Feluda @ 50: Team Ray revisits Sonar Kella

JAIPUR/JAISALMER: Forty-one years after Satyajit Ray’s master flick ‘Sonar Kella’ was released, a mix of Team Ray’s gen-next and some members of the original squad who created magic on screen, revisited the fort. Hold on ... not for a sequel but to contribute their experiences for a documentary being shot on Ray’s fictional character, detective Pradosh Mitter, alias Feluda, a razor sharp, handsome private investigator, who turns 50 this year.
Ray had written the first Feluda series in 1965.
“This is perhaps the first documentary on an Indian fictional character and it was conceived way back in 2007,” said ad filmmaker Shagnik Chatterjee. Among other advertisement films, Chatterjee has also made ‘Bengal Leads’, a documentary on the West Bengal government.
“The idea was shelved several times due to lack of financers and only in 2013, my Gujarati friend Richard Peter agreed to finance the project,” Chatterjee said. "A film on Feluda, a curious reader of Sherlock Holmes, will definitely catch references to Holmes or Poirot,” said Chatterjee. The 90-minute documentary may hit theatres this year-end, he said.
“We made trips to Jaipur and Jaisalmer to get footages and also speak at length on our experiences,” said Sandip Ray, eminent filmmaker and son of Oscar winner Satyajit Ray. Sandip had accompanied his father during the making of ‘Sonar Kella’. He said there are no plans of making a sequel to the master film.
‘Sonar Kella’, released in 1974, was like a Rajasthan travelogue (through train and road journeys) with mention of several forts and up-close glimpses of Nahargarh, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur’s City Palace. It had an extensive mention of the gold-like sheen of sandstone, that actually “made” the fort look like “sona” (gold).
“It was a nostalgic trip and we also stayed at the same circuit house where portions of the flick were filmed,” said Sandip.