While I enjoyed Sandip Ray’s last adaptation Tintorettor Jishu (and I wrote a praiseworthy review of that film), I cannot say the same for Gorosthaney Shabdhan! I am fine with Sandip Ray changing the whodunit format of the story to an action thriller – something that he has done with his last few endeavors as well.  But I found the film quite  insipid.

When I first read Gorosthaney Shabdhan! what fascinated me more than the actual act of detection were the tidbits of information regarding Kolkata. These are completely lacking in the film which unfortunately has failed to coherently convey a sense of place.

In addition, the transition to the age of the internet is at best an uneasy one. I will provide one example of errors which stick out due to the change, but I am sure there are many others. A clue in the novel is the small scrap of paper which one of the characters, Naren Biswas had when disaster struck at the Park Street Cemetery.  The letters written on the scrap of paper were  “MN, OU, GAA, SJ, WN.” This signified the initials of British publishers. When Satyajit Ray wrote the letters decades ago he made a minor error with GAA – which should have been GAU because the name of the publisher was George Allan Unwin (not Anwin as Satyajit Ray implied). In 1985 the publishing house became Allen & Unwin – an Australian-based publisher.  By making the cinematic version modern without updating  the name, location, or even rectifying the error the film, is anachronistic.

I would still be able to get past these shortcomings had the film been paced properly. In my opinion, it is lethargic and slowly stumbles along to an unfulfilling end. There are entire episodes in the film which I found boring despite having savored the book only a few months earlier. Take for example the scene when Feluda, Topshe, and Jatayu meet the elder Godwin. Tinnu Anand is miscast in the role  and he sucks the oxygen out of the screen for the duration. Lalmohan Ganguly (Jatayu) is absolutely humorless. There isn’t a single line of dialogue spoken by him which made me even smile, even when there are quite a few “Jotuyu-isms” that make me laugh out loud in the actual novella.

I waited for Gorosthaney Shabdhan! to come out for the big-screen for over a year. I am very sorry to say that it thoroughly disappointed me.

(Please post your opinion of the film in the comments section, especially if you disagree. Please please also keep your comments civil).

There is a very wide body of work available for modern sleuths who wish to visit the Park Street Cemetery to see some of the old gravestones. Three books I recommend which are available online are Thacker’s Guide to Calcutta (published in 1906), The Thackerays in India and some Calcutta Graves (written by the historian Sir William Wilson Hunter in 1897), and perhaps the most definitive book on early Calcutta ever written, Calcutta: Old and New, a historical and descriptive history of the city, a 1100 page guide written by Sir Evan Cotton and published in 1906. 

Sir Cotton’s book lists all the major roads of early Calcutta along with the names. I plan to cover them in a future article. He also mentions all the marble cenotaphs in St. John’s Cathedral on Park Street. Sir Cotton has provided as much biographical information on all of the listed dead in the North Park Street and South Park Street Graveyards. My goal in this post is not to go into too much detail into the graves of Calcutta, but to provide an introduction to a few tombstones, many of which are mentioned in Gorosthaney Sabdhan!

A few of the notable dead inhabitants of the South Park Street Cemetery are two Chief Justices of the Supreme Court—Sir Richard Henry Blosset (1823), and Sir Christopher Puller (1824) Bishop Truner (1831), the fourth Bishop of Calcutta; Charlotte Bercher (1759). Richard Thackeray, the father of the famous English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray is also buried in the old graveyard; indeed the younger Thackeray was born in Calcutta. A very large number of the early inhabitants of Calcutta passed away and are interred in the graveyard. In fact, in of the early years after the founding of Calcutta, nearly one third of the population of English colonists passed away in the swampland.

Of course the most impressive structure is the mausoleum of Job Charnock, the founder of the city itself. The Charnock Mausoleum was erected in 1695 over the grave of the founder of Calcutta by his son-in-law Sir Charles Eyre. Of Charnock’s mausoleum, Sir Cotton writes:

Apsara theaterer mamla would be a decent short story from most other Bengali writers. Because it was written by one of modern India’s greatest visionaries, it is mediocre. In my opinion, it lacks the finesse in plot, character development, and setting that we expect. But first a brief outline of the story.

