New Wine in an old Bottle

In my last post I pointed out that how the recent film makers have been depicting my hometown Calcutta draped in its old world charm that have ceased to exist long ago. I mentioned a recent movie by the name  " Detective Byomkesh Bakshy " and a friend of mine was quick to point out that for the sake of the story the time line was necessary and thus the old world British -Raj era was necessary. Well I completely agree with my friend but can we not approach the story from a different perspective? 

Byomkesh Bakshi created by Saradindu Bandhopadhyay and Feluda by Satyajit Ray are icons of Bengali sleuths based on which numerous attempts have been made on both small screen and on celluloid but those attempts were made just to recreate what we already know from the novels that we have read numerous times. Why can we not use the main story line and the characters to create something on the current scenario? Why do Byomkesh always have to be dressed in a traditional Bengali dhoti running places and chasing criminals in a by gone era? Why can he not be dressed as a modern man in our present society doing the same in a more current social situation. I mean look at Sherlock Holmes how he has evolved in the small screen over the years keeping its integrity intact. Arthur Conan Doyal created his masterpiece in a Victorian era and the first attempt which was made on small screen exactly depicted what the novel tells us but look at the new SHERLOCK he is a modern detective living in modern times and solving crimes in tandem with the current problems of the society. I mean from Jeremy brett ( who played the original sherlock holmes in BBC's Tv series) to Benedict Cumberbatch ( who plays the lead role in BBC's SHERLOCK) its a huge leap from the conceptualised point itself, the characters have been modified, totally new characters and their new dynamism have been introduced,the stories have been tweaked to fit the present society but the main essence remained the same. So why not try the same with our local and also very famous detectives and why only these detective novels there are numerous other famous works by many famous writers which can easily be adjusted and presented on silver screen riding on our present social situation. There have been attempts in the past but they were few. The only one which I could think of right now is ' Dev D'  which was based on the famous novel ' Devdas' written by another Bengali literary icon Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay which was given a modern flavor keeping the main skeleton intact but the response was bleak and this is the main reason why most film makers try to restrict themselves in the originality of the novel and fears of experimentation, because gone are the days in Indian cinema where you make a movie to urge the public to get involved with the society, because the society itself have changed and loves to turn blind on matters related to itself.

I would love to see a movie where Byomkesh chases his criminals in a Kolkata Metro and get stuck in it, as numerous people do almost regularly now a days and then his case gets affected by it, that would be damn interesting, But no!! how can one think of such a scenario because its Byomkesh right ? I mean here is a detective for whom everything must be as smooth as the author wrote, he is a superman living a different world altogether right ? common people think different, think out of the box bring some spice and try to portray what we face in our daily life, I am sure if Saradindu Bandhopadyay would have composed his novels today he would surely have included the present society and its workings in his creations. Guys these people have given us guidelines to follow through their works but that does not necessarily means that we always have to stick to it, add variations, think a bit different, give us something to think about other than the cinematography and music and the direction, Give us a new story wrapped in an original binding. Please serve us something new to toast but keep the bottle old so that we can enjoy the best of both worlds.

Jeremy Brett (left ) & Benedict Cumberbatch (right) portraying Sherlock Holmes for BBC's Tv series. Jeremy Brett portrayed the character during the Victorian age while Benedict's depiction of the character is more modern and in sync with the present days.