Feludar Goyendagiri

I've said it before, I'll say it again - Srijit Mukherji has bagged the best lead actors since Sandip Ray's original trio (Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Saswata Chatterjee and Rabi Ghosh). All three leads look (and have been made to look) awfully similar to Ray's sketches and have clearly worked on 'becoming' the characters they play. Then again, nostalgia is a tough thing to beat. Our expectations would always remain sky-high.

With season 2, Anirban Chakrabarti has stopped being Ekendra Sen and has started to look and sound more like Lalmohan Ganguly without parroting his predecessors. He has understood the assignment (mostly) and has worked on delivering. Kalpan Mitra gets a lot of hate on social media, but I like him better than all his predecessors and peers post Saswata Chatterjee. Tota Roy Chowdhury's approach is more grounded and real, yet his portrayal elicits conflict. Despite wowing in some scenes, quite a few of his expressions and body language made me cringe. Even his voice sounded drab and too loud at times.

The supporting cast should've been stronger.

Kashmir has been used well, its ethereal beauty oozing in abundance in almost every shot; the 'travelogue' element well-incorporated. The colour-grading is definitely an issue, but can be overlooked if only the camerawork is taken into consideration.

As for the narrative, Mr Mukherji has kept the whodunit intact but has added elements of his own to spice things up a bit. The political tension was unnecessary in my opinion but does add another dimension for viewers who haven't read the story. Creative liberties here and there could've been avoided, especially the two big ones in the climax. The planchette scenes felt awfully underdone, comical even. Loved the "Hirak Rajar Deshe" reference, the "Sonar Kella" reference and, of course, the casebook montage.

The BGM, though repetitive, sounded good.

Our need for a Feluda story to look and feel like a Feluda story on screen is a mighty ask, for what we actually look for is the same feeling we feel every time we watch the two OG films and the OG TV series. Feludar Goyendagiri S02, like Feluda Pherot S01, is thankfully quite watchable.

'Feluda Pherot' came during the Christmas & it's follow up series 'Feludar Goyendagiri' released on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Don't know whether the festive mood was somewhat responsible for this wholesome experience or the show itself stole my mind. This show is based on the storyline of 'Darjeeling Jamjamat'. Tota Roychoudhari was exactly perfect for the role Feluda - the icon of bengali culture. His appearance solely resembled the sketches of Satyajit Ray. Anirvan chakraborty was also quite relatable with jatayu. Better not to say about topshe's acting as he has very little to do in this matter. Veteran actor barun chanda is like a red wine in this series. Within his short screen sharing, he is able to make a memorable impact. Actor Rahul Banerjee also quite fits in the role of pulak ghosal. Unfortunately, there was no reference of any lady character like suchandra & I don't know what was the need for it. Feluda's thought of stabbing birupaksha majumder by different persona - herein the repetition of the same scene is a bit annoying.

But above all, the excellent cinematography serves as the asset of this web series. The beauty of kanchenjunga is well captivated within the camera frame. And lastly, the reference of Byomkesh Bakshi's 'Chitrachor' during the drop-scene is quite appreciable.

How could anyone kill the beauty of Darjeeling with so much sepia tone! Chhinomostar Obhishaap atleast had warm colour palette. Even Hoichoi's Shobdo Jobdo or Murder in the Hills had beautiful cinematography. But this?

Also Shaheb's fake beard was so fake looking. Atrocious. Tota looks good but still doesn't have what it takes to be Feluda. Forced comedy by Jatayu was done too much. Also had pacing issues in middle episodes. Srijit Mukherji couldn't create the ambience needed for this story. This might be one of the weakest work in the Feluda legacy along with Parambrata's Feluda and Bangladesh' take on Feluda.

Firstly, the theme song of feluda pherot was even better than this one.

I didn't like the overacting. Then there was some error in dialogue! Then the sepia tone was a wrose side. Overall, can't be satisfied.

It's been almost two years since I laid my eyes on a Feluda feature. Earlier it was with Chinnomostar Ovisaap, which by the way I adored despite others criticizing it heavily although this time around, I'm not that convinced, let's just say, I have had mixed reactions to it.

Whilst, I did cherish the chemistry in-between the three main protagonists (or Three Musketeers as Lalmohan Ganguly likes to call themselves); at the same time, I would have preferred if the writing was more productive.

It's a very simple story, a rudimentary narrative, so to speak; hence, and I'm sure all the people who will watch the show, amongst them, a vast majority will be Feluda fanatics and have already read the book. Therefore, at the end of the day, it all boils down to the execution (as we all are pretty much aware of the happenings) and how and in what way the director decides to adapt the original novel into a cinematic contour.

And I feel, that is precisely where Srijit Mukherjee has committed a few blunders. On one hand, he did manage to safeguard as well as maintain the conventional flavors of Feluda (by staying true to the source material) but on the other hand, he did miscalculate and took some erratic steps that just cannot be condoned.