Le dieu éléphant

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!

Feluda, The Bengali Sherlock Holmes comes alive on screen again in this highly entertaining film. Based on the book and characters written by Ray himself he did a great job in creating a good follow up to the highly successful and intriguing 'Sonar Kella – The Golden fort '. Just like in the previous movie this one also contains a bunch of colorful characters played by the Crème de la crème of Bengali cinema most notably Mr. Utpal Dutta who plays a shady businessman involved in smuggling antiquities. This one is about a theft of a very valuable antique gold statue. So in comes Feluda accompanied by his faithful Topshe and the very hilarious Jatayu (Santosh Dutta at his comic best) and he is asked to investigate the theft by the owner and if possible retrieve the invaluable statue. The entire movie is set in the holy city of Varanasi and we get to witness a lot of the religious ceremonies associated with Hinduism and how the crime has intertwined itself with it. A lot of suspense and some very funny segments(especially the one with Jatayu and the knife thrower) make this movie totally worth the watch. It may not be a Sonar Kella but it definitely is in a class of its own. I recommend this film very highly. You will not be disappointed.

The sequel of 'Sonar Kella'. And much better in art and camera. I mentioned earlier that Ray was an admirer of Benares' geometry and loved shooting there. You will find another set of cooler shots of the alleys of the city, which itself is a metaphor to a detective story. Contrary to the previous film, we will get to know about all the guilts at the end of this movie. And, the best villain played by the great Utpal Dutt. Someone told me West Anderson was inspired by the symmetrical shots here, to use later in his movies.

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

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.