The Tools and Technique of Satyajit Roy for Making Detective Fiction

Abstract Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) created Feluda, a detective fiction series, in the time of post-independence era of India. He adapted styles of western writers as well as Indian authors. From west, English novelist and story-writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was most influential of all. Among Indian writers, he was influenced by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (1899-1970). Apart from the influences, he found his own way of establishment in the field of detective story telling which was done according to the need of his time. His story structure has explicit three stages. First, introductory depiction of a probable problem. Second, the events and actions for which detection to be made. Third, the solution, who has done and how it is done. To keep the storytelling witty and fun-filled, he used the components like word puzzle, symbolic or metaphoric words, telegram message etc. One of the important aspects of his writing is that he created his own satire in the form of Lalmohan Ganguly. Lalmohan is a funny character in his story who represents faulty detective storytellers. Specially those who doesn’t know the proportion of exaggeration to create the character of a detective. Satyajit’s stories revolve around historical artifact theft or travel adventure in most of the cases. He almost avoided dead body inspection and horrors of death as a subject of his fiction. The language of his story contains features of upper-middle class people of 1970’s Bengal. His narrative relies more on thrilling experiential description than mere depiction of crime. Key words Storytelling, fun-character, exaggeration, malapropism, sign language, travelogue, detective