From Soumitra Chatterjee to Abir Chatterjee: Bengali actors who nailed their detective avatars

We Bongs love our very own detective movies. We binge on watching these detectives solving intense crimes on the celluloid. The legacy that started with Uttam Kumar playing Byomkesh Bakshi in Satyajit Ray's cult classic ‘Chiriyakhana’ has continued with elan. The huge success of Byomkesh films over the past few years proves the same. Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi have become people’s automatic choice. Goyenda Shabor and Kakababu also make the audience glued to their seats. Here’s a look at Bengali actors who played every facet of being a detective on the silver screen.

It’s been 50 years since Feluda was introduced to the Bengali literature world and the translations afterwards made it sure that Feluda gets the vast popularity all over India. Satyajit Ray’s ‘Sonar Kella’ in 1974 gave Rajasthan’s medieval architecture a new life. A six feet-tall charming young detective and his teenage cousin as assistant takes on hypnotism and reincarnation during their magical journey. Many actors have portrayed the charismatic Feluda character such Shashi Kapoor in a Hindi Doordarshan series, but Soumitra Chatterjee rightfully grabs everyone’s imagination till today. This is the Soumitra Chatterjee we will remember forever. Gentle and tough, soft yet unbroken and intelligent but humble; wielding his famous Magajastra, Feluda became a complete man and a balanced human being in ‘Sonar Kella’ and ‘Joy Baba Felunath’.

A literary icon became a cinematic phenomenon in the Byomkesh franchise. An intellectual Bengalee Byomkesh to an agile Bakshi to an older one - Abir perfected each shade with each venture. A character like Byomkesh deserves recognition so does an actor like him. After playing a young Byomkesh Bakshi in films such as ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ (2015), ‘Abar Byomkesh’ (2004), ‘Byomkesh Phire Elo’ (2014), ‘Har Har Byomkesh’ (2015), ‘Byomkesh Parbo’ (2016), ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’ (2018) Abir Chatterjee was seen as an aged Byomkesh in ‘Bidaay Byomkesh’.

Another iconic sleuth and yet another lovely performance from Abir as Feluda! He is perfect as detective Prodosh Mitter aka Feluda as he added freshness to his portrayal. Many of his fans believe he's the best Feluda we can have now. When Abir essayed out a young Feluda in Sandip Ray’s 'Badshahi Angti', people were intrigued with the transition in his image from Byomkesh Bakshi. He fits the bill as a star with his much younger image, athletic physic, height and intelligent face; all the essential prerequisites which Satyajit Ray had specified in his iconic sleuth character.

Just like most of the Bongs, Feluda is still Sabyasachi Chakraborty’s favourite hero. He played the iconic Feluda on both the small and big screens after Soumitra Chatterjee portrayed the iconic detective’s hat in two movies directed by Satyajit Ray in the 1970s. In 2016 the last film of the franchise ‘Double Feluda’ had two stories in it and the popular actor despite his natural acting received mix review just because of the age factor.

Famous sleuths never die in Bengali literature and obviously in films. And amazingly enough, Saswata has played companions in both Feluda and Byomkesh series. But with the Goyenda Shabor series, he came into his own form as a stone-cold detective. In all three Shabor films released so far (Eagoler Chokh, Ebar Shabor and Aschee Abar Shabor) Saswata wows the audience as the hands-on and sharp ACP Shabor Dasgupta. This is a franchise nobody should miss.

‘Byomkesh O Agnibaan’ directed by Anjan Dutt merged two stories of Sharadundu Bandopadhyay -'Agnibaan' and 'Uposonghar'. It was Jisshu’s third film as Byomkesh (first two were ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ and ‘Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana’) and no doubt one of his career best performances. He carried out the attitude and swag of the Bengali sleuth perfectly. Many will say that Abir Chatterjee is the best man to play Byomkesh but you can’t just ignore Jisshu’s acting brilliance and that awesome look.

It’s a surprise that Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s most famous character, the dashing Bengali detective ‘Kiriti Roy’, made his debut on screens only in 2016. It was an adaptation of his book ‘Kalo Bhromor’ (The Black Wasp). Kiriti’s character seems an inspiration from the Holmesian lines – he smokes a pipe, carries a magnifying glass always, prefers kimono and tatami slippers rather than standard pyjama kurta at home – but the plots for most of the stories are rather simple. Director Anindya Bikash Datta’s ‘Kiriti O Kalo Bromor’ released in 2016 introduced actor Indraneil Sengupta as Kiriti and he received decent response from the audience. The second film of this series, ‘Nilachale Kiriti’ earned critical acclaims as well.

Srijit Mukherji’s fascinating casting of Prosenjit Chatterjee as ‘Kakababu’ seems to be as close to a triumph as you would ever see in Bengali industry. Popular Historian; crippled in an accident; Archaeological Survey of India’s former director and backed by Indian intelligence agency – Kakababu’s real name is Raja Ray Chowdhury. Shontu being his nephew (hence the Kakababu) narrates all the stories. ‘Kakababu’ first big screen adaptation was ‘Shobuj Dwiper Raja’ (The King of the Emerald Isle) by famous director Tapan Sinha. But Srijit Mukherji’s two ‘Kakababu’ films, ‘Mishawr Rohosyo’ (The Egyptian Mystery) and ‘Yeti Obhijan (Yeti Adventures), featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee in the lead, is really a superb attempt to bring the iconic adventurer to life. Prosenjit literally owns the role, but half the challenge is won in this exciting genre. There are as many as 39 Kakababu adventures, so we wish the Srijit Mukherji-Prosenjit Chatterjee pair a long successful innings.

Based on Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s story ‘Mognomainak’, Sayantan Ghosal directed ‘Satyanweshi Byomkesh’ offers a different take on Byomkesh from earlier adaptations. While in most of the earlier Byomkesh films crime has found its way into family relationships and vengeance, ‘Satyanweshi Byomkesh’ highlights the political aspect of a murder mystery. Portraying such a challenging character, Parambrata doesn’t deviate from his usual mannerism and does a decent job as a young Byomkesh, the observant Bengali detective with equal proportion of wit, subtle humour and inherent wisdom. He also manages to keep the audience engaged with his interesting dialogue delivery.

It was that time when Satyajit Ray introduced Feluda, another popular Bengali novelist Narayan Sanyal came with his lawyer detective – PK Basu, an Indian version of Perry Mason. In 1968 the first novel of the PK Basu series, ‘Nagchampa’ was published. The first film adaptation was in 1974 named ‘Jodi Jantem’ (If Only I Knew) featuring Uttam Kumar as PK Basu. The Bengali matinee idol also appeared as Byomkesh in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Chiriyakhana’.