Le dieu éléphant

Feluda is a Bengali Sherlock Holmes, created by Satyajit Ray himself in 1965, in hugely successful children's books, which had multiple film adaptations, two of them directed by Satyajit Ray himself, Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) from 1974 and a sequel, this Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) from 1979, both starring Soumitra Chatterjee, accompanied by his young cousin Tapesh, played by Siddartha Chatterjee and the comic character of the series, the crime novelist Jatayu, played by Santosh Dutta (who was actually a criminal lawyer).

Feluda is an institution of Bengali culture and Indian children's literature.

Sandip Ray, Satyajit's son, kept the series successful, making dozens of films for cinema and television. The character also originated an animated film in 2010, several radio series, since the 80s, comics, internet series, music and documentaries.

In this film, Satyajit Ray shows a more playful side, both in terms of script and set of characters, far from the realistic drama that made him famous in the West, but which is nonetheless exemplary and had a tremendous influence. A true icon of Indian culture, particularly of the Bengali community.

With very little frills, the story is more than wonderful. The characters of Feluda, Topesh and Jatayu have been vividly portrayed and Utpal Dutt played his role just too well. The alternate humorous and serious scenes kept up the goodness of the story.

A point worth noting is the intelligent way of revealing the mystery at the end of the story which did not appear throughout the film. There was no main mystery and the watchers knew from the very first scene that Maganlal Meghraj (Utpal Dutt) was the villain. Yet there were shots which were kept unexplained. However, the watchers made no attempt to put they grey matter into work as they, most naturally, assumed those scenes to be insignificant --- a bit of smoke that Meghraj noticed behind the curtains, the hiding of a diamond in Jatayu's story, the Lucknow Station on the radio and a lot more.

The brilliant climax was unexpected and still stands out of the other ordinary films.

Great characters and a tight story made this a satisfying detective story from Satyajit Ray, one featuring a detective of his own making, Feluda. It starts with a known art smuggler showing up at the home of an old college acquaintance, asking if he can buy a valuable idol of Ganesh from Nepal. Well, he asks, but it's in a threatening way, saying that usually he just takes what he wants. He's turned down, but a few days later the idol is stolen. Good thing Feluda (good old Soumitra Chatterjee) is visiting for a festival, accompanied by his assistant Topshe and a writer, Jatayu, who is a friend. He's commissioned by the elderly man of the house who is the owner of the Ganesh, and from there methodically works to unravel the mystery.

There is of course the obvious suspect, the unscrupulous man with both a motive and means for carrying out the crime (Utpal Dutt). He's an almost James Bond like villain, offering the detective a bribe while lounging on his bed, then breaking out a set of knives for an intimidating exhibition of a crusty old minion's skill, all while having hidden guns trained on them. He's also got a connection to a guy passing himself off as a holy man, one that Feluda wonders about from the beginning, remarking "Crooks tend to make a great show of piety."

There is also clearly the possibility that it was some kind of inside job, and it's an interesting set of people living under this roof. The elderly man is in the habit of reading detective fiction and taking a little opium before nighty night. His grandson loves comic books and a character named Captain Spark, and also loves playing on the roof and shooting his toy gun at visitors. There's the poor son of the man's employee who has lived with them for 20 years, and an idol maker who spends his time painting rather buxom statues in preparation for a festival. Meanwhile, back at the hotel Feluda is staying at, he and his companions share a room with a extremely buff body builder, and there's also a humorously picky lodger often showing up to complain about something.

I loved the construction of the story, the old school emphasis on brain power to noodle things out, and the indignation Ray shows to anyone who would pillage their own country's sacred artifacts. That latter bit was rather timely, seeing as how this past week the Met in New York came under greater scrutiny for its practice of buying what it knew to be looted artifacts for decades, including when this film was made. Anyway, great stuff, and some nice spiritual music as well, composed by Ray himself.

It's another masterpiece from Satyajit & Saumitra combo...2nd making of detective feluda series...

The movie is about a idol theft from the house of a old-time Benares family. Feluda, who is in Benares on holiday with his cousin and assistant Topshe and the inimitable Jatayu, is asked to help find the thief. The story moves along at a fast clip from the opening scenes when we see the holidaying trio arrive in rickshaws, with Jatayu having to constantly raise his folded hands to his forehead as they pass one temple after another. Ray is a master at showing the timeless beauty of this ancient city with its ghats, bazaars, havelis and gallis, and leverages this to the fullest to transform a mundane whodunit with a twist into a moody, sensuous, intensely funny and hauntingly musical piece of cinema which transcends its humble subject matter, but still delivers a darkly dreadful murder scene!