Premise
When a madman decides to starve Nepal by inducing a devastating famine and achieve world dominion, Feluda and his companions are the only hope as they are called upon to stop his evil plans from succeeding.
Overview
Release – 1 January, 2011 [animated TV Film; premiered on Disney Channel (India)]
Runtime – 56:08 [YouTube] (honestly, couldn’t find it anywhere else!)
Genre – Action/Animation/Adventure/Children/Mystery
Review
Non-Spoiler section
Pradosh Chandra Mitter, aka Feluda, is one of the most well-known Indian detectives. The Bengali private investigator was brought to fame by the late Satyajit Ray, whose writings of the detective’s adventures have immortalized the character ever since. Inspired by the legendary works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s world-famous resident of 221B Baker Street (none other than Sherlock Holmes, of course), Feluda’s stories are not only great mysteries in themselves, but also cast a deeper look at 20th Century India as a whole.
Another famous name in the bracket of famous Indian detectives includes that of Byomkesh Bakshi, created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, and brought to the big screens of Bollywood by the late Sushant Singh Rajput in ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakyshy!‘ (2015).
Coming back to Feluda, the adventures from the written works take place throughout the Indian subcontinent, panning from the sleuth’s humble abode in Kolkata (then Calcutta), to various other Indian cities like Mumbai (then Bombay), Varanasi, Lucknow, Jaipur, etc. to name a few. The adventures also end up taking our protagonist and his friends to numerous places overseas at times (even to Baker Street in London!). And Feluda is not alone in his amazing adventures either. Like the trustworthy Dr. Watson accompanying Holmes, our hero is accompanied by his cousin and side-kick Tapesh Ranjan Mitter, aka Topshe, and also by the popular thriller writer/novelist Lalmohan Ganguli, aka Jatayu, making the trio a force to be reckoned with!
Now, having personally read all 35 of the Feluda adventures myself (no joke, and trust me, it is some of the finest detective fiction you’ll read), there is no one better to judge the very first animated film made on the characters than your boy, right? (*wink*)
Alright then let’s dive into it!
The film starts off with an opening sequence showing the snow-covered peaks of Nepal, wherein a mysterious man is hatching an evil plan, and to quote his own evil words –
“Very soon there will be a hunger, the like of which has never been known. It will start here in Nepal. Then spread like a plague around the world. And you and I my friend, we shall be very rich. There is only one man who has the intelligence to stop us, if he comes anywhere near Kathmandu, he must be destroyed. His name is Feluda.”
Sounds menacing enough? We are then eventually introduced to our trio – Feluda, Topshe, and Jatayu, along with Bones (the pet dog), at present in Patan, Kathmandu, walking through a market and taking in their surroundings. A flashback of ten days ago shows them all in Kolkata, watching the devastating news about the mystery crop failures in Nepal (thanks to the bad guy). With increasing crop prices in neighboring India, where the record prices are already being broken, and with the fear of millions of people going starving, the whole situation is of a massive concern to everyone.
Amidst all of this, Feluda gets a call of help from a certain Anita, a resident of Nepal, who’s currently in Kolkata to seek Feluda’s advice. But before the detective and his friends could reach out to help her, she’s kidnapped! Feluda decides to go to Nepal, hoping to learn the truth about the sudden crop failures, and also to track down Anita and the reason behind her call for help.
And as Feluda says to Jatayu at the airport –
“My dear friend, something tells me that this is going to be anything but a holiday.”
And he’s right, of course. Along the way, we are subsequently introduced to a couple more characters, both friends and foes, including a Mr. Batra, who is also seeking help from Feluda for his personal reasons. As the story progresses through Nepal, the most dangerous adversary of Feluda is brought to the fore… Maganlal Meghraj. In the written works, he is portrayed as the most notorious enemy that Feluda comes across (similar to Moriarty and Sherlock), making multiple appearances throughout numerous stories, and proving to be a tough nut to crack altogether.
Amidst all the ongoing chaos around, and Maganlal’s added constant threat, Feluda and his companions must find a way to save Nepal, and subsequently the world, from a massive food crisis, and its resulting widespread destruction that could follow should they fail to do so in time.
What did I like?
- Animation was pretty good.
- BGM/soundtrack was decent too.
What was disappointing?
- Voice acting was not the best (especially Jatayu’s).
- Sound mixing/synchronization was also not good, being off in a couple of places throughout.
Final thoughts
Overall, DQE Productions (DQ Entertainment International), has done a pretty decent job with the animation to be fair, and with the movie as a whole. But in my personal opinion, they could have stuck more to the roots, rather than setting the characters in a modern era full of technology and gadgets. On one hand, it brings the character of Feluda to the fore, along with introducing the various characters from the written works (albeit to a younger audience). But on the other hand, the changes (again, targeted for the same younger audience), didn’t quite work enough for me. Maybe I’m judging from a hardcore Feluda fan boy point of view… or maybe just because I’m not a child anymore. The final point being, it’s all in all a good enough film for children to enjoy, and hopefully get them into reading the original works by Satyajit Ray.
What’s next?
DQE Productions made a 13-Episode animation series after the animated film, titled – Mysteries and Feluda, which ran on Disney XD (India). The series is currently available on Amazon Prime India. Both the animated movie and the animated series are set in a future/different timeline to that of the original works, where the characters have gadgets/high-end equipment, and technology to aid in their adventures, unlike the older times from 20th Century India (which doesn’t quite sit right with me personally, as I mentioned before as well).
Rating: – 6/10 (OK)
Pssst! Here’s the YouTube link for the movie if you’re interested!
I will always recommend to avoid these kinds of things, and always go for/support the original content/platform, but I genuinely couldn’t get hold of this movie anywhere.
Note: Having said that, I don’t endorse/approve of piracy of any kind.
Spoilers ahead!
A quick comparison to the original works by Satyajit Ray –
Although the basic plot of the movie is taken from one of Feluda’s adventures in Nepal (consisting of tourist souvenirs and Maganlal Meghraj himself), the rest is mostly creative liberty on the part of the writer. Here’s the comparison –
- Bones, the pet dog, is not at all present in the stories [Not a bad addition though, especially when it is being targeted at a younger audience].
- Maganlal Meghraj’s whole character (apart from the fact that he’s the bad guy). The physical appearance is a total contrast to the stories. Also, the movie shows him having an insignia/symbol that of a golden cobra, which is again an addition to the character [A good addition in my opinion].
- Feluda’s “The devil mocks us” dialogue, which is spoken not once… not twice… but four times throughout the film, is not at all present in the stories [Personally found it a little bit jarring to be honest].
- Jatayu’s “I’m going for some hot samosas” line is a pretty accurate representation of him though, as he is always thinking about food/eating in the stories as well.
- There are multiple gadgets present which our heroes use from time to time, the likes of – a remote controlled helicopter with camera, shades/sunglasses with magnification and night-vision, and a mobile phone with microscopic camera/magnification [Again, not a bad addition, and again, targeted at a younger audience, but personally would have preferred it otherwise].
