Sonar Kella (1974)

Director:

Satyajit Ray

Writer:

Satyajit Ray (writer)

Release Date:

27 December 1974 (India)

Genre:

Adventure | Family

Plot Keywords:

Hypnotism | Camel Ride | Pretending To Sleep | Drawing | Snakes And Ladders

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Santanu Bagchi	...	Mukul 2
Ajoy Banerjee	...	Amiyanath Burman
Haradhan Bannerjee	...	Tapesh's father
Kushal Chakravarti	...	Mukul Dhar
Bimal Chatterjee	...	Advocate
Rekha Chatterjee	...	Tapesh's mother
Siddharta Chatterjee	...	Tapesh (Topshe)
Soumitra Chatterjee	...	Prodosh Mitra (Feluda)
Harindranath Chattopadhyay	...	Uncle Sidhu
Santosh Dutta	...	Lalmohan Ganguly (Jatayu)
Ashok Mukherjee	...	Journalist
Kamu Mukherjee	...	Mandar Bose
Shailen Mukherjee	...	Dr. Hemanga Hajra
Shiuli Mukherjee	...	Mukul's mother
Sunil Sarkar	...	Mukul's father

Also Known As:

The Golden Fortress (USA)

Runtime:

120 min | India:136 min

Country:

India

Language:

Bengali

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Government of West Bengal

Trivia:

The title means "The Golden Fortress", a reference to the fort at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, which is built of a kind of sandstone that resembles gold.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Kailashey Kelenkari (2007)

one of the most entertaining films I have ever seen

This is an excellent film. Satyajit Ray's genius is evident in each and every scene. The characters are portrayed beautifully. Soumitra Chatterjee is superb as 'Feluda'. One of my favorites is Kamu Mukherji as Mandar Bose. The range of emotions shown and the comic touch in his actions and dialogue are excellent. The change in his facial expression when he is trying to match Mukul's face with his photograph in the train is amazing.

Of course, everyone's darling Santosh Dutta as "Jatayu" is very good too. He portrays the average Bengali babu's role to perfection. "Topshe's" role as a eager and jovial teenager is well suited too.

The transitions between scenes are very nice - they help maintain the pace of the film. The background music leaves a beautiful impression. You may need to watch the film more than once to notice the subtle connections between certain dialogues and visual clues.

The dialogues are crisp and delivery is fantastic. Unfortunately, you would need to know the Bengali language to fully enjoy their impact - the loss in translation is inevitable.

Not one moment in the film is boring - if you want to be entertained as well as intellectually stimulated - this film is for you. Needless to say, I have watched it many times and I have a copy in my personal collection.