Thriller minus thrills
Creative Quotient
Kailase Kelenkari is the second film in father Satyajit Ray’s famous Feluda series directed by son Sandip Ray. Feluda, or Prodosh Mitter, is the famous literary brainchild of Satyajit Ray. His razor-sharp intellect is as strong and powerful as is his command over several forms of physical combat and both make it a cakewalk for him to solve complicated murders and confusing robberies across the length and breadth of the country. Ray made his first Feluda film Sonar Kella in 1974. Soumitra Chatterjee portrayed the detective. Sandip Ray’s first Feluda film was Bombaiyer Bombetey. The film featured Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as Feluda, Parambrato Chatterjee as his cousin-cum-fan-cum-right-hand-man Topshe and Bibhu Bhattacharjee as Lalmohan Ganguly, writer of detective stories under the pseudonym Jatayu. The film was a box-office grosser mainly because it attracted a huge child audience. Feluda books have been on the bestseller lists ever since they hit the bookshops and continue to be a hit with kids spanning nearly two generations.

Directed and scripted by Sandip Ray who has also done the music, Kailase Kelenkari opens with a dramatically picturised air-crash somewhere in West Bengal taking all passengers and crew down along with it. Among the passengers, was a white man (Tom Alter) who was carrying with him the smuggled antique head of the famous Goddess Yakshi of the Rajrani temple at Bhubaneshwar. Feluda learns about this and his octogenarian uncle (Haradhan Bandopadhyay) feeds him with news that is more shocking. Chief villain Chattoraj (Dipankar De) who deals in antique stealing, smuggling and selling it to foreigners for a hefty price, has chalked out a diabolic plan to steal a similar priceless antique from the Kailasa temple in the caves of Ellora near Aurangabad. For once, Feluda, with adequate funding by the affluent uncle, decides to solve the mystery of the missing head and prevent the robbery at the Kailasa temple on his own. The triumvirate of Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu set off for the beautiful caves of Ellora overnight, determined to set things right. But Chattoraj has raced them there and is actually waiting to challenge Feluda. How Feluda, with his exceptional knowledge of ancient artefacts, temple architecture and antiques, with a little help from Topshe and some bonhomie from Jatayu, solves the mystery, hands the culprit over to the local police, rescues the smuggled antique, prevents the robbery, and goes back home, triumphant as usual, makes the rest of the story. Whew! What a detective!

Technical Expertise
The best part of the film is its brilliant cinematography that, perhaps for the first time, captures the caves of Ellora on celluloid in all their captivating mystique and intriguing beauty at all times of day and night. Against the backdrop of the night, the Kailasa temple is awash with moonlight just as it stands against the daytime sun in all its pristine glory. The caves shot from every conceivable angle - long shots, middle-shots, close-ups, and perspectives, are mesmerising. However, the mystery of the caves does not quite add to the suspense and thrill of crime because the audience is introduced to the criminal soon after the film begins. It is more of an adventure story filled with car chases caught in panning shots than a chilling suspense film. Taking away the suspense from a detective story reminds us of the joke about the usher who whispered “The butler did it,” into the ears of the stingy viewer who failed to tip him!

The fight scenes are handled amateurishly and a terrible jewellery commercial being shot in the temple precincts within the film sticks out like a sore thumb. Its pretense of parodying a masala Hindi film falls flat. The acting by the entire cast is seamless and natural. One feels a bit sad about Jatayu coming off like a caricature. Technically and aesthetically, the film shines along several planes - cinematography, acting, sound editing and in a certain sense, the music too.

Verdict
But on the whole, it is several notches below what you would call a ‘great’ film. Yet, it promises to become a bigger box-office hit than Bombaiyer Bombetey, having netted a clean Rs 45 lakh from multiplexes, stand-alone theatres and Nandan in the first week alone, making the producers increase the number of prints from 12 to 15. It offers much-needed relief for children and their parents because mainstream fare does not take children into account.