Gorosthane Sabdhan: Old wine in a new bottle with a conspicuous mistake
Beware of the cemetery!
Decades ago, Satyajit Ray had jotted down on the paper another bone-chilling suspense thriller that was highly acclaimed among the readers of Bengal. Set on the background of a 300 years old Christian cemetery, the story tells us the tale of old Kolkata, the British Raj and so on and so forth. The most important role here is played by a century-old Perigal Repeater, of which even Feluda was not fully aware! Not even the mobile encyclopedia, Sidhujyatha!
Years later, Sandip Ray, the author’s son has chosen this very simple but overpowering tale of two cities (Kolkata and Lucknow to some extent), to be the subject of his most recent Feluda thriller, set on Kolkata, 2010. Again, the old wine in a new bottle.
From the very beginning of the shooting, Sandip was careful about his casting. In Gorosthane Sabdhan, he has not taken the risk of casting Parambrata Chattopadhyay as Topse. The reason was very apparent. In Param, people tend to see a more matured, aged Topse. What he was going to be was not like the ‘Satellite’ (the very word Feluda uses to describe Topse). So, Saheb Bhattacharya, a young face in the industry has been chosen to play the part.
Satyajit’s thriller showed Kolkata, 1970. Almost 40 years later, the story of the film has to be changed in order to meet the demand of the new generation. Today’s Feluda is not the ‘successor’ of Sherlock Holmes, rather he reminds us of a James Bond detective. We have been accustomed with a much more tech-savvy, action hero and of course an aged Feluda from Bombaiyer Bombete. This Feluda not only knows the use of repeater, but also can fight the goons using the techniques of modern karate or kung-fu, which may be listed as his additional qualities. Mr.Pradosh C. Mitter even knows how to browse internet and mobile and many other things. A more versatile Feluda indeed! Though, the three musketeers do not keep cell phones with them. Sandip once said, one has to keep track with the generation he/she is dealing with.
This very change has doomed Feluda’s ability to fight intellectually with the sophisticated villain, Mahadev Chowdhury. Feluda goes to Chowdhury for an investigation purpose. He lies to Chowdhury by telling him that he only wants to know in detail about the Perigal repeater. Mahadev traps him by asking, in the age of internet, nobody has to go to anybody’s home for detailed information. Wikipedia can do the rest. This sequence shows on one hand, an internet-friendly Kolkata of 2010, and on the other hand, a fighter detective, who remains speechless and in response maintains an awkward silence. That is why James Bond is best fitted to describe this Feluda, who rather uses weapon and techniques to solve a mystery instead of intelligence.
Sandip Ray was careful about his casting and he was very choosy about the character-actors in this film. Actors like Tinu Anand, Dhritiman Chattopadhyay seem to be perfect in the roles of Marcus Godwin and Mahadev Chowdhury. They have rightly served the purpose of a history-based suspense thriller. But, Sandip should be more careful, when he was dealing with history. For an example, Charlotte Godwin, Thomas’s daughter wrote the article on her father in 1858. But, when Sidhujyatha mentions that very similar one, he confuses the publishing date as 1788. Not much, only 70 years! Thomas Godwin died on 1858. And the article was published in the same year, according to Sidhujyatha himself! This mistake may cast a shadow on the whole effort as Charlotte was not supposed to be born at that time. This clearly shows lack of scrutiny and efficiency on the part of the director about which Satyajit himself was very picky.
Another ‘Mr. Perfect’ is Mahadev Chowdhury. Ray described the man in his novel as a perfectionist, a well-dressed, clean-shaven, moody and choosy businessman. But, he is this Mahadev Makhmal Chowdhury, who appears before the camera with a beard. In each and every sequence Mr. Makhmal is showed up with well-trimmed white beard. This directly has a conflict with the story itself.
Obviously, there are night sequences. A rainy night, inside a cemetery must be very haunting, spine-chilling. One needs to arrange the lighting equipments properly to deal with this kind of situation. Sandip uses a bright blue light to describe the lone nights. We tend to see only the faces of the characters that are brightly lit in the dense dark. The actions taken place inside the cemetery are therefore not very impressive. That is where the thriller loses its ‘purity’.
So, the God wins. The mystery therefore gets solved, Mahadev and William arrested and Perigal Repeater goes back to its own place (or should I say, Peripeter?). But, God does not help Sandip to win over the parameter that was marked by his father. So, the old formula is only packaged inside a new, tech-savvy bottle, without violating the norms preset by the predecessor, but with a conspicuous and obviously a terrible mistake.
Suchetana Chakraborty
