Popular teenage sleuth Gogol is headed to the big screen in director Arindam Dey's upcoming movie.
Written by novelist Samaresh Basu, the sleuth 'Gogol' was a favourite of the kids in the 80s and 90s and the director chose the writer's very popular "Sonali Parer Rahasyo" (mystery of the golden beach) to make his third film.
"I understand how children have now moved away from the world of Bengali literature, which was our very important source of joy during those times. One day I saw my little daughter reading Enid Blyton. I asked her if she had heard of Gogol and she replied in the negative," Arindam said.
"So the film is a small effort on my part to give our children what they are missing - the uncomplicated world of fun we were so familiar with," the director told PTI.
He drew a line between Satyajit Ray's Feluda, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's Byomkesh or Kakababu by Sunil Gangopadhyay and Gogol, saying the tales of those three characters were basically detective.
"But the film "Goenda Gogol" is a fun-mixed adventure movie with a peek into a child's psyche and inquisitiveness," Arindam, who is also directing 'Chhayamanush' starring Raima Sen, Parambrata Chatterjee and Paoli Dam, said.
The director said his Gogol also read Feluda, the immortal creation by Satyajit Ray, which was a must read in those days.
"We used to wait anxiously for the children's magazines like 'Suktara', 'Anandamela' 'Kishor Bharati' to arrive by post. The thrill at seeing the postman delivering the packet is being missed by today's children who rather prefer to read them in the form of e-books," he said.
12-year-old Ahijit will portray Gogol on the celluloid Gogol. Ahijit, who loves to watch Tom and Jerry the most, said he would like to see more children's films being made in Bengali.
"I read the script and I guessed I share many traits with Gogol. I play golf and cricket and there is so much to read in the syllabus these days. I don't want to read printed words otherwise. I do facebook and twitter and I read on the monitor. But now I will read Gogol in print," The actor said.
The film releases today.
