The Myth about Bengalees

When most kids of this country grow up reading Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot in the name of detective books, we Bengalees simply swear by our home-bred hero Phelu da. Out here in north India hardly anyone knows about this character courtesy the lack of enthusiasm to translate these stories for the larger mass and also because of general people’s disinterest in anything Bengalee (however they do take active interest in making fun of this community in every possible way). Dude seriously, Bengalees do know other things apart from eating ‘rosogolla and mishti doi’, saying ‘Hoodi baba’ in every sentence and eating ‘machh’ 24X7.

                            

So, the other day, while showing off each other’s birthday gifts (Thanks Anant for the gift again), we ended up discussing a li’l bit about Satyajit Ray, the man and brain behind Phelu da. Honestly speaking, this man probably saved our grace to some extent in front of rest of the country. A filmmaker, a writer, an illustrator (he was the one who designed the logo of Gold Flake) – he tried hands in so many things and successfully. My childhood memories are mostly reading up Phelu da and his other works - the stories of wacky Prof. Shonku, his accounts of his experience of making particular movies, his memoirs.   The simplicity of the language was meant for all. And, they certainly didn’t lack any literary value. And, yes, Ray wasn’t artsy-fartsy in the true sense of the term.

 

My colleague accused Ray of being artsy-fartsy and speaking in a baritone. I will say that except some of his movies like Nayak, Chidiyakhana, Pratidwandi, Ray has never been intellectual in his art of story-telling. Who can deny the lucid narrative of Pather Panchali? Who can escape the vigorous tension between the characters in Shakha Proshakha? And for disbelievers I would ask them to start off with Sonar Kella (The Golden Fort). As far as the baritone is concerned, if we can tolerate Amitabh Bachchan for the last six decades, then I would say that Ray’s baritone is any day if not better, but as good as that of Mr. Bachchan.

 

 

Comments

[Adhiraj Singh]

Hmm ... Shonar Kella sounds suspiciously close to Golden Kela ...