Royal Bengal Rohoshyo

Vacations are nice, especially the winter vacations (which just happens to be my favourite season). But sometimes long vacations run the high risk of turning into a boring affair. Today (the 27^th of December) was a day that was supposed to become one. But thanks to one of my friend who called up yesterday night and asked me whether I was willing to go watch Royal Bengal Rohoshyo. Being an ardent fan of Satyajit Ray and his creation Feluda, it was too tempting to pass. So, I agreed immediately. After getting up late (it’s winter, I just couldn’t help it!), and almost missing the meeting time, I managed to meet up with him on time and then we went on hall-hunting where we’d get a ticket.(Yeah the movie was so good that movie halls were actually going house-full even after 5 days.) After searching 2 theaters, we managed to get a ticket at Star for the 2:55 pm show. The hall also happens to have a good Bose sound system (lucky me!). Since we had about 2 hours on our hand, we found a restaurant, had our lunch and then to waste the remaining time went into a shop on my friend’s suggestion to browse, (he reasoned that it’s better than wandering on the streets) where we ended up almost sneaking out, because the attendant came up on us because we were just loitering around and not actually buying anything. And to make matters worse, it was a shoe shop! (In my defense I blame it squarely on my friend, who pulled me there)

Anyways, with enough time wasted we got into the movie hall. The film started off with Jatayu receiving an invitation from a certain Mahitosh Singha Ray, a former hunter who had written a successful book, to visit his estate and bring along Feluda to help him solve a problem. As with most of Feluda’s adventure, the seemingly beautiful trip turns into an adventure in the jungle. But the movie didn’t feel boring for even a moment. So much so that I was wishing the interval was shorter. The directing was done superbly by Sandip Ray. The actor’s, as always, fit their character’s shoes perfectly. The main trio was exactly like the characters portrayed in the book, with Sabyasachi Chakrobarty being the enigmatic and observant Feluda, Saheb Bhattacharya the young detective-in-training of sorts Topshe and Bibhu Bhattacharjee the writer Lalmohan Ganguly (Jatayu), who was keen on meeting the animals of the jungle, but would freeze and border on fainting every time he meets one. All of the audience was laughing at the antics of Jatayu. The death of Bibhu Bhattacharjee is a great loss to the movie community and those who see this movie will definitely feel the loss. Maybe a replacement will be found, but I personally feel the void that has been left by him won’t be filled. As for the others, Dr. Basudeb Mukherjee as Mahitosh Singha Ray was really good as the former hunter, coming from a long line of hunters as was Paran Bandyopadhyay did an excellent job playing Debotosh Singha Ray, the mentally disturbed elder brother to Mahitosh Singha Ray. Debesh Raychowdhury as Shashanka Sanyal, the best friend of Mahitosh Singha Ray, along with Sanjib Sarkar as Madhablal did an excellent job. It was a small cast, but it was acting that was solidly done which resulted in a very enjoyable movie. The movie wasn’t long, at 1 hour and 50 minutes (with the interval in between), but the story didn’t feel rushed or hanging, so the small time can be forgiven. And once the story got started, it will get you hooked to the story till the very end where Feluda does the big reveal.

Overall it was a great movie, which I’m happy that I could watch. As I prepare to go to bed and think back on the day spent, I can honestly say that it was day well spent and enjoyed.