The Mystery Of The Elephant God (Jai Baba Felunath)

A child who calls himself Captain Spark. The mysterious Machchli Baba. A stabbing in a dark alley…

In Varanasi during the Durga Puja, a valuable statuette of Ganesh is stolen from the famous Ghoshal household. Before he can recover it, Feluda has to face the arch-villain Maganlal Meghraj, solve a murder case, and unmask a fraud sadhu. One of Feluda’s most hair-raising adventures, this case puts all his skills to the test.

The Royal Bengal Mystery

A maneater in the jungles of the Terai. An ancient riddle. The lure of hidden treasure …

Visiting the famous hunter and wildlife writer Mahitosh Sinha-Roy in his Jalpaiguri palace, Feluda is presented with a riddle that holds the clue to ancestral treasure. But before he can begin unravelling the puzzle, Mr Sinha-Roy’s secretary is found dead in the forest, his body savaged by a big cat. Feluda’s investigations lead him deeper and deeper into a scandalous family secret, and bring him face to face with a bloodthirsty Royal Bengal tiger in a final confrontation.

A Killer In Kailash

A stolen yakshi head. A plane crash. A vandal on the loose in Ellora …

An American buys a yakshi head stolen from a Bhubaneshwar temple and subsequently dies in a plane crash. Trying to prevent the smuggling of priceless sculptures out of India, Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu follow the lead of the yakshi to the Ellora caves. But the appearance of a Bollywood film crew and a sudden murder complicate matters, and Feluda must draw on all his investigative skills to solve the case before the vandal strikes again.

The Golden Fortress

Sonar Kella also Shonar Kella, released in the United States as The Golden Fortress, is a 1971 mystery novel and a 1974 film by Bengali writer and director Satyajit Ray. The film is an adaptation of the novel with minor plot changes and features the actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee and Kusal Chakravarty among others. It is one of the most enduringly popular Bengali films and is still shown very regularly by various TV channels.

The film is best known for Santosh Dutta’s performance as the childishly innocent but supremely confident thriller writer Jatayu. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and iconic performances in the history of Bengali cinema. Many of his dialogues have achieved proverbial status. His interpretation of the character in this and the other Feluda film Joi Baba Felunath were so powerful that Ray modeled the character of Jatayu in later books on him. After Santosh Dutta died, Ray remarked that it was impossible to ever make a Feluda film again without Dutta. True to his prediction, later attempts to portray Jatayu in the telefilms and films of his son Sandip Ray have met with derision.

Film plot summary

Mukul (played by Kushal Chakraborty) is a young boy who is said to be able to remember events of his previous life. He stays up late into the night and draws sketches that he claims are of battles he had seen. His father decides to take him to Dr. Hajra (Sailen Mukherjee), a parapsychologist, for treatment. After listening to his descriptions of deserts and peacocks, Dr. Hajra guesses that the place Mukul describes might be in the deserts of Rajasthan, a state in western India. Mukul also mentions that he lived in the Golden Fortress (Sonar kella), though he can’t explain what this means, and that their house had lots of gems. Dr. Hajra decides to take Mukul on a trip to Rajasthan hoping this may shed deeper light into such parapsychological phenomenon, , as well as help cure the young boy.

A newspaper report on Mukul and an interview with Dr. Hajra alerts two men by the names of Amiyanath Burman (Ajoy Banerjee) and Mandar Bose (Kamu Mukherjee), the villains in the story. Burman and Bose had earlier had encounters with Dr. Hajra, when he had exposed fraudulent activities of the pair. They interpret his mention of gems as a hidden treasure and plan to kidnap Mukul in hope of getting their hands on it. Their first attempt at the kidnapping fails when they pick up another boy, also named Mukul (Santanu Bagchi), from the same neighborhood. Mukul had already left for Rajasthan.

Alarmed by the failed kidnapping of his son, Mukul’s father engages the service of Feluda (Soumitra Chatterjee), a private investigator, to help protect his son. Feluda accepts the assignment and leaves for Rajasthan along with Topshe (Siddartha Chatterjee). On the way to Rajasthan Feluda and Topshe meet Lalmohan Ganguly, a.k.a. Jatayu (Santosh Dutta), a popular thriller-writer, for the first time.

