Tuesday 27 December 2011

Royal Bengal Rahashya (Royal Bengal Mystery) [2011]


Royal Bengali Rahasya wasn’t just one of the most cerebral stories featuring Satyajit Ray’s immensely popular creation – private investigator Feluda, but also one of the best of the lot. Sandip Ray chose this wonderful mystery novel as his fifth Feluda-outing. Though all his Feluda adaptations pales in comparison to the ones made by his illustrious father, but with each film one would note steady improvements, and that trend has continued with this one too. The delectably captivating plot, the famous Royal Bengali Tiger forms an integral part of which, involves Prodosh C. Mitter aka Feluda (Sabyasachi Chakraborty), taking a trip to the dense forests of North Bengal along with his trusted allies – his cousin brother Topshe (Saheb Bhattacharya), and novelist friend Lal Mohan Ganguly aka Jatayu (Bibhu Bhattacharya), on the invitation of one Mahitosh Singha Roy, the current patriarch of a family which is renowned for the string of fearless hunters it has produced. The initial intent was to spend some good time in the jungles and to solve a tantalizingly difficult riddle that could very well provide the clues to a family treasure. However, things turn ugly, leading to murder and the opening of a can of worms where the Singha Roy family is concerned. Sabyasachi is getting a tad too old for the role of the sleuth, but he is quite solid as always. Incidentally, Bibhu Bhattacharya, someone who had found it difficult to find acceptance among the Bengali populace for his caricaturish performances in a role that had been immortalized by Santosh Dutta in Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath, expired soon after completing his dubbing for the movie.









Director: Sandip Ray
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Detective Film
Language: Bengali
Country: India

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