Category Archives: জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথ

Feluda Quiz 3 – Actors in Feluda films (ছায়াছবিতে ফেলুদা)

This is the third part of a series of trivia quizzes on Feluda films and stories. The first and second quizzes  were on specific books and films.  We will return to the other stories and films in subsequent quizzes, but this one is on characters in the Feluda films (from Sonar Kella to Tintorettor Jishu). We hope you enjoy this set of questions as much as the others.

Questions:

1. Saswata Chatterjee and Parambrata Chatterjee are the two actors that have played the role of Topshe (তপসে) in the Sandip Ray Feluda films. Can you name the actor who was Topshe in Satyajit Ray’s two Feluda films?

2. Three actors have played the role of Tosphe and Jotayu (জটায়ু) in the Bengali cinematic releases. Three actors have also played the part of Sidhu Jyatha (সিধুজ্যাঠা). Can you name the three actors who played the part of Sidhu Jyatha in Sonar Kella, Baksho Rahasya, and Kailashe Kelenkari?

3.  Can you name the Bollywood actor who was originally considered for the part of Feluda in the Hindi series Satyajit Ray Presents?

4. I mentioned that three Bengali actors have played the part of Jotayu in the Bengali cinematic releases. Baksho Rahasya was a part of the Feluda 30 series aired on Indian television in 1996 before making a limited cinematic debut. Who was another actor that played the part of Jotayu in Feluda 30?

5. Satyajit Ray had a combination of four actors in his mind for Feluda according to a report published in The Telegraph in 2008. One them, was of course Soumitra Chatterjee. Who were the other three?

Answers:

1. Siddhartha Chatterjee. (All three Topshes are Chatterjees)

2. Harindranath Chattopadhyay in Sonar Kella, Ajit Bandyopadhyay in Baksho Rahasya, and Haradhan Bandopadhyay in Kailashe Kenenkari.

3. Amitabh Bachchan, read about it in Sandip Ray’s Aami aar Feluda (আমি আর ফেলুদা) and in this excellent blog-post by Nirmalya Nag.

4. Anup Kumar who was followed by Bibhu Bhattacharya

5.  Dhritiman Chatterji, Barun Chanda, and Subhendu Chatterjee. Read all about it in this article entitled “Feluda Phenomenon” in The Telegraph.

©2010-2012 Feluda.net. All rights reserved.

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Filed under কৈলাসে কেলেঙ্কারী, জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথ, টিনটোরেটোর যীশু, বাক্স রহস্য, সোনার কেল্লা, Baksho Rahasya, Feluda Quiz, Joi Baba Felunath, Kailashe Kelenkari, Sonar Kella

References to Sukumar Ray in Satyajit Ray’s Feluda movies – সোনার কেল্লা এবং জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথে ‘হ য ব র ল’

You may already know that many Hollywood blockbuster film dvds contain hidden features that are known as Easter eggs. As far as I know, the dvds of the Feluda films of Satyajit Ray, Sonar Kella (সোনার কেল্লা) and Joi Baba Felunath (জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথ)  do not contain any Easter eggs. However, in my opinion, they are also not necessary.

Like die-hard fans, I’ve seen both films countless times, and each time I’ve discovered new layers that add a rich subtext to the script, plot, and overall experience. If you watch the films carefully, you will notice that Satyajit Ray planted some very ingenious references to his father, Sukumar Ray’s classic book HaJaBaRaLa (হ য ব র ল).

From my childhood, HaJaBaRaLa has been one of my favorite books. Even today I get mildly upset when I hear it referred to as only a “book  full of nonsense” or “nonsensical book.” Just as Alice in Wonderland is not a book of “nonsense only for children” HaJaBaRaLa is not either.

I suspect that HaJaBaRaLa was a book that Satyajit Ray loved dearly too. Indeed, one of the characters in the book, Hijibijbij (হিজিবিজবিজ) took on a dark form in one of Satyajit Ray’s short stories, “Professor Hijibijbij.”

Both Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath have references that the viewer will miss unless he or she is familiar with HaJaBaRaLa. For example, in the train-scene in Sonar Kella when Lalmohan Ganguly (Jotayu) first meets Feluda and Topshe, he asks Feluda his vital statistics to see if they match up with his own literary creation, Prokhor Rudra. Feluda nonchalantly answers that his waist measures “26 inches”, his chest measures “26 inches” and his wrist is also “26 inches.” This is a clear reference to the old man (বুড়ো) and the raven ( কাক্কেশ্বর কুচকুচে)  who mark 26 inches as the measurement of all the statistics of the protagonist in HaJaBaRaLa.  In HaJaBaRaLa, the pained response of the protagonist was “am I a pig?” Jotayu is beyond himself and asks Feluda if “he is a pig”. Jotayu and Topshe both get the reference in the film, though I suspect many viewers will not.

Later in the film, in a crucial scene when Mandar Bose, one of the bad guys, is apprehended for the first time, Feluda mentions that he will get “three months in jail, and seven days hanging.” This is the punishment meted out to Nyara at the end of HaJaBaRaLa.

Similarly, HaJaBaRaLa is referenced in Joi Baba Felunath too. Just before the trio discover that Sashibabu, an old artist has been stabbed, Feluda can be heard reciting the Sojaru-Mojaru verse that Nyara sings in HaJaBaRaLa:

Finally, in one of the “Eureka!” moments in the film, when Feluda is piecing together the different threads of the mystery , Jotayu displays his confusion quoting a very famous line from HaJaBaRaLa  (Chandrabindu-r cha, biral-er talobo shyo, aar rumaal-er ma)

Clearly, like the rest of us, Satyajit Ray was a huge fan of his father’s fantastic creation!

©2010-2012 Feluda.net. Please seek permission prior to reproducing. Screen-shot from Sonar Kella is very low-resolution and believed to fall under a “fair-use” rationale. It is used only for the purpose of demonstration.

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Filed under জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথ, সোনার কেল্লা, Feluda and cultural influences, Feluda in film and on television, Joi Baba Felunath, Obscure Feluda facts and references, Sonar Kella