The Eken: Benarase Bibheeshika

After Ray penned Joy Baba Felunath and quickly crafted a movie based on the novel, the sacred city of Varanasi turned to a city of mystery for the Bengali readers and the addicts of Bengali films.

So much so that Arindam Sil relocated his adaptation of Bahnni-Patanga to Benaras in Har Har Byomkesh, a marked difference from the original as penned by Saradindu Banyopadhyay. Thus we had both Feluda and Byomkesh solving a case apiece in movies at least here, reaffirming the status of the place as a city where mystery brews.

Following the tradition, Joydip Mukherjee takes Ekenbabu through the city this time to solve mysteries. With a tribute to Ray and his creations and with apparently a subtle Byomkesh touch, the case surrounds a plot that endangers the city.

Based on the story of Sujan Dasgupta and scripted by Padmanava Dasgupta, the thrill starts early with a blast that rings alarm among the police while grips the heart of the audience with suspense. As the blast is traced back to Belal Mallick, the infamous crook, the authorities anticipate further strikes. As his presence is felt in the city, the police and the agents of the Special Task Force start to sieve through each avenue to apprehend Belal, feared for being an explosive expert and famed equally for being a skilled specialist of disguise. 

As the moments gradually turn tense, Ekenbabu and Bapi accompany Pramatha to Benaras on a sudden invitation of Pramatha's friend, Subimal. Subimal eagerly invites the trio to their mansion that he shares with his uncle, Bireshwar but their visit seemed not too cordially accepted by Bireshwar's very young wife, Damini.

A collector of rich antiques, Bireshwar perceives that he is being robbed of his prized possessions and wishes Ekenbabu to look into the matter. But his frequent loss of memory, resulted apparently due to the aggressive treatment of his cancer and a sense of secrecy that he maintains, prevented him to elaborate on his ideas.

Smelling a scent of something fishy and hot on the trail of smuggled artefacts, Ekenbabu curiously gets embroiled in the search for Belal and gets to peek in the case of the bomb blast as well.

The movie blends adventure with mystery and starts at a happy pace but climaxes a bit too abruptly with several ends, let quite loose and very vaguely explained! Joydip Mukherjee directed the movie for the young adult and the age beyond but a little more detailing and critical thinking would be advisable for future projects in the franchise, which will be hopefully continuing! But the best part of the picture is the superbly synchronized acting of the trio Anirban Chakrabarti (Ekenbabu), Suhotro Mukhopadhyay (Bapi) and Somak Ghosh (Pramatha), who keeps the thrill intense while providing ample refreshing snippets with their perfectly tuned timings during comic sequences. Saswata Chatterjee (Belal Mallik) is a surprise disappointment along with Biswanath Basu, both of whom perform well below than what we expect of them! Gaurav Chakraborty (Subimal), with his natural gracefulness, fits in well in a character, which essentially demands just that. However, Sagnik Chatterjee plays another fine support though with a bit sterner look than required, at places, but would like to welcome his appearance that eagerly commits to the character that he portrays. The other person who is equally committed to her role is Ishaa Saha (Damini) with her accent convincing of the lineage meant for her character, a feature that Sagnik slightly lacked and she played a correct support to the suspense that the narrative with so many angles quietly needed.

Thus, in a nutshell, the movie is a pleasant watch for the summer holidays but surely had the potential to perform far better!

The Eken: Ruddhashwas Rajasthan

Ekenbabu is back in the big screen, and this time in the majestic Rajasthan! Rides on camel, visits to palaces, desert tours are there as are tasting the local cuisines, a necessity, according to Ekenbabu, to have a complete feel of a new place. With Bapibabu and Pramathababu as the usual tour mates, the holiday is all set for a joyride. But alas, where there is a detective, there ought to be at least a crime and the audience will be rejoiced, riding the merry wheel of adventure, wrapped in mystery.

The ever fussy Ekenbabu is no exception and Rajasthan, a hunting ground for Feluda, now seeks the chubby detective to look for stolen artefacts, missing persons and solve murder!

With a pace that will never feel unnatural, the movie is a thrilling ride of suspense and fun. Blending humour in just the right amount, the central theme is very much focussed. A museum curator with a queer interest in replica, an alleged professor of archaeology who drops in uninvited and a chemistry professor with an interest in lost antiques, the list of suspects grows equally diverse. Thus it remains to be seen how Ekenbabu handles the confusion and solves the puzzles and fights against a vicious villain, rumoured to gulp his opponents, without leaving a trace of the body anywhere.

Joydip Mukherjee directs the thriller and trims it perfectly for the old and young to enjoy together. The audience packed halls easily indicate the growing popularity of Ekenbabu, much of whose credit must be given to Anirban Chakrabarti in keeping the character consistently lively. Playing the satellites and supporting the irritatingly clever sleuth, Suhotro Mukhopadhyay as Bapibabu and Somak Ghosh as Pramathababu enhances the chemistry between them and Ekenbabu in styles, which are fascinatingly unique for each yet contrastingly comic, completing the package of smart entertainment. Another notable cast is Sudip Mukherjee as the local police chief and a training mate of Ekenbabu in the start of their career, whose appearance and dialect were so astonishingly perfect throughout that I held him as a Rajasthani actor for the initial few introductory sequences, at least.

Echoing a creepily crooked concept from Elementary, the film is a fantastic entertainer but will fall short of critical applause due to the coarse commercial inserts that felt way out of the context and appeared childishly scripted, given the flurry of tributes reserved for Ray and his subtleties in Sonar Kella, Joy Baba Felunath. Thus, the movie will be appreciated for the uncompromised suspense that it gifts but will be appreciated less for the lack of finesse it serves.

Goenda Ekenbabu

The character Ekenbabu had been introduced in my very young age and though I remembered the general nature of the stories, the character would had gone into oblivion but for the fact that I stumbled upon this while searching from something else in the Book fair stalls. But on the first opportunity I did not buy it, thinking that at this age this may not be the thing I want though the interest was kindled. So after a few years more when I again got curious about it, I think I couldn't help but got hold of the same, surprised to notice that the price hadn't increased (I remembered the price when I first looked upon it).

Thus again Ekenbabu with his typical miserly attitude of everything personal except his intellect seemed to freshen my spirits up. With a touch of slightly mature content, of which the author acknowledges in the backside, the content runs as

• Greenwich Kando
• Dhaka Rahasya Unmochan
• Harappar Shilalipi

Staying as guest to the narrator Bapi and the only frank critic of his nature, Pramatha, Ekenbabu gets involved with mysteries in the US. But sometimes he even solves dormant cases that had occurred long ago but had kept the slight trail alive to be sniffed up by Ekenbabu like in the second one where a single doubt and a group of snaps were enough for the sleuth to unearth a crime comitted months earlier. In these he is helped by his fan cum police Captain Stuart who gets him all the data that he requires. At other times he is seen solving cases on his own, just like while staying at an aquintance's reside ce during his absence in the first of the narratives, where incidents that seemed so ordinary is found to mask a grave evil. But if the client refuses to proceed in certain other instances like the final one, it is Ekenbabu's sheer eagerness to clear the confusions that unearths the truth. Thus the readers will surely enjoy the stories as not only the plots are interesting but also the storytelling is simple devoid of any undue deviations.