In Apsara theaterer mamla, a stage actor working at the Apsara Theatre approaches Feluda because he has been getting anonymous threat-letters. A few days later, the actor vanishes without a trace. The trio investigate, but do not come across any major leads. They suspect that the actor has been murdered. Three months later while visiting the beach-resort town, Digha, the trio discover that another actor from the same theatre has been killed, only now they are dealing with the actor who played the main roles for the theatre. Feluda is injured in Digha, and consequently he requests Lalmohan babu and Topshe interview members of Apsara Theatre on his behalf. Among the interviewed is the new bearded actor who has come to replace the dead lead actor. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking). In the final act, Feluda reveals the whole “mystery”. The first actor had disappeared only to return and murder the lead so that he could take the latter’s role. The only character in the story with a clear motive commits the crime.

Why would the criminal come to Feluda? Obviously to set the stage for his disappearance.

The plot disappointed me. Because there are very few suspects, the reader’s suspicion immediately falls on the obvious one and suspicion is slowly verified as the story progresses.

But that is not my main gripe with the story. Does every major detective have to come face to face with a character who is considered dead, but who leads a double-life? I mean Sherlock Holmes came across a variation of this sort of ordeal in The Case of the Man With the Twisted Lip. Byomkesh Bakshi proved his mettle in overcoming a double-role adversary in Adwitiyo.

In my opinion, the difference is that both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay leave us with memorable sketches of the perpetrators of the double-life in their stories: in Apsara Theaterer Mamla, Ray does not. The story trudges along from drawing room to theatre to thana with very little in the way of incidental conversation or descriptive scenery. In fact, not even Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohan babu seem to be themselves in the story. Lalmohan babu does not entertain us, Feluda does not instruct us, and Topshe does not keep us engaged with his lively prose.

This is quite surprising, since most Feluda stories stand out, in part, due to the memorable characters. Ray was also a master at vividly describing places. Apsara Theaterer Mamla, however, is almost wholly unadorned narrative.  Satyajit Ray wrote some true masterpieces which I will always remember. Apsara Theatrer mamla is not one of them.

So, which of the Feluda stories do you think has the weakest mystery?

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

Sandip Ray has made clear his desire to make a film based on Gorosthane Shabdhan! in modern Kolkata. As I review in my commentary of this book, in the middle of the adventure, Feluda is entrusted with finding out exactly what a Perigal Repeater is. As customary in many of the Feluda stories, he seeks information from Sidhu Jyatha. In this case, Sidhu Jyatha cannot help him out because he doesn’t know the answer to his question. Feluda, Topshe, Jotayu, and the readers have to find out the hard way and it is an enriching experience!

The use of Sidhu Jyatha as a reliable compendium of information works brilliantly in a world that predates the internet. Sidhu Jyatha becomes anachronistic and redundant in today’s world – the world of internet search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. In my opinion, this is the primary danger that Sandip Ray faces in completely updating the series. It took me under five minutes to find out what a Perigal Repeater was from Google. Do we want Feluda to live in a world where antiquated books can be accessed through Google Books and up-to-date maps through Google Maps thereby making travel through time and space essentially an armchair feat?

What would be the role of Sidhu Jyatha as a  purveyor of rare information? Would he be asked to peer through well-worn volumes of newspapers clippings or would Feluda do a search for articles by year on Google News instead?

Sidhujyatha.com!

Of course, in a world filled with “crowd-sourcing”,  Sidhu Jyatha might be a contemporary equivalent of Yahoo Answers or Ask.com (formerly better known as “Ask Jeeves” and named after the fictional valet of Bertie Wooster from P.G. Wodehouse’s works). Sidhu Jyatha could provide expert insight along with opinion through his website Sidhujyatha.com.

Still, one cannot help but be anguished by the role that Sidhu Jyatha would play brushing shoulders against members of Generation X and Y who tread easily on the information superhighway.

