Famous Bengali detectives who have made it to the big screen

When it comes to detectives, Sherlock Holmes may be the most popular of them all, but Bengali cinema also has its homegrown investigative agents who are nothing less than legends. While there may have been many detectives solving crimes within the pages of great literary works, there are only a few who have been brought to life on celluloid over the years.

With mystery being the flavour of the season, fans of the genre can look forward to someone more than just a Feluda or Byomkesh taking over the big screens. Producers are reportedly in a race to acquire the rights for some of the legendary characters Bengali literature has ever produced. Here is the list of detective characters that have featured in Bengali cinema.

It’s been 50 years since Feluda was introduced to Bengali literature and attained popularity all over India. Satyajit Ray’s ‘Sonar Kella’ in 1974, introduced a six-foot charming young detective and his teenage assistant who took on a case of hypnotism and reincarnation. Many actors have portrayed the charismatic Feluda, such as Shashi Kapoor in a Hindi Doordarshan series, but Soumitra Chatterjee rightfully grabs everyone’s imagination till today. Sabyasachi Chakraborty also deserves special mention for his portrayal of the Bengali detective in director Sandip Ray’s Feluda films.

Byomkesh Bakshi, this famous Bengali detective character made his celluloid debut in Satyajit Ray’s film back in 1967. However, he only gained universal appeal in Basu Chatterjee’s popular TV adaptation starring Rajit Kapur in the titular role. Many actors have played ‘Byomkesh’, but nobody enjoys the cult status more than Kolkata heartthrob Abir Chatterjee. Jisshu Sengupta had also done a decent job in the Anjan Dutt directorial. Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ gave a fresh look at the character and introduced a decent narrative style to the series, but it was Bengali films like ‘Abar Byomkesh’, ‘Byomkesh Parba’, ‘Byomkesh Phire Elo’, ‘Har Har Byomkesh’ that became box office hits.

It’s a surprise that Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s most famous character is the dashing Bengali detective Kiriti Roy, who made his debut on-screens in 2016. It was an adaptation of the book ‘Kalo Bhromor’ (The Black Wasp). Kiriti’s character seems to have taken a cue or two from Holmes– he smokes a pipe, carries a magnifying glass, prefers an overcoat and tatami slippers – but the plots for most of the stories are rather simple. Director Anindya Bikash Datta’s ‘Kiriti O Kalo Bromor’ that released in 2016 introduced actor Indraneil Sengupta as Kiriti and he received a decent response from the audience. The second film of this series, ‘Nilachale Kiriti’ hit theatres only recently.

Srijit Mukherji’s fascinating casting featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee as Kakababu is as good as it gets in the Bengali industry. Popular historian Kakababu’s real name is Raja Ray Chowdhury, Shontu being his nephew (hence the Kakababu) narrates the stories. Kakababu's first big-screen adaptation was in ‘Shobuj Dwiper Raja’ (The King of the Emerald Isle) by director Tapan Sinha. Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Kakababu’ films, ‘Mishawr Rohosyo’ (The Egyptian Mystery) and ‘Yeti Obhijan (Yeti Adventures), featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee in the lead, is also considered a superb attempt to bring the iconic detective to life. Prosenjit owns the role in this series that has as many as 39 adventures.

Shabor Dasgupta is an honest police officer, not a private ‘goyenda’. Shabor comes with a taste of realism to the Bengali detective films but is not for children. The screen adaptations of this character in films like ‘Ebar Shabor’, ‘Eagoler Chokh’ and ‘Aschhe Abar Shabor’ was portrayed by actor Saswata Chatterjee. The stories would often be murky as director Arindam Sil is known to blur the lines between right and wrong, but Shabor Dasgupta is a refreshing change free from nostalgia.

An imaginative child detective Gogol prefers to use his brain to solve crimes but dreams of becoming a martial art expert. He always carries a magnifying glass and compass (which seems a bit backdated in the age of smartphones). The stories are quite charming and have the potential to be well adapted on screen. We have seen two films based on this character starring Ahijit Ghosh in ‘Goyenda Gogol’ and ‘Gogoler Kirti’.

The Raja Sen-directorial ‘Colonel’, featuring Chiranjeet Chatterjee in the lead, was released in 2013, with Shaheb Chatterjee playing his lazy assistant, journalist Jayanta. The bearded ex-army officer is an amateur ornithologist, butterfly collector and a private investigator who has a decent fan following among the older generation. Just like Arjun, the Colonel's character was made attractive to younger audiences by producing web series first as he still has to gain the recognition that Feluda and Byomkesh enjoy.

The only Arjun film, ‘Kalimpong E Sitaharan’, had an unflattering debut in 2013, but the young detective and his mentor Amol Shome are somehow different from the rest of the fictional detectives. However, being a relatively less popular character, Arjun would perhaps do well on television, until he becomes popular enough to challenge others on the big screen.

It was that time when Satyajit Ray introduced Feluda, that another popular Bengali novelist Narayan Sanyal introduced the 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.