THE ELEPHANT GOD (JOI BABA FELUNATH)
India, 1978, 112 minutes, Colour.
Soumira Chatterjee, Sidarta Chatterjee.
Directed by Satayajit Ray.
The Elephant God is a film based on a novel by Satyajit Ray. He adapted his novel for the screen.
This is the second of two films about a detective in the city of Benares. He is played by Soumitra Chatterjee. It involves his friendship with a cousin, the stealing of a statue of the Elephant God, an illegal trader – with all kinds of adventures, geared for the family, ending with a shootout.
This may not be the kind of film that audiences immediately associate with Ray. From the 1950s he made a number of very fine films, especially the trilogy of Pather Panchali, Aparajito and the World of Apu. He continued to make fine films in the Bengali tradition (rather than Bollywood) until the early 1990s. This is Ray with the light touch.
1. The serious work of the director? His interest in detective stories and characters? A pleasant entertainment within a serious body of work?
2. The film as representative of the Indian film industry? Production qualities, colour photography. locations? The director and his composition of the musical score?
3. The popularity of Sherlock Holmes and his style of detection? Dr Watson an his assistant? The transplanting of the Holmes/Watson relationship to India? The British characteristics and the Indian influence by Britain? Detection as a Western genre? The incongruities in Benares?
4. The audience for the film? Adult response? Younger audiences? The pacing of the film for an age range?
5. The conventions of the robbery plot? The establishment of the Elephant God and its value? The various characters and situations? The aspects of the mystery? Clues? The unravelling of the mystery and the solution? The final confrontation? Basic material for a mystery plot?
6. The atmosphere of India? Society, customs, religion? Benares an a sacred city? The use of locations within the city ? treetop markets, houses, the river? Religious festivals and religious gurus? The atmosphere of an Asian city for a British/Western type detection story?
7. The personality of Feluda - the Sherlock Holmes style? A stern kind of person, his work as a policeman and detective? His skill at his work? His presence in Benares? Involvement, dangers, confrontations, the final Sherlock Holmes-style disguise? His young brother and his enthusiasm?
8. The novelist and the comedy? His pen names, his interest in western style adventures and exaggerations, comic? His personality and the satiric comic touch? The young boy and his interest in comic heroes? The incongruity of Indians and their enjoyment of western comics?
9. The overtones of gangsters, the initial threats and blackmail? The gangster and his barge and his contact with the guru? The threats of violence? The finale and the confrontation with the guru?
10. The overtones of Indian religion? the guru and his ceremonies, the gifts? The sequence with Feluda following him in the house and discovering his disguise? The final disguise?
11. The household and the ownership of the Elephant God? The old man and his wisdom and knowing what was going on? His con and the possibility of his being the robber, the contact with the gangster, his concern about his own son? The boy and his living in a fantasy world? The irony of his having taken the Elephant God?
12. The assistant in the household, suspicions? His place in the robbery, contact with the gangster? The overtones of violence?
13. The old painter and his role as a chorus in the film? The pathos of his death?
14. The background of Holmes, hotels, the city itself, religion? Detection and human interest? The universal aspects of human nature? An elegant and entertaining piece of film making?