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

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Who was the woman in Feluda’s life? Did he never fall in love? Or was he completely obsessed with his profession?

One explanation is that even if he did have a girlfriend or fiancee, he hid it very well from Topshe. Or maybe Topshe was forbidden from writing about personal matters? In fact that there were cases that Feluda worked on that were too violent or racy for Topshe (as Satyajit Ray mentions in Noyon Rahasya).

This brings me to a second point. There are a lot of female fans of the sleuth in the real world but there are very few female characters in Feluda’s world. A very-well researched post in Calcutta Chromosome confirms and expands on the topic of female characters (or lack thereof) in Feluda’s world.

I highly recommend that you read the piece. This complements Lila Mazumdar’s spot-on observation on the dearth of major roles for any of the relatives of Feluda and Topshe in the series.

Until next time, keep reading.

Questions:

1. What were the two news-items covered in the newspaper cuttings that were found in the wallet at the Park Street Cemetery?

2. Okay, this one should be quite easy for hardcore fans. What type and color car did Lalmohan Ganguly (Jotayu) buy? What the original tune of his car’s horn that annoyed Feluda?

3. What is a Perigal Repeater? Why was Thomas given a Repeater by the Nawab of Lucknow?

4. Complete the name on the gravestone. “Sacred to the Memory of Thomas God________”

5. Naren Biswas’ wallet had a piece of paper with the letters “MN, OU, GAA, SJ, WN.” What do these abbreviations signify?

6. Why did Jotayu keep saying “hell” when the trio were crossing Chowringhee?

7. How was Charlotte related to Thomas?

8. What was the name of Feluda’s classmate mentioned in this story?

9. What is the name of the company that provided the photograph of Calcutta taken in 1880 from the top of the Ochterlony  Monument ?

10. What is Lalmohan Ganguly’s driver’s full name?

Answers:

1. There were two newspaper cuttings: one mentioned the opening of the South Park Street Cemetery and the other had news of the Ochterlony Monument (Shahid Minar) being built.

2. Jotayu bought a green Mark II Ambassador. The thought the color green was very “soothing.” There was a Saregama tune on the horn that Feluda found quite annoying.

3. It is an antique British watch made by Francis Perigal. Thomas was given the watch for his excellent culinary skills.

4. “Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Godwin”

5. Publishing houses viz.  Macmillan, Oxford University, George Allen and Unwin (minor mistake here as it is Unwin not Anwin), Sidgwick & Jackson,  Weidenfeld & Nicolson

6. The Kolkata Metro Rail was under construction and Jotayu called it “hell-rail” as a direct translation of Metro Rail, “Paataal-rail” (পাতালরেল). Paataal means hell in Bengali.

7. She was his daughter.

8. Suhrid Sengupta

9.  Bourne & Shepherd

10. Haripada Datta

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

Questions:

1. At the start of the story, readers learn that Lalmohan Ganguly (better known as Jotayu) had huge success with his last novel, Vancouvere Vampire. Why was he reading a book on the history of Bengalis in the circus on the way to Hazaribag?

2. What was the name of Mr. Kutty’s circus?

3. Which Bengali figure was Birendra Choudhury idolizing when he left home at the age of nineteen?

4. According to Mahesh Choudhury and his granddaughter’s code what did “RKAHA” mean?

5. Mahesh Choudhury had a collection of stamps and rocks. What also did he collect as a hobby?

6. What was Jotayu’s answer to why he thought a balloon was a living thing in the sky? According to Jotayu, what is a “bengur” (বেঙুর)?

7. Whose photograph did Mahesh Choudhury point out to Feluda with two fingers shortly before passing away?

8. Where was the actual proof that Arunendra Choudhury did not get along with his father? (Hint: Mahesh Choudhury was carrying it at Rajrappa)

9. Who was Sultan?

10. What is Indovision?

Chinnamasta Temple at Rajrappa, Jharkhand

Answers:

1. Jotayu was planning to have a trapeze-act play a central role in his next novel.  In the middle of a trapeze-act, one trapeze-artist was going to murder another one by means of a lethal injection. Jotayu planned to have hero, Prakhar Rudra, learn how to swing on the trapeze to solve the crime.

