Feluda @ 50

by Boria Majumdar

  From Byomkesh to Feluda. The transition could not have been easy. How did you prepare to be Prodosh C. Mitter?

  I must say Babu-da was there at every step to make matters easy for me. He had asked me not to see the earlier Feluda films, because it was important that I started fresh rather than trying to fit myself into Soumitra Chatterjee or Sabyasachi Chakrabarty’s shoes. Like every Bengali on this planet, I had read all of the stories and, frankly, Feluda is so deeply internalized that we have all at some point in our lives tried to play the character. Dialogues like ‘apnake to cultivate korte hochchhe moshai’ (Need to cultivate you, sir [Lalmohan-babu said this in Sonar Kella]) have almost become a part of our regular vocabulary. Once I was cast as Feluda, I tried to ensure I did not put on weight, for nothing could be more disastrous than a young Feluda showing a paunch! In real life, I did bowl a bit of off spin and it helped that I had played cricket. More than anything, I tried to discipline my mind and ensure I was in the zone. The positivity in Babu-da’s unit made a huge difference and added much to my confidence. Each and every person was there to back me up, so there was never a dull moment through the three weeks of the shoot in Lucknow. This was the first time I was away for such a long time for a shoot since the birth of my daughter in early 2013, and initially I was apprehensive. But the team made sure I never felt depressed or homesick.

  Having played Byomkesh in all of Anjan Dutta’s Byomkesh adventures thus far, I can tell you that there are two fundamental differences between Byomkesh and Felu. And here I will restrict myself to Badshahi Angti. In this adventure Felu is still learning. He is young and dynamic, but is not yet a full-fledged detective. He may have great powers of deduction and may have read a great many detective novels, but he has never before handled a proper case. He still works for a bank, so investigating a crime is not yet his profession. All said and done, he is not the self-assured Feluda that we know him to be. Byomkesh, on the other hand, has been there and done that. He is confident, laid-back and knows he is very much in control. He has solved a number of crimes already and nothing seems to fluster him. He is far more mature than the Feluda of Badshahi Angti is. I kept this aspect in mind while approaching the character. For example, when Felu is asking Dr Srivastav questions about the angti’s history, there is a look of surprised appreciation on the faces of Dhiru-kaka and the others present. And when Dhiru-kaka says that Felu is interrogating like a true detective, Felu actually breaks into a sheepish grin. It is as if he is a little embarrassed at the praise. This reaction will never happen again in Feluda mysteries. Post–Badshahi Angti, Felu is much more confident of himself and his abilities to solve a crime. He does not need anyone’s endorsement, nor does he seek any.

  The second difference is more pronounced. Feluda is physically far more active than Byomkesh ever was. If you see Badshahi Angti, you will see a conscious effort on my part to demonstrate this physical agility. When we first reach Dhiru-kaka’s house in Lucknow and are about to enter his ground-floor drawing room, we needed to climb up a few stairs to do so. I made it a point to jump to the top of the stairs rather than climb them one by one. Again, when I am chasing the miscreant who has thrown the chit at us, I jump off the tonga and over a cart that comes in my way. Byomkesh would never do any of this and is far more composed and laid-back.

  While we are speaking about this comparison, I want to highlight two very personal things. The first is Feluda is an aspiration for every Bengali. He is a kind of fantasy for us. What we can’t, Feluda can. We can’t solve mysteries, Feluda can. We don’t know much about history, Feluda does. When we eat a lot, we end up putting on weight, while Feluda loves to eat but is in top physical shape. He is the much-loved Felu-da, while Byomkesh is always Byomkesh. Not many aspire to be Byomkesh who has even married the sister of one of his suspects. He is a top professional in every sense, but isn’t the fantasy or romance that Feluda is.

