been turned into television shows, telefilms, radio plays and full-length features, many of them...