2. “Great Majestic”

3. The Bengali adventurer, Colonel Suresh Biswas.

4. The letters in this order sound like the question “aar ke aayeche?” (আর কে এয়েচে?) in Bengali which means “who else has come?”

5. Butterflies

6. Living things require oxygen and balloons are filled with oxygen! Earlier he yelled “bengur” (বেঙুর) a mix of bang (frog), hangor (shark) and balloon – ব্যাঙ, হাঙর, বেলুন

7. Swami Muktananda (who has the power of three continents behind him).

8. The conversation that was recorded on a cassette in the tape-recorder Mahesh Choudhury was carrying just before his heart attack.

9.  Sultan was the tiger that escaped from the Great Majestic Circus.  Chandran was injured trying to capture it and Tosphe, Haripada, and Lalmohan babu saw it later. Kandarikar (who had trained it) was successful in capturing it.

10. A new brand of television that Mahesh Choudhury’s youngest son, Preeteendra claimed to be from his electronics company.

©2010-2012 Feluda.net. All rights reserved. (Image of temple was created by a department of the Govt. of India and may be used freely without license)

Calcutta 1893. Note the "old burial ground" next to Lower Circular Road

When Satyajit Ray wrote the Feluda novel, Gorosthane Shabdhan! (গোরস্থানে সাবধান) in 1977, the process of renaming streets and locations in Calcutta had already started. Of course, this reached a frenzied pace in recent years with the renaming of the city itself to Kolkata and the prime location of the novel, Park Street, to Mother Teresa Sarani. Nonetheless, in the story we find signs that change had already started. Dalhousie Square had become B.B.D. Bag in honour of the revolutionaries Binoy, Badal, and Dinesh. Topshe even had difficulty remembering that Ochterlony Monument had been renamed to Shaheed Minar! (Most people born in my generation have no clue who David Ochterlony was and what he did to deserve a monument).

low-res Google Maps view of Park Street Cemetery (2010)

I remember that my grandmother used to refer to places in Calcutta (or Kolkata, if you prefer) by their original names. She would always say Dalhousie Square, “Monument”, Theatre Road, Camac Street, Harrison Street, and Circular Road. Many of these names are still present in Gorosthane Shabdhan! but others are gone. During my lifetime, people started making a shift to the new official names, although there are pre-Independence names that are still common. For example, Chowringhee and Strand Road are still quite popular. In any case,  I will not be surprised if Esplanade is also “Indianised” soon.

Park Street Cemetery

Please note my personal opinion: I do not intend to make a political statement, but I do strongly feel that we cannot and should not try to wish away our heritage (whether good or bad). And part of the reason I personally find Gorosthane Shabdhan! to be a fascinating novel is because I see Feluda and Tosphe inquisitively digging away at the colonial history of the city.

Gorosthane shabdhan!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keep-on-moving/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Calcutta 1924 - Most of the street names have been changed

Of course, Satyajit Ray’s story was written before the internet became a common resource. Today, we have it easy: we can look up many of the clues in the story and even figure out that the main antique, the Perigal repeater is a watch. But Feluda had to dig up the clues the hard way, by doing field-work and consulting Sidhu Jyatha, who unfortunately didn’t know about this priceless type of watch.  When I first read the Feluda stories, I didn’t have the  luxury of being able to use the internet either. Now reading the story, I feel as nostalgic about Feluda himself as I do about discovering the old-world charm of Victorian Calcutta.

However, since there are many readers like me who are only vaguely familiar with Calcutta (as opposed to Kolkata), I thought it would be proper to take a short virtual walk through the city in Gorosthane Shabdhan! For additional reading on the history of the city, I highly recommend Calcutta: The Living City Volume I edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri and published by Oxford University Press when the city turned 400. Pick it up at College Street before our bureaucrats change the name to Mahabidyalay Janapath!

