Byomkesh Bakshi

Byomkesh Bakshi
First appearance Satyanweshi
Last appearance Bishupal Bodh
Created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
Information
Nickname(s) Satyanweshi
Gender Male
Occupation Private investigator
Title Satyanweshi
Family Ajit
Spouse(s) Satyabati
Children Khoka
Nationality Indian

Bomkesh Bakshi is a popular Bengali fictional detective created by Shardindu Bandhopadhay. He is a fictional private detective created by Saradindu Bandopadhyay. Byomkesh solves crimes with his mind-reading skills combined with sharp intelligence and skills of observation. Byomkesh hated the word ‘detective’ attached to his name and created his own title ‘Satyanweshi’ to explain his main function – a seeker of truth.

First appear in Pather Kanta appeared in 1932 but Byomkesh was first introduced to Ajit in Satyanweshi, a friendship that remained till the last novel. Though Bandopadhyay stopped writing Byomkesh stories after writing ten by 1936, the popularity of Byomkesh forced him to write 22 more detective stories after a gap of 15 years. Byomkesh’s mysteries are part of the West Bengal school syllabus. Bomkesh Bakshi is probably the best detective in Bengali literature till date. [1]

Inspiration for the character

Saradindu was greatly influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and in turn Byomkesh is greatly influenced by Sherlock Holmes. Ajit who is Byomkesh's friend and lives with him is also a writer and acts as the quintessential Watson in Byomkesh mysteries. Byomkesh lives with Ajit in a flat in Calcutta in the early stories, in the later ones Byomkesh gets married and even has a son, which is quite a contrast to the life long bachelor Holmes who stays away from anything conjugal. Byomkesh in many cases cogitates on the armchair trying to decrypt an obscure puzzle and in other cases is quite in the thick of action. Byomkesh is not pretentious and this can be seen in many stories where he is often underestimated and even ridiculed by the police. Byomkesh uses both deductive and intuitive methods to solve the sensational crimes in which he becomes embroiled. [2]

Family and Early Life

Byomkesh Bakshi is described in Satyanweshi as "a man of twenty three or twenty four years of age who looked well educated."  In the Adim Ripu story, there is some information about Byomkesh's early childhood. His father was a mathematics teacher at school and at home Byomkesh Sankhya philosophy practiced, and his mother was the daughter of the house of Vaishnava. Byomkesh when seventeen years old, his father and his mother TB disease died. Afterwards, Byomkesh passed the university with scholarship(jol pani).  

During Second World War , and after the independence of India, Ajit and his family live in the mess house of Harrison Road. The only other person, except the Bomkesh, is his attendant, Putiram. At the request of Bomkesh, Ajit starts living at the house. Later, they decided to buy land in Keyatala in south Kolkata and shifted themselves to their new residence. It is also known that Bomkesh did not like being called a detective.He thought the word intelligence was not quite suitable for him.Thus he fashioned a new name for himself and had it inscribed on a brass plate in front of his house .The plaque read " Bomkesh Bakshi Satyanweshi (Seeker of Truth)".Unlike other lead character in detective stories Bomkesh Bakshi marries, ages contemplates buying a car etc.When Sukumar was charged with a murder story "Arthamanartham" byomakesh meet Satyavathi, sister of Sukumar, With whom later his marriage was completed. [3]

Life With Ajit

As Sharadindu Bandhopadhay most well known character Bomkesh Bakshi first appeared as a character in the story Satyanweshi(truth seeker) . The story is set in 1931 in the Chinabazar area of Kolkata where a 'non government detective' Bomkesh Bakshi on the permission of the police commissioner starts living in a mess in that area under the pseudonym of Atul Chandra Mitra to probes a series of murders. Most of the stories are written by Sharadindu under the pen name of Ajit who is said to have met Bomkesh in the mess at Chinabazar, a friendship that remained till the last novel. There is a sense of a rooted relationship between the two, which elevates Ajit from the status of the customary satellite to that of an associate. Ajit understands Byomkesh as few others do; he works as Byomkesh’s sounding board and sometimes though not very often—offers insights that expedite the deduction processes of his friend.[4]

Character

Byomkesh is the first grown-up, professional detective and in his moods and mannerisms, he represented the Bengali middle class. Solving mysteries was a hobby for Jayanta. He was seldom bothered by material factors like remuneration. But for Byomkesh, the detective business is his livelihood. He wants to be paid for services rendered. He’s also a man who knows he’s working in a dangerous field – Byomkesh owns a gun that he occasionally carries with him. Though we don’t see him using it, the fact that he has it is a sign that these cases are not child’s play.

