With his 2022 Christmas release Hatyapuri, Sandip Ray introduced a fresh lineup for his Feluda films, with Indraneil Sengupta as Feluda, Ayush Das as Topshe and Abhijit Guha as Jatayu. The trio returns in Nayan Rahasya, another novella penned by Satyajit Ray, this time for a South Indian adventure.

Nayan Rahasya revolves around Nayan (played by Abhinav Barua), aka Jyotishka, a wonder kid with exceptional numerical abilities. He becomes the showstopper for magic shows conducted by magician Sunil Tarafdar (Debnath Chatterjee).

As the magic shows become popular, Tarafdar is contacted by several unscrupulous people who want to use Nayan’s powers for vested interest. Among them are Mr Hodgson (Bharat Kaul), who wants Nayan to help him bet on the winning horse at the Calcutta Race Course.

There’s Mr Taraknath Thakur aka TNT (Supriyo Dutta), who wants to add Nayan to his collection of extraordinary humans. And then there’s Nandalal Basak (Biswajit Chakraborty), the agent of a foreigner impresario who wants to hire Nayan for performances abroad.

Apprehensive of Nayan’s safety, Tarafdar contacts Feluda, specially since he is scheduled to leave for magic shows in South India, starting with Chennai. The arrival of a mysterious benefactor named Hingorani (Mohan Agashe) in Chennai and his subsequent murder forces Feluda to sharpen his ‘magajastra’ to solve the mystery. To add to the troubles, Nayan goes missing.

While Sandip Ray stays faithful to the original story, it lacks the punch and thrill one associates with a Feluda adventure. The storytelling is reminiscent of the old Doordarshan serial ‘Satyajit er Goppo’ that Sandip Ray directed. The build-up to the actual crime — the murder and kidnapping — takes too long and the resolution is too quick. We also missed the classic Feluda climax where he gathers all stakeholders in one room and peels the layers off the mystery.

What works in favour of Nayan Rahasya is the fact that Sandip Ray leans on showing more of Feluda’s sleuthing skills than putting him in action scenes, unlike in his earlier films. A few tweaks to the characterisation helps. Feluda now uses a mobile phone and Jatayu’s iconic Ambassador has been replaced by a hatchback but in the original green.

Indraneil Sengupta has grown more comfortable in Feluda’s skin, barring the few occasions when he looks a bit stiff. Abhijit Guha’s interpretation of Jatayu offers comic relief at times but mostly comes across as over the top. Ayush Das doesn’t have much to do as Topshe, given that he largely has one-line dialogues. Among the supporting cast, Debnath Chatterjee impresses as magician Tarafdar.

In the opening chapter of the Nayan Rahasya novella, Satyajit Ray describes a conversation between Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu where they are discussing fan mail. The overwhelming response from readers was that the Feluda adventures were losing their charm.

Ray had written Nayan Rahasya towards the end of his life and this conversation was an introspection of sorts. Sandip Ray has dropped it from his cinematic adaptation but retained the section where Feluda tells Tarafdar that while his magic shows have awe-inspiring acts, they need more glamour. Is this a cue for us to expect something more? Maybe the next Feluda film holds the answer.