In the story, Feluda poured over a map of Calcutta and Howrah dated from 1932. However, much of the story deals with Victorian Calcutta, and names didn’t get changed en masse until after India’s Independence from Great Britain in 1947. I’ve painstakingly acquired two maps of the city, one from 1893 and one from 1924 which you may find useful. Please note the names of streets in these two maps. These names have changed over the course of the last sixty years.

Feluda also mentioned Bourne & Shepherd, the oldest photographic studio still in operation. The gang also looked at pictures of Calcutta taken from atop the Ochterlony Monument in 1880. I’ve been able to find some pictures from around that time that will help us walk down the proverbial “Memory Lane.”

An albumen print from 1880 showing the floating Howrah Bridge (Courtesy Bourne & Shepherd)

The view from the Great Eastern Hotel circa 1880

Albumen print - view of Calcutta circa 1870

Albumen print with street view of Calcutta showing Main Post Office, circa 1880

Postcard showing Holwell Monument at the edge of Dalhousie Square. No longer near B.B.D. Bag anymore

Aerial view of Kolkata, circa 1945

Park Street, circa 1940

Please note that I have collected many of these antique photographs and postcards through eBay. You can find gems yourself by searching for Calcutta (“Kolkata” won’t work here). The photos can be freely used since they are not subject to copyright. If you can help me find the names of the photographers, please let me know so that I can attribute properly. The text is, however, subject to copyright and cannot be used without permission of Feluda.net.

©2010-2012 Feluda.net.

Questions:

1. In which Bengali children’s magazine was this story first published?

2. What was Topshe’s full name in Feludar Goendagiri? How old was he at the time of this story?

3. What was Feluda’s father’s name as mentioned in this story?

4. What is the next story in the Feluda series after Feludar Goendagiri?

5. What was the offence that Rajen Majumdar had committed for which Tinkori Mukhopadhyay could not forgive him?

Answers:

1. Sandesh

2. Tapesh Ranjan Bose. He was thirteen-and-half.

3. Jaykrishna Mitter (Mitra)

4. Badshahi Angti (বাদশাহী আংটি)

5. Rajen Majumdar and Tinkori Mukhopadhyay both participated in a 100-yard dash when they were both studying at Bankura Missionary School. Rajen Majumdar tripped Tinkori Mukhopadhyay during the race and he was in a cast for three months afterwards.

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

We also learn some facts about Feluda, some of which change in future stories. In Feludar Goendagiri, Topshe’s name is Tapesh Ranjan Bose, and Pradosh Mitter (Feluda) is a cousin related to him on his mother’s side. Topshe’s name changes to Tapesh Ranjan Mitter (Mitra) in subsequent stories and so does the relationship. Tosphe is a little over thirteen, and Feluda is twenty-seven years old in the story. We also learn that Feluda’s father’s name is Jaykrishna Mitter (Mitra). Although Feluda is as sharp as ever, in my opinion, he does seem a bit more impatient with Topshe than in future stories.

From reading Sandip Ray’s reminisces we know that Satyajit Ray was fond of traveling and making sure Bengali readers could share his experiences through the Feluda adventures. Satyajit Ray directed Kanchenjunga, his first completely original screenplay a few years earlier. Kanchenjunga (which has always been one of my all-time favorite movies in any language) was shot in Darjeeling. For the first Feluda story, Feludar Goendagiri, readers were transported back to Darjeeling. Feluda would come back again for Darjeeling Jomjomat and Sandip Ray mentions that this was one of Satyajit Ray’s favorite places.

Through Topshe’s first-person narrative, Feluda also educates as well as entertains. From the outset, he explains his thought-process and shares tidbits of information with readers. For example, in Feludar Goendagiri, readers learn some facts about differences in Bengali type-fonts

Equally important, Feluda’s acute sense of observation is evident in Feludar Goendagiri. He notices minute details that others fail to detect. However, his acute powers are not limited to visual observation, since the sense of smell, plays a major part in this story. Feluda uses this sense to great effect in future stories such as Bombaiyer Bombete as well.

As discussed, many of the key features of future Feluda stories are already present in Feludar Goendagiri.

(If you’ve already read the story, please check out the quiz.)

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