  Finally, I would like to tell you about one particular scene in Badshahi Angti where Felu is actually in Feluda mould, perhaps the only time he is in such mould in the film. This is when he is alone with Topshe in the room and is discussing who the possible culprit is while smoking a cigarette and wearing a kurta-pajama. Now that’s exactly what Byomkesh wears and does most of the time. My challenge was how to make the two scenes different? In this scene, I couldn’t be more physically active like in the rest of the film. Hence I decided to try and smoke the cigarette a little differently and also create a kind of ‘tribhuj’ (a frown) on Feluda’s forehead. This is a Feluda trademark and in later stories Topshe even comments that Feluda’s tribhuj tends to grow deeper as he gets closer to solving the case.

  Moving on, tell me a little more about the Lucknow experience: the food, people, culture and the experience of the shoot?

  It was terrific. We were there for three weeks, and each day was an adventure. Shooting at the Imambara and the Residency was just unbelievable. But the first thing I must talk about is the food. We had the best gilouti and tunday kabab, and Roni-da (Rajatava Dutta who played Ganesh Guha) had a whole to-eat list in Lucknow. He would knock one particular delicacy off each day and would inevitably try and draw me into going out with him. After the first few days, I just refused to be drawn into his food escapades fearing I would put on weight.

  Shooting in the most congested parts of Lucknow was a very special experience, and I must single out Shirsha-da for doing an incredible job. Some days, Shirsha-da had to shoot with a small camera because the crowd was such that it was impossible to use any elaborate equipment. He would drop a cigarette, and that was my cue to start the scene. There is one chase sequence where I am seen running through the most congested parts of Lucknow. While doing the scene, all Shirsha-da did was drop the cigarette, and as discussed, I immediately started running. Frankly, I don’t even know how it got filmed in the middle of so much chaos.

  At the very start of the shoot, like it always is with outdoor shoots, locals started to ask what film we were shooting. Some were disappointed to hear that there was no heroine in the film. At the cost of digressing, I must tell you that people always first ask who the lead lady is. This happens with Mr Bachchan’s films as well. It is because people like seeing their fantasy women in real life.

  When we were asked the name of the film, we did our best to explain what ‘Badshahi Angti’ (The Emperor’s Ring) means. The name did not make an impact and after a point our local support team started saying that the name of the film was Lucknow Meri Jaan. This seemed to placate the crowd who thought it was a film on the rich history of Lucknow. But the real fun was still to come. Finally someone asked the name of the hero. One of our unit members said Abir, and walked off in a hurry. Abir was soon misinterpreted as Aamir and, in no time, we could see the crowd swelling. In fifteen minutes, a few thousand people had gathered and, after a point, the crowd had become so huge we had to cancel the shoot and go back. Shirsha-da and I went back the next day to finish the shot, and even before the locals could spread the word that we were back, we had wrapped up the scene and moved on.

  From Lucknow, we went to Haridwar and the contrast was extraordinary. From the congested galis of Lucknow to the spread of Haridwar, I am confident viewers will agree it is a visual treat. And in Haridwar, the best part of the shoot was filming the evening arati. With thousands doing the ‘Om Jai Jagadisha Hare’ chants together, it was an unbelievable feeling. The rushes that we took during the evening arati in Haridwar can easily make a splendid documentary on the place.

  Tell me about the reaction at home. How did your wife, Nandini, and other folks at home react to you being Feluda? And are things different for you on the roads now that Badshahi Angti is a success?

  Everyone at home was tense to start with. It was Feluda after all, and all of us were apprehensive about how the scores of Feluda fans would react to me as Prodosh Mitter. So the first reaction when things started going well was one of relief. The feedback was positive and it meant I had passed the first test. However, to tell you the truth
, it has still not fully dawned on me or my family that I am Feluda. A few weeks back, my family and I were returning home after watching a play and we were stuck at a traffic light. A young boy of five or six was looking at me. I could hear his father prodding him and telling him, ‘Hyan hyan, etai Feluda.’ (Yes, yes, this is Feluda.) I looked at him and smiled, and he was embarrassed and turned his face away. Such things happen frequently these days, and it always feels good to be accepted as Feluda. And every time such an incident happens, Nandini, who has been with me since college, looks at me as if to say, ‘You are Feluda!’

