08 August,2009 08:55 AM IST | | Kasmin Fernandes
He practices yoga, enjoys travelling, owns a .32 colt revolver and is an effortless crime-buster. Satyajit Ray's iconic character returns to life in a colourful comic form
"People ask me if I think about children when I sketch for them. The truth is, I think like a child," says illustrator Tapas Guha, who loves all things happy. The self-taught artist is one half of the Bengali writer-illustrator team behind the graphic novel versions of the Feluda Mysteries series, which began as a comic strip in Telekids, the kids' section of The Telegraph in Kolkata.
"I grew up reading Feluda's adventures and mishaps, as did most kids in Bengal. It's still fresh in my mind," says the Delhi-based artist whose illustrations have travelled to UK, Germany, France and Italy.
"It was the first truly Indian detective series for the young," says children's writer Subhadra Sen Gupta, who has written the books. A Bagful of Mysteries and Beware in the Graveyard are the first two in the Feluda Mysteries series planned by Puffin.
The thirty-something private eye that legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray revealed to little readers in 1965, continues to attract the Harry Potter generation too. "We received emails from parents about how their kids were cutting up every installment of the comic strip and pasting it into blank books," says Sen.
The writer loved the places that the stories took her to from Jaisalmer and Varanasi to Kathmandu and Gangtok. "Ray was brilliant at weaving in fascinating details about destinations," she says. The perfect mix of action, plot, characters and locations made the stories ideal for a graphic treatment.
Hence the comic strip, which has now morphed into full-fledged books priced at an economical Rs 99 each. "The children's fiction market is skewed in favour of the West, with regard to books that kids remember and pick up. This series will hopefully introduce them to this much-loved, funny detective who is part of the collective Indian literary consciousness," says Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, editorial director, Puffin.
Both, Tapas and Sen were nervous about doing something with the work of a writer they idolised. It was hard work too. "Ray was not consciously writing for the visual medium, and we couldn't have endless pages of talking heads," says Sen, who has modernised the stories mostly set in the 1970s. She did not touch the plot, though. "That is all Ray!"
Feluda Mysteries will hit bookstores on August 15. Published by Puffin, priced at Rs 99
SneaK peak at plot
In A Bagful of Mystery, Feluda's client Dinanath Lahiri is on a train from Delhi to Kolkata when he finds that someone has taken his bag and replaced it with an identical one. Behind this seemingly simple misplacement lies a maze of mysterious questions and a shadowy criminal in ambush.
A sudden violent storm takes Kolkata by surprise, in Beware in the Graveyard. It leaves Narendra Nath Biswas injured when he is hit by a tree that collapses on him in the Park Street Cemetery. Feluda starts his investigation and digs up the fascinating history of the Godwin family, dating back to nineteenth-century Lucknow, to discover Thomas Godwin's precious heirloom.
Who is Feluda?
Pradosh Chandra Mitter or Feluda is a 30-something professional detective who likes solving curious cases. He lives at 27, Rajani Sen Road, a middle-class suburb in Southern Calcutta. His cousin Topshe plays Watson to this Bong Sherlock Holmes. They are usually accompanied by Lalmohan Ganguli, a friend,u00a0 when they go crime-solving.
