The Golden Fortress

Satyajit Ray's first film about Feluda, the detective he created himself, from his own novel. A small boy named Mukul describes having lived in a fortress full of gold in a previous life. When the story reaches the newspapers, two men try to abduct him. Feluda travels to Rajasthan with his cousin Topshe and the crime writer Jatayu to protect the child. It is a road film moving through desert, fortresses and trains; the real fort at Jaisalmer and the Rajasthan landscape are largely the film itself. There is something unusual in Ray's films for children: the mystery is genuinely constructed and the solution arrives by detective logic, with no simplification for a young audience. Jatayu carries the comedy: the errors in the crime novels he writes are thrown at him constantly. Soumitra Chatterjee plays Feluda. It was a large success in India and made Feluda one of the permanent characters of Bengali popular culture. Watchable as a family. For a viewer expecting Ray's heavy dramas this is something else entirely: light, adventurous and fun.