Shabash Feluda Review: Shabash Feluda (সাবাশ ফেলুদা) is a detective thriller series starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay in the lead role. Along with him, Ritwick Chakraborty, Biplab Chatterjee, Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Arindam Sil, Sauraseni Maitra and Rudranil Ghosh also star in the show. The series is directed by Sil and based on Satyajit Ray’s Gangtokey Gondogol.
Shabash Feluda follows Feluda and Topshe as they travel to Gangtok and get embroiled in a horrific accident case that turns out to be more complicated than initially perceived. As Feluda delves deeper into the mystery, he realises that solving this confusing series will not be an easy task.
– Shabash Feluda Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
For Bengalis, Satyajit Ray’s Feluda is as good as holy. You don’t mess with the charismatic detective who can solve crimes and (almost) see through people’s souls with his ‘mogojastro’. And to be fair, you can’t mess with those movies – from the music to the casting to the acting, and the way the shots are composed and the cinematography, everything about Ray’s detective films was perfection. Add to that Soumitra Chatterjee and Santosh Dutta, you have a recipe for success like no other.
What I mean to say by the above is that, Feluda is a memory that you cannot mess with. You will always compare with the classics, and nothing will ever measure up to them. And I am not exaggerating for a minute about this – there have been multiple shows and movies on the subject matter, but none have really measured up to the original. Sabyasachi Chakraborty comes close to exuding that gravitas and sharp wit of Feluda’s character, but… Soumitra Chatterjee is the OG.
Now, Sabash Feluda stars Parambrata Chattopadhyay, who is one of the leading stars of Bengali cinema right now. There is no doubt he is a good actor who gives his best to his projects. However, none of Shabash Feluda‘s casting feels perfect. Nothing sits right in the series and feels surface-level at every turn. Actually, the characters are just so annoying I fail to understand why this is how they decided to recreate Ray’s story.
Case in point, Rudranil Ghosh’s Nishikanto Sarkar is absolutely intolerable, and I wonder why he always acts like a mousy mess all the time. Granted, there’s more to his character that comes out later, but man, his mannerisms are so fake that you’d be transported out of the story the moment he comes on the screen. It’s like he plays a version of Jatayu from Sonar Kella but just worse in every way. Most of the other characters are like this, albeit not as cartoonish. Sashadhar Bose is the most balanced and watchable of the lot.
Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Rwitobroto Mukherjee play Feluda and Topshe and, unfortunately, can’t encapsulate the same characteristics that we have come to know about the characters. Chattopadhyay tries to hold on to that humour, the twinkle in the eye, and the gravitas that Prodosh Mitter is supposed to have, but somewhere down the line, he comes off as a try-hard – an impersonator trying to be Feluda but isn’t really. The same goes for Topshe. Rwitobroto Mukherjee has no hint of that innocence, wonder or sharpness of Topshe. Both of them just feel too ingenuine and “পাকা”, as one might say in Bangla.
Moving on to the story itself, Shabash Feluda at least holds on to some of the mystery till the end, wherein we learn the truth. These days, mystery stories start from the end – giving away the perpetrator and all the secrets before trying to add two and two together for the audience. Thankfully that’s not the case this time around, but that’s about it when it comes to holding on to the thriller aspects. Other than this, the story is absolutely boring as hell and loses out on steam soon after it starts. It’s not because they overtly give away the perpetrator, but honestly, they might as well have.
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With 10 episodes, the mystery series, unfortunately, feels a bit too long, with unnecessary dialogues and situations popping up here and there. These moments don’t add anything to the series and are just so annoying to watch that you’d skip through just to get to the good parts. Most of the time, we talk about unnecessary stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with the central characters or the mystery, and most of the characters are oddly embodiments of characters from Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath. Nishikanto Sarkar’s unnecessary antics are just the icing on the annoying cake. It’s just embarrassing to watch.
You know, I feel like you don’t need to turn your characters cartoonish to make it funny. There’s a difference between funny and obnoxious. Annoying your audience to the point where you would feel angry watching this is not the way to go about it. Feluda stories should fill you with excitement, anticipation and subtle humour that will make you want to come back to it. Unfortunately, this show does nothing of the sort.
Shabash Feluda Review: Final Thoughts
I just need people to stop making these half-baked Feluda stories that are just annoying and slowly kill off a part of our childhood. There’s nothing redeeming about Shabash Feluda and nothing to keep you hooked even till the halfway point of the show.
Shahash Feluda is streaming on Zee5.
I started watching the series. Yet not completed it. 2 episodes a night is also not catchy enough to hold me stuck to the screen. I feel Tota as modern Feluda after Soumitra Chatterjee is a much better option. I personally missed the Ray Music which we are used to hear in all Ray stories. All the characters seem so imposed and over the top, as a viewer I cannot relate this to any other Feluda movies. Please don’t mess with Satyajit Ray’s movies, which should have periodical touch, and don’t modernise it showing cell phones and video calls with Topse and his girlfriend. Rudranil and his mannerisms are just intolerable… till episode 5. I will watch the rest 5 episodes in another 2 days and can finally narrate about the story telling.
Even 3rd class has a class attached to it. This one is ‘Oshadhiron baje’ !!!
Case in point … Parambrata acting is like forced on “gamvirjo” not liking it one bit … It is a mess with the actor’s over cautiousness with the character… And lack Parambrata’s natural flow we all used too.