  The one thing I am really intrigued by is how my daughter, who is now three, will react to her baba as Feluda. For her, Feluda is baba. Will that take anything away from her admiration of Feluda? Will Feluda continue to have the same superhuman qualities for her that we all have attributed to him? If Feluda does not have the same aura for her, I will be disappointed because she will be missing out on one of the best things in her growing-up years.

  In all of this, however, I want to tell you something that I firmly believe. For me, Soumitra Chatterjee will forever be the original Feluda. I don’t think this can ever change. Even after I have played Feluda, many others will do so in the future, and it may be that someone who plays the character twenty years down the line does it the best. Even then, this identity with Soumitra Chatterjee will not change. This is because Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath were products of a unique combination when the creator of the character, Satyajit Ray, directed the films and cast one of the greatest actors of all time, Soumitra Chatterjee, to play the character. Some people may like Benu-da’s rough-and-tough look the best, others might like my athleticism, but still, it will forever be Soumitra Chatterjee who is the original Feluda.

  I have seen this happen with me in Byomkesh. At the time when I played Byomkesh on the big screen, people had not seen Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s detective for a long time. Byomkesh had been done for television by Rajit Kapoor but nothing had happened on the big screen since Uttam Kumar played Byomkesh in Ray’s Chiriyakhana. As a result, when Anjan-da cast me as Byomkesh, and because the films were received well, the first identity of Byomkesh has become synonymous with me. It is always challenging to upstage the original … better to come to terms with this rather than feel upset about it.

  So tell me, do you feel frustrated? Would you say these comparisons put pressure on you when you play the character?

  Absolutely not. I must say I feel privileged that I have been chosen to play Feluda. I am aware that the brand is such it is always going to be bigger than the individual who plays it. Soumitra-jethu did not have this problem because in 1974 Feluda was not the icon he is now. As far as I am concerned, I think of it as an opportunity to play one of Bengal’s most iconic characters. And as I have said to you, I am not in competition with Soumitra Chatterjee or Sabyasachi Chakrabarty. It is only natural that Feluda will be synonymous with the two of them for the longest time and I have no problems with that. All I want to do is play the character well and play Feluda for as long as I can.

  What’s your take on Byomkesh being made by multiple directors and in multiple languages, whereas Feluda is still confined to his home state? Do you not think the franchise should go beyond Bengal for it to be more widely acceptable?

  I actually differ with you on this one. I am in agreement with what Sandip Ray has done, which is not to give away the rights and open Feluda up to a variety of interpretations. Take Dibakar Banerjee’s Byomkesh, for example. It was entirely his take on the character and was far removed from Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s novel. Now some people may like it and others may not. We in Bengal may have issues with it, having read Byomkesh in the original. But for the non-Bengali audience, it is perfectly fine for Dibakar to be taking some liberties with the character.

  Take the more recent Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes series. I personally like it a lot. It is extremely well made and the research is extraordinary. While at one level it is far removed from Conan Doyle, at another it is very close to the original. The reception too has been mixed. As far as I am concerned, while I am watching Cumberbatch, I am agreeable to the maker taking a few liberties with Holmes. It is in a different language and that, more often than not, allows for a little extra liberty. For example, if I see Holmes smoking a cigar and not a pipe, I would not be crestfallen.

  However, with Feluda it is entirely different. And here I speak as a Bengali and only as a Bengali. While many of us may not have been to London and may not have seen 221B Baker Street first-hand, almost all of us have been to spots Feluda frequents on a daily basis. We have travelled the same roads, eaten in the same restaurants and shopped at the same markets. We are far more closely associated with the character in that sense. We have grown up with him, know his mannerisms, his habits, his likes and dislikes. We know that Feluda will go to New Market to buy his regular supply of dalmuth. We have seen our parents and uncles eat the very same dalmuth that Feluda likes. Now if we suddenly see Feluda move from dalmuth to a croissant, or getting off a Jaguar and not a taxi and using a fancy mobile phone, we will not be able to come to terms with these departures from the original. For us, Feluda can’t do certain things. He just can’t. He can’t have a love interest, can’t or will not drive a fancy car, use a fancy phone and the like. If the franchise is opened up, I am sure all or some of these things will happen. People will take liberties with the character. As a Bengali, I don’t want that to happen and support what Babu-da has done in the matter.

