Although I was an avid reader in childhood, I never encountered the
Feluda books (originally written in Bengali) either in my school library or the
public libraries I used to haunt. In fact, my childhood reading was strongly
anglicised, and if I hadn’t discovered K.M. Munshi’s Krishnavatara (7 volumes) and immediately begun to devour them, I
would have grown up to be a complete WOG. Years later, when my son had moved
from children’s literature to newer choices in his reading, I began to spot English
translations of the Feluda adventures in the bookshops I went to. Not many
copies, and not too often. Among the stacks of moral stories and retellings of
mythological tales, the Feluda books shone – but were they like Thomas Gray’s “gems
of purest ray serene” – hiding in dark unfathomed caves? I didn’t pay too much attention to them
either, dismissing them as pale copies of the tales of Sherlock Holmes. However,
recently, curiosity got the better of me, and after spotting a good bargain on
Amazon, I ordered The Complete Adventures
of Feluda (2 volumes) and began to peruse them.
A Crossover Novel and an Intrepid Hero
In the 50 years since Feluda emerged in the pages of Bengal’s iconic
children’s magazine, Sandesh, he
certainly has travelled a lot, beginning with the places he visited in the
course of his adventures. But Feluda is also an intrepid traveller, for the
books have moved from being considered as children’s literature to reading for
adults too. Within a few years of the inception of the
series, Ray began to publish the Feluda tales in Desh magazine and not Sandesh, which was associated with children.
And of course, the Feluda adventures have been reimagined as films, television
series, animated shows, radio plays and traditional stage plays. Both Satyajit
Ray and his son, Sandip Ray, have successfully transformed Feluda into a screen
hero. Mostly made in Bengali, the films are also available with decent subtitling
in English. The latest of the cinematic offerings is Sandip Ray’s Double Feluda. The stories are also adapted into the graphic novel form.
So why do I like Feluda?
Unlike a lot of Indian children’s book authors of that vintage, Satyajit
Ray neither talks down nor proscribes to the child reader. He uses a
descriptive style of writing, and upholds a rational way of thinking, rather
than a because-that’s-the-way-it-is-done tone. With their portrayal of suitably exotic places
like Lucknow, Jaisalmer, Gangtok and Kathmandu, the tales open up new worlds to
the child reader’s imagination. And most
importantly, after an overdose of campus romances, psychologically disturbed
protagonists, paranormal occurrences, and toilet humour, it was refreshing to
sit with a book that promised to tell a gripping tale - and did a good job of
it too.
With renewed interest in detective fiction – think of Sherlock, Elementary and several other adaptations
– I am sure readers will also stumble on Feluda and his quirky brilliance.
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