Kaminir Kanthahar

Being a fan of detective fictions, I always try new detective whose name sprout among the numerous books in the stalls. Nirendranath Chakravarty's investigator Bhadurimoshai was one such revelation to me. Previously my acquintance with Nirendranath's works dates back to the days of my childhood when I eagerly waited for the periodical Anandamela whose editor was Shri Chakravarty. His rhyming editorial was sometimes the first thing that I would look into and from so young an age I'd considered him to be some sort of Dadumoni to young ones like us. In the first impression Bhadurimoshai also resembled the grand old man but as Kaminir Kanthahar proceeded tha fascination gave way to increasing irritation at the way Bhadurimoshai was conducting his investigation of a blakmail. Contradictory situations and conversations along with glaring mistakes seemed to dilute mystery but the story seemed to be enriched by the two realistic characters in the form of the sleuth's associates. The first was Kiranbabu the narrator, truly representing the poetic self of Nirendranath, whose description of events vividly portrayed the ambience and the other was Sadanandababu a slighter version of the legendary Jatayu who provided reliefs in the monotonous annoyance of the investigative procedure. The book contains another story Jaal-Bhejaal which is the better one. Though slight mistakes abound and the contradictory slow pace of action not suited for detective adventures, but the plot is more compact and the slight hint of unrealism that also been utilized cleverly to account for coincidences makes it a more enjoyable read. The literary style is also fantastic. But the disappointment includes projection of everybody except personnel of Charu Bhaduri Investigations as unrealistically stupid, superior authority of civilian over police force that is unbelievable. The character Sadanandababu has been the only character that makes the narratives refreshing and gives them much needed realistic touch. A few days after I went through I realized that the main thing it was lacking was mystery in its real sense of term. The criminals were already being hinted at and what remained was the action involving their capture. Thus real mystery solving never found a good stronghold. This will no doubt deter serious readers from becoming engaged to the character though the literary style and storytelling was quite nice.