Royal Bengal Rahasya

Starring: Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Shaheb Bhattacherjee, (late) Bibhu Bhattacharya, Paran Bandopadhyay, Debesh Roy Chowdhury, Bhaswar Chatterjee, Basudeb Mukherjee
Directed by: Sandip Ray

Over three decades ago, internationally acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray started writing a detective series which immediately stole the hearts of the youth and adults simultaneously. Today the film Royal Bengal Rahasya once again gives us an opportunity to relive the magic of the Feluda series. The simplicity of the story and the film is the genius of it.

In today’s world of cinema where the trend seems to be of overkill-special effects and 3D computer graphics, a simple story about an ordinary man armed only with his general knowledge, analytical skills and keen power of observation can still, to this day, capture the hearts and minds of audiences who sit mesmerised and hooked to the magic of the Feluda-Topshe-Jatayu trio.

Royal Bengal Rahasya is an entertainer that delivers what it promises. Feluda, the cult private detective, also known as Prodosh Chandra Mitter, once again charms the imagination of audiences. Thanks to this super-sleuth’s antics captured on celluloid by director Sandip Ray, and created by his father Satyajit Ray in his novels and short stories, Bengal can once again proudly stand up and proclaim that this is our answer to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Hergé’s Tintin and George Lucas’s Indiana Jones.

This witty and campy detective story, which also educates while keeping you on the edge of your seat, begins with an invitation from the shikari zamindar Mahitosh Singha Ray (Basudeb Mukherjee), that leads Lalmohanbabu (Bibhu Bhattacharya), the thriller writer popularly known by his pen-name Jatayu, to take Feluda (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) to a forest, accompanied by his wing-man and cousin Tapesh Ranjan, fondly referred to as Topshe (Shaheb Bhattacherjee).

Here Feluda starts off solving a puzzling riddle pointing to a treasure hunt that ends up revealing hidden secrets of the Singha Ray family, landing Feluda smack in the middle of a curious murder case that he gets cracking on.

Veteran actor Sabyasachi Chakrabarty once again delivers a seamless performance portraying the Feluda that we all know and love, with his sharp logic, quick wit and trademark style and swagger. Shaheb playing Topshe, a young boy dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch who looks up to his cousin, is a perfect match. Performances by Paran Bandopadhyay as Debotosh Singha Ray and Debesh Roy Chowdhury as Shashanka Sanyal enrich the film’s fabric.

But my favourite part of this film is Bibhu Bhattacharya’s unforgettable portrayal of the bumbling, lovable and outright hilarious Jatayu. This is undoubtedly one of the finest comic performances we will ever see. But my laughter was laced with a sadness that I couldn’t shake off, as I was painfully aware that this was Bibhu Bhattacharya’s last curtain call. As fate would have it, he passed away right after completing the dubbing for this film, leaving a gaping void in Bengali cinema and in the hearts of Feluda fans. My only hope is that he can look down on us and witness for himself the joy and laughter that he has brought to the audiences. This tragic incident finds Sandip Ray once again with the unenviable task of answering the looming question of who will now fill Jatayu’s shoes, a similar situation his father was faced with after Santosh Datta passed away.

With its setting, cinematic style and trademark music, this ‘whodunit’ lends itself to a sense of timelessness which works greatly in its favour as a toast to the iconic series that has shaped the childhood of so many Bengalis who have relished these stories born from the mind of a father whose legacy lives on through his one and only son.