Meanwhile, Burman and Bose befriend Dr. Hajra, who is travelling on the same train but fails to recognise them. Dr. Hajra finds out that Mukul’s father was a gemcutter, so the gems mentioned by Mukul have nothing to do with treasure. But Burman and Mandar Bose don’t know this. They push off Dr. Hajra from a cliff and kidnap Mukul, with Burman impersonating as Dr. Hajra and Mandar Bose as a globe-trotter. Unknown to them, Dr. Hajra survives the fall, though he is forced to rest for a few days to recover from his griveous injuries. Feluda meets Burman, thinking him to be Dr. Hajra. Burman tries to kill him secretly using a poisonous scorpion, but fails. Jatayu joins them and they move around Rajasthan showing various forts (Rajasthan is full of Rajput forts) to Mukul, but none of them are the Golden Fortress. Meanwhile Feluda starts to suspect Mandar Bose after he boasts to Jatayu of having killed a wolf in Africa.

One night, Burman uses his parapsychological background to hypnotise Mukul, when he says that the fort was in Jaisalmer. The next morning, Feluda reaches the same conclusion after remembering that the fort of Jaisalmer was made of golden yellow limestone. However, when he returns to the guest house he finds that Burman has already left. Mandar Bose tells him that Mukul remembered the name of the place to be ‘Burmer’ (imaginary name). Feluda suspects foul play, and is confirmed when he finds that Burman has misspelled the word Hajra in the attendance register of the guest house. He leaves for Jaisalmer by car, but Mandar Bose leaves first and scatters broken glass on the highway, puncturing the tires of their car.

Feluda takes a camel caravan to the nearest train station, after failing to stop the train carrying Burman and Mukul midway. They take the next train to Jaisalmer. In the night, Mandar Bose tries to stab Feluda, but Feluda was only pretending to be asleep and has him at gunpoint. But suddenly Jatayu tries to recover Mandar Bose’s knife, which was stolen from Jatayu. Using Jatayu as a shield he jumps out and hangs onto the side of the train, returning to his compartment. By chance, that compartment is occupied by Mr. Hajra, who frightens the drunken Mandar Bose. A swinging door pushes him out to his death.

The next morning, the three reach Jaisalmer and talk with Dr. Hajra. Then they go to the fort, to find Burman and Mukul searching the ruins. Burman has a phobia of peacocks and tries to shoot one, which angers Mukul into running off. At this point, Feluda confronts and captures him. He also tells him that there never was any treasure, whether rebirth exists or not. They find that Mukul is cured, and return to Kolkata.

Trouble In Gangtok

Death in the mountains. An estranged son. A practitioner of the occult…

Feluda and Topshe are on vacation in picturesque Gangtok when they stumble upon the mysterious murder of a business executive. There are many suspects—the dead man’s business partner Sasadhar Bose, the long-haired foreigner Helmut, the mysterious Dr Vaidya, perhaps even the timid Mr Sarkar. Feluda unravels the knotty case with his usual aplomb and tracks the criminal down in a far-flung monastery.

The Emperor’s Ring

A mysterious incident in Nepal. A dead body on the beaches of Puri. A murder in an abandoned house…

The search for a valuable scroll leads Feluda and his friends to a strange case of characters, and perhaps the most chilling case Feluda has ever been faced with. For among D.G.Sen, the collector of scrolls, his son Mahim, his secretary Nishit, the wildlife photographer Bilas Majumdar and the astrologer Laxman Bhattacharya, there is a cold-blooded criminal, and he must be stopped before it is too late…

Books

Satyajit Ray wrote thirty-five Feluda stories, most of which were extremely popular among Bengali children as well as adults.

Some of the stories were published in hard-cover editions, while some stories were published as a collection with other new stories. Some stories also appeared in the short story collections of Ray, which characteristically used to contain 12 short stories, including a few featuring Feluda.

Every year a new Feluda adventure appeared in the special Autumn edition or Durgapujar edition of the Bengali periodical – Desh, and also in Sandesh.

Lately, a series of Feluda collections have also been published, containing several stories in a single title. Most recently Feluda titles have been accumulated under Feluda Shamagra.

