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A classic whodunit The Menagerie and
other
Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries When
Saradindu Bandyopadhyay created Byomkesh Bakshi’s character in 1932,
little did he expect him to become so popular that almost a century
later a translation of his work would be so welcome. The detective
branch of fiction was rather looked down upon in those days. But as is
true for the Indian psyche which gravitates towards most things termed
‘commercial’ topped with a little masala, this indigenised version
of Sherlock Holmes too, was soon lapped up. Detective fiction counts
amongst the most successful literary products that the metropolitan west
has exported to the world periphery. Between the end of the 19th century
and the outbreak of World War II the genre acquired a global presence
– both in the form of translations of existing works such as the
Sherlock Holmes stories, and in the form of numerous indigenous
adaptations. This kind of literature represented a prime example of the
mass-produced and mass-circulated print entertainment that was part and
parcel of the emergence of mass consumption as a social form. Detective
fiction was, thus, both a carrier and an expression of modernity. The
principles of scientific enquiry permeate the genre throughout, not just
in terms of the ubiquitous magnifying glasses, finger-prints and
assorted scientific apparatuses, but in terms of the subject matter
itself — the fact that it is possible to make sense of an increasingly
confusing world by uncovering hidden causal connections through rational
enquiry. When we speak of the neglected literatures of a forgotten age,
it is often observed that we depend upon lesser writers to give the
genre its characteristic form- be it the mighty novel or our ubiquitous
blog. However, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay is an exception in that he was an
established writer much before he started writing the Byomkesh series.
Also the stories hold a mass appeal even in this age as was demonstrated
by the popularity of their televised adaptation by Basu Chatterjee
starring Rajit Kapoor (of which Ms Guha, unfortunately, makes no
mention) The most important thing is that they are independent of the
tag a heavyweight precursor attached to them. Written much before
Satyajit Ray’s Feluda series, the mysteries captured the charm of the
old world Calcutta trying to, but not yet successful in, severing the
bond with the Raj. The recurrent theme, as in most adaptations, is the
adventurous confrontation of a detective with a background in college
education and a member of the bourgeois class, who often embodies the
feudal values of bravery and izzat. The stories are saturated with the
totems and fetishes of modern life, from electronic street lighting and
trains to the bachelor’s residence or the new forms of male-female
interaction. Saradindu’s depiction of modernity is however quite
ambiguous, leaving plenty of space for non-modernist values and
contradictions to flourish within the same frame. In The Menagerie,
Saradindu, instead of presenting the reader with a (prospective) villain
with a nervous tic or a giveaway hunchback, gifts the reader with a set
of weirdoes living in Golap Colony, where Byomkesh tries to solve the
mystery of broken motor parts and the two subsequent murders. It was
made into a film by Satyajit Ray. The Jewel Case is a small
fast-paced narrative where the detective searches for a lost necklace. The
Will That Vanished and The Quills of the Porcupine tests the
abilities of the shrewd detective who manages to solve them with feline
grace and click the cases shut. Sreejata Guha deserves due praise for
bringing our lost (but not forgotten) Bangla Holmes to the English
reader (the only reader left worth writing or translating for.
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