Byomkesh is a normal, educated, middle-class Bengali man; not a larger-than-life figure like Blake or Jayanta; or an eccentric, drug-addicted genius like Sherlock Holmes. Most of his cases revolve around a social issue that makes them relevant in addition to being mysterious. In at least three stories, he catches the murderer only to let them go scot-free because he considers them to be victims of circumstances. Speaking about Byomkesh in an interview, Sharadindu said,

“I had always tried to place the Byomkesh stories at a certain intellectual level.You can treat them as social fiction. In every man’s life, certain problems crop up from time. Byomkesh tries to solve such problems. I have never ignored the reality while writing those stories.”[5]

Byomkesh stories

Saradindu Bandopadhyay penned down 32 Byomkesh stories from 1932 to 1970 prior to his death, In his early stories Ajit Banerjee is described as his companion cum chronicler of his stories.But in some cases there Ajit also investigates in absence of Byomkesh (Makarshar rosh, ShoiloRahasya), These stories are all written traditional Bengali language but later stories it has been shifted to colloquial (cholite) language.Even it is also found that the later stories are not penned down by Ajit, as because he is much more engaged in publication business.

These stories are not very complicated, but very grasping one with series of events.From the first one Satyanweshi, where byomkesh destroys an international drug racket, to house hold mysteries and crimes like Arthamanartham, Makarshar Rosh etc all are equally enjoyable. Byomkesh gradually ages thorough out the series, and he has a son who is mentioned as Khoka(little boy) in the series, Saradindu doesn't want to continue the Byomkesh stories, that's why he stopped writing byomakesh stories from 1938 to 1951. At that time he was busy in script writing in Bombay.After his return to West Bengal, there is still craving for Byomkesh stories and he wrote Chitra chor in 1951 and gradually so on to 1970, when his last story "Bishu pal badh"(Killing of Bishu Pal) was not completed owing to his untimely death.

Adaption in other Media

His popularity spans three generations of Bengalis across the world and two generations of Doordarshan viewers in India. Filmmakers from Basu Chatterji to Satyajit Ray, Manju Dey to Swapan Ghosal, Rituparno Ghosh to Anjan Dutt have made celluloid and television versions of some Bomkesh story or another. The first Byomkesh Bakshi to grace the Bengali screen was Uttam Kumar picked by Satyajit Ray to play the detective in Chiriakhana (1967).

Anjan Dutt made three full-length feature films adapted from Byomkesh Bakshi mysteries. The first, Byomkesh Bakshi, was adapted from Adim Ripu rooted in the tragic story of a young man born of an illicit relationship desperate to be acknowledged by his biological father. The next, Abar Byomkesh was adapted from Chitracbor and the third, released early this year was Byomkesh Phire Elo adapted from Beni Sanhar. Abir Chatterjee plays Byomkesh in all three.

The Sunday Suspense series of 98.3 Radio Mirchi (Kolkata) adapted total seven novels of Byomkesh Bakshi for audio stories which include Satyanweshi, Makorshar Rosh, Agnibaan, Roktomukhi Neela, Khunji Khunji Nari, Adwitiyo and Lohar Biscuit, performed by Mir Afsar Ali and Deep. [6]

List of stories


See also

References

  1. ↑ https://learningandcreativity.com/silhouette/byomkesh-bakshi-movie-review/
  2. ↑ http://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/why-detective-byomkesh-bakshy-is-no-sherlock/story-SYrBKtkLwAHpeJOqRNI9KK.html
  3. ↑ https://scroll.in/article/701691/byomkesh-bakshi-from-books-to-movies-five-things-to-remember
  4. ↑ http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/XoRJXBeDXqzmkOjxPuCuHI/The-curious-case-of-Byomkesh-Bakshi.html
  5. ↑ https://thegrowlery2014.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/the-great-bengali-detectives-part-2/
  6. ↑ https://byomkesh.com/films/
  7. ↑ https://byomkesh.com/stories/
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