Monday, January 18, 2010

Colonel Samagra Vol I

Colonel Niladri Sarkar, the truth seeker as invented by Syed Mustafa Siraj held my fascination at a very young age. Maybe his Santa Claus appearance was the most lovably appealing feature that was so unnatarual for an investigator to me who used to associate a grim and serious looking soul with that profession. Though through times that outlook on the appearance of detectives changed as I grew more familiar with Holmes, Feluda, Byomkesh, Father Brown, Poirot, Marple, Tommy & Tuppence and Arjun but still this wonderful personality had always found a ready fan in me. Actually the fusion of a retired army officer with the characteristics of a genial grandfather held its charm to me and in the same way as people craves for the warmth of their grandparents, I also have a fondness for Colonel Niladri Sarkar.

So in the bookfair of 97 when I came across the consolidated volumes published by De's I couldn't resist the temptation of buying the 1st one. But two disappointments awaited me, the 1st one being that the stories did not seem to be chronologically ordered. But the more serious one was that it seemed the Colonel of my dream whose adventures in crime was supposed to be read with awe by readers of all ages seemed to have special cases reserved for the adult readers that immediately worsened my feelings. Actually I had always found the inclusion of adult content makes the crimes and motives somewhat unidirectional and the mystery portion is somewhat slightened.

The book starts with a novel titled 'Paragacha' or the weed, where the retired Colonel and his friend-cum-story narrator Jayanta, the journalist of Dainik Satyasevak, involves themselves in the murder of a call girl, Chandrika who again relates herself with a parallel case presented to Col. Sarkar by his acquintance Mr. Amarendra Singha Roy, of the scenic village of Rangatuli. The story starts with the Colonel and Jayanta attending a drama by Sourav on the express wish of the owner-cum-actor Indrajit Bannerjee. Chandrika was a member of the drama company and on their way home a visibly distressed Chandrika requested lift in their car. Though there was no serious conversation in the way but later Jayanta discovered that she had left her handbag in the car. On the next morning, Chandrika's murder was revealed and the Colonel sets off on the mission to unravel the secrets that points to the murderer and also the motive. Though the story had quite a number of twists but there are also several coincidences that makes the investigator's job quite easy. Interesitingly, the private eye and the ever bumbling acquintance of Colonel, whom the author has used as a refreshing relief, Haldarmoshai appears only in this story in the whole collection and I admit that this sincere and honest soul has been my favourite from the start. The second story is quite good but the name 'Phand' (Bengali for trap) gives away much of the excitement very early during the narration. 'Zero Zero Zero' involves attempt of sabotage that is cleverly foiled by the veteran Colonel. 'Sonar Damaru' seems to be a classic case where Colonel's loses his voice temporarily due to severe cold and cannot prevent dual murders before catching the criminal and a gang of smugglers. I think 'Prem, Hatya ebong Colonel' is probably the best and the shortest of the lot in the collection where also for a change, a third person narration is used and the entire plot with its solution evolves magnificently and quite unlike the other stories. Infact the third person narration seems to be deliberate, else the story would have lost much of its novelty. The naming of the story 'Khokan Gaache Maach Dhorte', has been taken from a Bengali nursery rhyme and is kind of synonymous with the way a mishap happens during a fishing hike which the Colonel again solves with the help of his intuitions. But again super simplification seems to mar the thrill in this story as much of the mystery behind the dissapearance of a mystic monk seems to be childishly explained. But in 'Janalar Neeche Ekta Lok', the brilliance of story telling masked the perpetrator(s) of crime masterfully and though it had appeared quite boring when I read it initially but its appeal seem to have increased with time. Actually what I think is as I knew the story beforehand, this time I could appreciate the literary content and how poetically it had been handled throughout, quite unlike a traditional detective story. Also in 'Dui Nari', though the narration is in 1st person but this time it is not Jayanta but a married writer Gautam Chowdhury who involves himself in a case of theft while on a secret holiday with one of his lady fans. A deadbody worsens the situation more but when the criminal is unmasked, the tortuous way of organizing the crime seems to be too far fetched. In 'Hangor', the mysterious happenings in a hotel named 'The Shark' at Chandanpore-on-sea on a rainy night followed by a deadbody in the premises of a political activist in the morning required Colonel's interference to solve the murder. The monsoon season adds the additional adventurous back drop to this story but here again the theme seems to be highly unrealistic. The plot in 'Kalo Pathar' is quite a good one but the use of supernaturals remained unexplained and of the two seances though one seemed to be staged but the reality regarding the other one remained a mystery till the very end. A bizarre series of murders in 'Trishule Rakter Daag' makes it highly interesting but how the Colonel gathered some clues are upto the readers to unravel. The final in the collection, 'Toy Pistol’ again would have been a highly interesting plot but it started in a very abrupt manner and seemed to conclude hurriedly without giving necessary time for the complexity of the plot to evolve significantly. Altogether the compilation is well balanced and if you love the character you, at least, won’t hate the book.

An interesting observation regarding Colonel adventures that highly contrasts with traditional detective fictions is that the retired Colonel doesn’t seem to be in the bad books of the police or the professionals and in fact a nice understanding seems to develop between the veteran crime solver and the local security in almost all cases. Infact there are instances where the local police and the Colonel both seek help of each other and the local security personnel in several cases seems actually happy to get the help of Colonel to unravel the bizarre happenings. This may be an automatic choice for the author owing to Colonel’s background but in any case, I personally liked the general trend of non-cooperation between professionals and amateurs in the trade being eradicated in the cases.

6 comments:

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