A Fortaleza de Ouro

This is an Indian Road Trip Movie, from the 1960's. The story is solid, and the pace is appropriate.

If you do not understand Bengali, you will definitely miss a lot of the innuendos, and the subtitles will not help you out with their literal translation! The young child is an excellent actor, and I wasn't surprised to see that he is now a very successful actor in Tollywood movies (Bollywood is the Hindi movie industry based in Bombay/Mumbai, Tollywood is the Bengali movie industry, based out of Tollygunj in Kolkata).

The cinematography works well, and does present an evocative view of India 40-45 years ago.

The DVD print isn't great for the night scenes...that is the only drag on an otherwise excellent movie.

Well those who are not aware of who Feluda the protagonist of this movie is won't be able to get the real flavor of the flick.But for a Feluda fan like me Sonar Kella is truly a masterpiece.Feluda, a private investigator is one of the most underrated detectives in the world of fiction but perhaps one of the most interesting characters of Indian novels and stories.Sonar Kella is one of his early adventures and it is the story where he and his cousin meets the brilliant Jatayu, the comic element and an author of detective stories.The greatness of the movie is that it successfully portrays the original characters so much so that you just wonder which was made earlier,the story or the movie itself,very much like The Godfather.Hardly you will come across such a successful adaptation of a novel.Soumitra Chatterjee as Feluda and Santosh Dutta as Lalmohan Ganguly(Jatayu is his pen name)are simply amazing.The supporting actors too have done a commendable job.It is not a flawless film.Still that can be forgiven as its target audience were the kids.Cinematography was brilliant,so was the selection of the locations in Rajasthan where most of the film was made.Watch it not just for its director but for its lead actors and its brilliant screenplay.Don't forget to show this to your kids.Jatayu is gonna make them laugh for sure.Good work done.

This is an excellent film. Satyajit Ray's genius is evident in each and every scene. The characters are portrayed beautifully. Soumitra Chatterjee is superb as 'Feluda'. One of my favorites is Kamu Mukherji as Mandar Bose. The range of emotions shown and the comic touch in his actions and dialogue are excellent. The change in his facial expression when he is trying to match Mukul's face with his photograph in the train is amazing.

Of course, everyone's darling Santosh Dutta as "Jatayu" is very good too. He portrays the average Bengali babu's role to perfection. "Topshe's" role as a eager and jovial teenager is well suited too.

The transitions between scenes are very nice - they help maintain the pace of the film. The background music leaves a beautiful impression. You may need to watch the film more than once to notice the subtle connections between certain dialogues and visual clues.

The dialogues are crisp and delivery is fantastic. Unfortunately, you would need to know the Bengali language to fully enjoy their impact - the loss in translation is inevitable.

Not one moment in the film is boring - if you want to be entertained as well as intellectually stimulated - this film is for you. Needless to say, I have watched it many times and I have a copy in my personal collection.

A masterpiece for any Feluda fan out there like me. The legend Satyajit Ray's generosity is evident in each and every scene packed in each nutshell of directory. The characters are portrayed beautifully. Soumitra Chatterjee is superb as 'Feluda'. One of my favorites is Kamu Mukherji as Mandar Bose. The range of emotions shown and the comic touch in his actions and dialogue are excellent. The change in his facial expression when he is trying to match Mukul's face with his photograph in the train is amazing.

Of course, everyone's darling Santosh Dutta as "Jatayu" is very good too. He portrays the average Bengali babu's role to perfection. "Topshe's" role as a eager and jovial teenager is well suited too.

He has a strong knowledge of the rest of India, it's history and geography, which is how he's aware of the deserts of Rajasthan. He solves problems in an intelligent way as if it were a mathematical problem. The joy of arriving at a solution is just the same. Ray's strength was his brilliant craftsmanship. He made films, drew storyboards, scored music and most importantly, wrote stories. Proper stories, not autobiographical reminiscences. He also had remarkable interest in varied fields just like a quiz buff would have. It means that if anyone is open to this vast source of knowledge, some of his lesser-known films become joyous experiences.

Among all the movies of the "thriller" genre, I would alsways rate this movie as amongst the top in India. Having watched it many dozens of times, I have observed that the movie and Ray's treatment of his story is unique in many ways. Firstly, given the exotic locales in the story, any director would lap up the opportunity of using stunning angles for shots around the various forts (of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer in this case), let the camera hover around the desert horizon with the sun setting or the static ripples of sand on a dune. Never for a moment had Ray let the camera linger on any stunning backdrop outside the context of the film. Even in the sunset scene at Ramdeorah railway station, the camera does not lose the subject, that was 'jatayu' loosening up after an arduous camel ride. Even more interesting is Ray's ability to stay focused to the story line again given that the climax inside the Jaisalmer fort, a classic fort with a town inside. It would be easy for any one to yield to the temptation of extending the final moments of the film in the fort in its numerous small streets that wind around the beautiful houses of the town within the fort. However, Ray stuck to telling the story as it was in the book (with some changes of course) where the "Golden Fortress" itself occupies a few minutes of the 120 minute film. The result has been a crisp story where the suspense ramps up from the first scene and never ebbs in the entire course of the film.