Following is a list of hard cover edition books with some details:

Name	Name in English	Publication
Badshahi Angti	The Emperor’s Ring	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1969. Sandesh, 1966
Gangtokey Gandagol	Trouble in Gangtok	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1971. Desh, Autumn Special, 1970
Sonar Kella	The Golden Fortress	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1971. Desh, Autumn Special, 1971
Baksho Rahashya	A Mysterious Case/ The Mystery of the Kalka Mail	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1973. Desh, Autumn Special, 1972
Kailashey Kelenkari	A Killer in Kailash	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1974. Desh, Autumn Special, 1973
Royal Bengal Rahashya	The Royal Bengal Mystery	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1975. Desh, Autumn Special, 1974
Joi Baba Felunath	The Mystery of the Elephant God	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1976. Desh, Autumn Special 1975
Feluda and Co. – Collection Containing : Bombaiyer Bombete Gosainpur Sargaram	Feluda and Co. The Buccaneers of Bombay The Mystery of the Walking Dead	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1976. Desh, Autumn Special 1976
Gorosthaney Sabdhan	Trouble in the Graveyard	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1979. Desh, Autumn Special, 1977
Chhinnamastar Abhishap	The Curse of the Goddess	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1981. Desh, Autumn Special 1978
Hatyapuri	The House of Death	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1981. Desh, Autumn Special 1979
Jato Kando Kathmandutey	The Criminals of Kathmandu	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1982. Desh, Autumn Special, 1980
Tintorettor Jishu	Tintoretto’s Jesus	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1983 Desh, Autumn Special 1982
Feluda One Feluda Two – Collection Containing : Ebar Kando Kedarnathey Napoleon er Chithhi	Feluda One Feluda Two Crime in Kedarnath Napoleon’s Letter	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1985. Sandesh, 1981; Desh, Autumn Special 1984
Darjeeling Jamjamat	Danger in Darjeeling	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1987. Desh, Autumn Special 1986
Double Feluda – Collection Containing : Apsara Theatre er Mamla Bhuswarga Bhayankar	Double Feluda The Case of the Apsara Theatre Peril in Paradise’	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1989. Sandesh, Autumn Special 1987; Desh, Autumn Special 1987
Nayan Rahashya	The Mystery of Nayan	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1991. Desh, Autumn Special 1990
Feluda Plus Feluda – Collection Containing : Golapi Mukta Rahashya London ey Feluda	Feluda Plus Feluda The Mystery of the Pink Pearl Feluda in London	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1992. Sandesh, Autumn Special 1989); Desh, Autumn Special 1989
Robertson er Ruby	Robertson’s Ruby	Ananda Publishers, Calcutta 1994, Desh, Autumn Special 1992

Feluda’s books have also been translated into English and have been published by Penguin Books.

Feluda Stories

In addition to the above, Ray also wrote some shorter stories on Feluda which have been included in many of his short story collections. These include:

· Feludar Goendagiri (Danger in Darjeeling)

· Bhusarga Bhayankar (Terror in Heaven)

· Bombaier Bombete (The Bandits of Bombay)

· Londone Feluda (Feluda in London)

· Nepolioner Chithi (Napoleon’s Letter)

· Kailash Choudharyr Pathar (Kailash Chowdhury’s Jewel)

· Ghurghutiyar Ghatana (The Locked Chest)

· Golapi Mukta Rahasya (The Mystery of the Purple Stone)

· Samaddarer Chabi (The Key)

· Sheyal Debota Rahasya (The Anubis Mystery)

· Ambar Sen Antardhyan Rahasya (The Disappearance of Ambar Sen)

· Jahangirer Swarnamudra (The Gold Coins of Jehangir)

· Golokdham Rahasya(Mystery at Golok Lodge)

· Bosepukure Khunkharapi (The Acharya Murder Case)

· Shakuntalar Kanthahar (Shakuntala’s Necklace)

· Indrajal Rahasya (The Magical Mystery)

· Dr Munshir Diary (Dr Munshi’s Diary}

· Apsara Theatre-er Mamla

Apart from these a number of unfinished Feluda stories have also been published in various collection of stories of Satyajit Ray.