  Now that you have played Feluda, do you think other directors are likely to be more accepting of you? Or would you say people will find it difficult to cast you now that you have a certain identity attached to you?

  Thankfully that hasn’t happened. I was seriously worried about this. As a professional actor, I want to act in all kinds of films and try out a variety of roles. I can’t survive as an actor by only playing Feluda or Byomkesh. What I find interesting is that some of the directors who have signed me on have kept reference points in their films. For example, in my last film Jomer Raja Dilo Bor, the director Abir Sengupta kept a number of reference points, which could only be there because I had played Feluda and Byomkesh. What I mean is there are veiled references to Feluda or Byomkesh characters which are now associated with me and the viewer finds easy to identify with. On the other hand, there are others like Kaushik Ganguly who has cast me in roles that are totally removed from Feluda. In fact, Kaushik-da mentioned to me while we were shooting for his last film that he had deliberately created a role for me that was different. He said people would forget I had played Feluda when they see me in his film.

  Speaking as an industry insider, I think viewers should watch all kinds of films. When someone comes up to me and says he or she is waiting for the next Feluda, I say to them that I am waiting for it as well. But that doesn’t mean they would not see any of the other films in the interim. For if that happens, there will come a day when neither Feluda nor Byomkesh will be made. We need the industry to evolve, and for that to happen, we need viewers to watch all kinds of films.

  So looking ahead, where do you think you need to improve as Prodosh Mitter?

  I want to improve in everything that I do. Unless you want to get better, a creative pursuit can never reach the height you want to take it to. I am aware that I have just done one Feluda film so far, and there is a lot more that I need to do to touch a chord with the diehard Feluda fans. I am fully aware of Feluda’s reputation and will do everything possible to match people’s expectations of me. In a sense, the more difficult thing is behind me. The initiation is always the most difficult. I now know people have taken to me as Feluda just like they had taken to me as Byomkesh. I have done a Feluda film without Lalmohan-babu, something that I was always apprehensive about. Such is the aura of the character that to do a film without him was really quite scary.

  Radio Mirchi had done a Feluda retrospective a few months earlier to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary, and
had shown all the Feluda films on the big screen. When Sonar Kella was being shown, the kind of cat calls that I heard in the auditorium was just unbelievable. And it reached a crescendo when Jatayu came on the scene. The moment he started saying ‘Bahut ho gaya, jyada ho gaya’, the entire auditorium started to shriek and shout in delight. So much so I could not hear a single word of the entire scene that followed. While the film was on, I even messaged my friend Rishi who is now in Mumbai and is an ardent Feluda fan that I was watching Sonar Kella on the big screen. All I wrote was ‘Sonar Kella, bodo porda, Ram Deora’. Within seconds, he wrote back, ‘Prakhar Rudra, thai thai thai thai thai.’ And his final bbm said, ‘I hope you now know what you have got yourself into.’

  So to be able to do a Feluda film without Lalmohan-babu and achieve reasonable success with it has given me the confidence to go ahead and do quality work in the future.

  Finally, Sandip Ray is planning a new Feluda adventure for the fiftieth anniversary. What has he discussed with you so far, and are you excited about your second foray as Prodosh Mitter when the legend is turning fifty?

  (Laughs.) Who wouldn’t be? Indeed I am. As I have said to you, I want to absorb and remember each moment while playing Feluda. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be playing the character. It is a kind of dream come true, and I will do all I can to try and do a good job. Also, you might call me lucky that within a year of my playing Feluda we have the fiftieth anniversary upon us. It is a huge occasion – as Babu-da says, he had never imagined that Feluda would turn into the cult figure that he has been. It is remarkable that his popularity keeps growing with each passing year. This cult only adds to my responsibility and determination. At the start of Badshahi Angti, Babu-da had told me that I was starting with a clean slate. He assured me that I did not have to think of the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty. That allowed me to portray Feluda in the way I wanted to. I’d like to continue on this path and add my own little bit to the aura of the character.