Royal Bengal Rahasya

Yay!

I am super thrilled. Amazon Prime has finally added subtitles to its Bengali movies and that includes the Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi series.

Disclaimer: I have read the entire Feluda series earlier and absolutely love the detective.

For those who do not know Feluda - Prodosh Chandra Mitra or popularly known as Feluda is an investigative detective. He along with his nephew Topshe and a popular writer Jatayu (joined in the later series) frequently get invited to solve mysteries. This series was written by Satyajit Ray who also directed some of the episodes initially. Later Sandip Ray took up the direction.

Royal Bengal Rahasya is a thriller based on the Feluda series with same name. Here Feluda is invited by Mahitosh Singha Ray to help him with some urgent matter. Ray is a known tiger hunter and lives in the jungles of West Bengal. On their arrival, they are greeted by the young secretary who assists Ray.

Feluda learns that Ray found an old puzzle amongst his great grandfather’s letters and wants Feluda to solve it. Feluda surmises that the riddle gives the location of a hidden treasure. Soon the secretary or Tarit Sengupta is found dead in the jungle as if eaten by a man eater tiger. Coupled with the mysterious childhood friend Shashank and the mad older brother Debotosh, the plot will keep you guessing.

I will not write more about the story because it has been adapted with most of the plot intact. Except I do like the fact that there is a lesser reference to hunting and boasting about it. When the novel was written, hunting was probably still a royal sport which does give it a gruesome outline in the modern context.

I do like Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as Feluda. He looks the part without being overly dramatic though I must say, he is not a patch on Soumitra Chatterjee. I had seen the initial Feluda films starring Soumitra Chatterjee quite some time back. Bibhu Bhattacharya is fabulous as Jatayu and provides the comic relief much like the character in the books. In this particular title, Paran Bandyopadhyay who plays the mad brother Debotosh Singha Ray has done an excellent rendition of a mad man. No theatrics, just slight twitch and the look in the eyes. Saheb Bhattacharya as Topshe is just there nodding his head.

The movie itself maintains the suspense, and doesn’t divulge the details before time. Though I feel it needed some more hair-raising moments.

Can Watch.