Saturday, May 31, 2014

Jugalratna Tiktiki Office

Ashapurna Devi's pickpockets turned investigators, T(n)yapa & Madna (T(n)yapa Charan Pal & Madan Kumar Das) find themselves practically living next door to the victims of a violent crime. Two sets of ornaments from an astrologer's room gets missing and the man was found in a pool of blood but living in the temple inside his residence. The secret chambers, known only to a few, where the valuables were kept was found ransacked and everything missing. The head of the house, the astrologer, was hospitalized and though he recovers his brain seemed to be affected. The members of the huge joint family then seeks help of the local pair of not so well known detectives though several hold them in contempt. Then the story becomes fast paced as the investigators gathers clues and with their near telepathic understanding traps the criminal with damnable evidences. Though some chance happenings help them, as it sometimes happens in detective stories, the best part is that the author acknowledges these in style as she does in all the episodes.
This pair had been introduced during my childhood in one of the magazines but passed into oblivion may be due to the introduction of other private eyes in the fictions. Still I was only fascinated once more going through this piece. The unconventional duo as depicted by Ashapurna Devi is another addition to the class of Bengali detective fictions and as scripted in a dialogue of a character in Anjan Dutta's 'Chalo Let's Go', that every other Bengali writer has his or her series of detectives, Ashapurna Devi's pair though may not be the geniuses but will surely secure the place among the classics.

Friday, May 02, 2014

Pichone Paer Shabda

In the past I had read quite a few stories of Prafulla Ray. So when I saw that he also writes detective novels it seemed quite interesting. Infact the story is quite fast and full of adventurous situations. But with coincidences galore and all so conveniently placed that though the storytelling is interesting but the detection part beocmes quite boring. Also if somebody tells me after reading this that he can find trace of a Byomkesh plot and the final scenes based on the scenes of a Feluda novel, I think it will be not incorrect. Mainak, the detective with his equally wise aunt Hemalata, a widow with a sharp sense of self respect, shares interest in solving crimes. But their detection process seems to be based on direct observations leading to inferences with Mainak missing some obvious clues that his aunt catches staying in the house. The analytical ability of the sleuths are never exploited. Also there are some clear mistakes in the plot where taxi turns to a motorbike. So this may be a good story but not a wise one.