In the autumn of my life, I couldn’t have asked for more,” says Barun Chanda, slipping into the shoes of professor Ardhendu Chatterjee, a character inspired by Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, for Subhrajit Mitra’s thriller Chorabali. A t2 chat on the sets in a Deshapriya Park residence.
In what ways is Ardhendu Chatterjee like Hercule Poirot?
Well, David Suchet (who played Poirot in the TV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot) had certain idiosyncrasies. He was a genuine Hercule Poirot. In Chorabali, which is inspired from Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table, my character is not an eccentric like David’s Poirot. Ardhendu is a senior professor of criminology who has taught in a college in England. He comes back to Calcutta. That’s the background.
Have you read Cards on the Table?
I read it after I got the offer. The storyline is very strong. And to me, at this juncture of life, it couldn’t have got better than this.
And at a point when every director in Tollywood is adapting detective stories on screen…
Here looks-wise we have tried to set it apart from the usual genre of detective stories. You see, Byomkesh has a typical Bangaliana. The others too. My character in Chorabali is urbanised, suave and sophisticated but not overtly. There are a few small things, like he wears reading glasses, uses a pocket watch. I have this lovely pocket watch, kind of antique and it works. So a different identity, he is aged…
Cards on the Table is a very complicated story with lots of characters, too many suspects and murders….
Yes, we too have a lot of characters. The cop (played by Shataf Figar) and I are the two kingpins in the story but that apart there are about eight or 10 characters who are of more-or-less equal importance.
Did you ever think you’d play a sleuth some day?
Never expected this! In the autumn of my life, I was very happy to have the odd character roles where I had some amount of meat, which were nice and noticeable. But this is quite different.
Who are your favourite detective characters?
I really liked Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the TV series. Today’s Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) is too modern. Sherlock Holmes has lost that flavour. But there’s one that I really liked, it used to be aired on BBC, titled Inspector Morse. My son gifted me the entire volume. Arekta chhilo, a German serial called The Old Fox, dubbed very well in English. I love thriller, crime thrillers.
You’ve also written a few in Bengali...
Yes, Kidnap, Shaper Jhanpi and Coke.
What about thrillers attracts you?
You know, many years back, when I was in the spring of my life there were talks of making Feluda with me. Manikda’s (Satyajit Ray) Feluda…. But I am absolutely delighted to have created Abinash Roy, a senior detective officer of Calcutta Police in my books. He is not a super sleuth. He is not overtly brilliant but he is very incisive who finally catches the culprit. The stories are totally adult. I would want to watch an adult crime thriller. You don’t want a sanitised crime thriller. I would love to play Abinash Roy if it’s ever adapted on screen.
Which is your favourite Agatha Christie story?
Agatha Christie? It’s tough to say. There are too many of them. Amar Miss Marple-er byaparta darun lagey... an aged woman, soft-spoken, blue eyes and to the world totally inoffensive, but her grey cells ticking away furiously. Miss Marple was shown as a series on TV and I absolutely loved it.
