Director: Srijit Mukherji
Forged: Tota Roychowdhury, Anirban Chakraborty, Barun Chanda, Kalpan Mitra
Streaming on: Hoichoi
All Feludas made after Ray have been workout routines in nostalgia, however by no means has it been so obscene as within the Srijit Mukherji ones: his Feluda seems to be just like the character within the guide’s illustrations, and his Jatayu is Santosh Dutta reincarnate. Right here, in Feludar Goyendagiri, we have now Darjeeling too. There may be former Ray actor Barun Chanda forged because the aged aristocrat, whose homicide kicks journey into what was meant to be a vacation. It doesn’t appear to be a coincidence that the character owns a valuable miniature idol, very like his equal in Pleasure Baba Felunath (1979).
Plenty of Feluda tales riff on related tropes, however in Feludar Goyendagiri, they virtually look like ploys to encompass the viewers with the acquainted. Every thing is a callback to one thing. Keep in mind Pulak Ghoshal, Lalmohan babu’s film producer buddy, memorably performed by Paran Bandopadhyay in Sandip Ray’s first massive display Feluda Bombaiyer Bombete (2003)? Right here the character is performed by Rahul Banerjee. There’s even a monitoring shot following Lalmohan babu doing stretches, recalling the scene from Sonar Kella (1974). The brand new Feluda is hardly new – nothing about it’s.
For those who’re in any respect going to be making Feludas until the final member of the Bengali race is alive, take a leaf out of James Bond.
None of which might have been a lot of an issue if the movie wasn’t so missing in actual intrigue and believability, and simply primary scene-to-scene stage competence. I by no means thought I’ll say this however all these new Feludas have begun to make the Ray tales look lame. In written type, as tales, colored with detailing, temper, skilful plotting and misdirection, they work a sure approach. Tailored on movie, it’s one thing else completely. Ray himself took nice care to adapt it for the display, when he made these decisive modifications within the screenplay of Sonar Kella. Making the excellence between a whodunnit and a thriller, he deemed the latter to be a extra cinematic type. Thus the villain is revealed initially of Sonar Kella, versus ultimately, as within the guide.
For all his homages, Mukherji fails to pay attention to essentially the most primary of the grasp’s classes. Goyendagiri climaxes with that very ‘Summation Gathering’ scene that Ray thought-about anti-cinema. Not that good homicide mysteries haven’t been made with such endings – Sidney Lumet’s Homicide within the Orient Specific (1974) employed it successfully, nevertheless it did so by constructing suspense and making considerate decisions.
Feludar Goyendagiri, then again, closely depends on the climactic revelation – through which Feluda summons all characters into the drawing room and breaks down the advanced thriller – hoping to absolve itself of all of the dullness it had subjected us by means of the remainder of the operating time. The revelations are startling, however that’s Ray’s doing. What Mukherji does handle to do is screw it up, when a personality, whereas confessing, says his strains like he hasn’t been paid. {That a} scene this shoddy was okayed seems like theft in daylight.
Feludar Goyendagiri is nearly as good or unhealthy as Feluda Pherot, besides the trio of Feluda (Tota Roychowdhury), Topshe (Kalpan Mitra) and Lalmohan (Anirban Chakraborty) share an ease that comes with practise. Roychowdhury is extra relaxed than he was within the earlier instalment however his casting stays an issue: Feluda as a personality is sort of a fantasy determine, a super-heroic assemble of kinds (of a Bengali, cerebral variety). You want an actor who can floor it in a actuality. Each Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakraborty – arguably the perfect and subsequent finest Feluda – did simply that. I want I had a much less insulting approach of claiming this however Roychowdhury’s a really restricted actor. His casting has been primarily based on his resemblance to the Feluda illustrations within the books. This obsession with the “look” reveals the inherent hollowness of the method. Pictorial likeness can solely take you thus far in a stay motion world. For those who’re in any respect going to be making Feludas until the final member of the Bengali race is alive, take a leaf out of James Bond. Daniel Craig was a daring alternative, however look the way it rejuvenated the franchise.
Feludar Goyendagiri ends on baffling word. Ghoshal, a Hindi movie director with a loud sensibility, declares that he’ll make 4 movies on a selected yr. ‘ABCD – Asia’s Busiest Cinema Director’, Feluda jokes, with slight mockery. In case it was Mukherji’s nod to himself, it’s an apt one: he wants a break. Possibly a soul-searching journey to Darjeeling.
