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Episode #12 of Hindi TV Serial Byomkesh Bakshi is one of the most sought episode of the same. Based on the story Durgo Rahasya by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, this episode is named as Kile Ka Rahasya (The Mystery of the Fortress). The original story was written in 1952.
The (fictional) incidents of this episode are setup somewhere in north Bihar during year 1952
| TV Serial | : | Byomkesh Bakshi |
| Season | : | Season 1 |
| Episode # | : | 12 |
| Episode Title | : | Tasveer Chor |
| Originally Aired | : | 1993 |
| Director | : | Basu Chatterji |
| Asst. Director | : | Ravindra Singh |
| Asst. Cameraman | : | H N Singh |
| Music | : | Anand Shankar |
| Asst. Music Director | : | Nanda Kumar Das |
| Sound | : | Arun Chakraborty |
| Make Up | : | Mahendra Chonkar |
| Dress | : | Pyare Lal |
| Art Director | : | Jadab Bhattacharya |
| Publicity Designer | : | Studio Link |
| Editor | : | Sanjay Malhotra |
| Photography | : | Ajay Prabhakar |
| Make Up | : | Mahendra Chonkar |
| Screenplay | : | Saharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Basu Chatterji, Mriganka Shekhar Rai |
| Story | : | Saharadindu Bandopadhyay |
| Production House | : |
Basu Chatterji Production for Doordarshan |
| Starring | : |
Rajit Kapoor (Byomkesh Bakshi), K K Raina (Ajit Kumr Banerji), Sukanya Kulkarni, Prem Bedi (DSP Purandar Pande), Govind Namdeo (Ramkishore Singh), Narayan Pati (Bansidhar Singh), Ajay Srivastav (Murlidhar Singh), Master Babloo (Gadadhar Singh), Sashi Hans (Ramapati), Rakesh Dube (Manilal), Dev Sharma (Gaurishankar), Mahesh Vachani (Ataullah), Dharma Nepali (Vakil Sahab), Darshan Lal (Professor), Govind Dharmadhikari (Sadhu), Shilpa Toraskar (Tulsi), and others… |
Byomkesh and Ajit was called to solve a mystery of death. DSP Pande took them to a fortress by giving him information about various incidents and people associated with them. He tells Byomkesh that Ramkishore Singh is the owner of the fortress and lives in a bungalow near it.
Mr. IshanChandra Chatterji was a special friend to Mr. Singh. And after being retired from the job he was staying there (in the premises of the fortress). He was living alone. He met with death all of a sudden. The postmortem repot suggested that he was poisoned by a snake’s bite. And made the entire incident somewhat mysterious. When Byomkesh asked the reason for the suspicion (as it could be possible that the victim was bitten by the snake, and could have been an accident actually). DSP suggested that there are various circumstances which made him to think that, and the place is actually on height. Even no rats are found there, so it seems quite unreal to find a snake there. And yet, the blood of the victim contain the traces of the snake’s poison!
Eventually Byomkesh and Ajit are introduced to many characters who are assoicated with RamKishore Singh in one way or the other. Surrounded by many people RamKishore is a wealthy man. One of his daughters met her death almost a year ago. The reason of her death was also a deadly snake bite! In addition to RamKishore’s sons, there is a master also living with them. His duty is to teach the younger daughter of Ramkishore. RamKishore’s son-in-law was also living with them.
And yes, if that is not enough, a sage was also living in the jungle. Byomkesh find it quite un-natural to have a sage’s existence in the jungle. As, there is no one who is going to feed him in this remote place. But, he was informed that RamKishore took care of day to day requirements of the sage!
How Byomkesh sorts out the mystery of murder(actually let us say – murders) is the rest of the episode. And it is better to explore on your own.
In terms of story and TV Serial episode both, Kile Ka Rahasya is revolved around many characters. This episode have the largest number of characters in all first 12 episode. It is tough to write a story to have so many characters and having significance of each one. While Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay was able to write a gripping story around these many characters, Basu Chatterji explored it quite effectively on celluloid.
While the filming was not required to show the entire fortress, but a part of a deserted fortress was very much required as the location. The locations are quite realistic. The bungalow of RamKishore Singh is also a convincing set/location by the art director.
Of course, Rajit Kapoor and K K Raina are the top performers of this episode as well. Byomkesh and Ajit are getting aged with each case, and both the actors have shown it not only through their makeup but their body language is also very convincing. They look so effective that till today for many people (especially non-Bengali, who were introduced to Byomkesh and Ajit through National Television in India), Rajit is the real Byomkesh and K K Raina is Ajit.
While the script is gripping, if the execution was below the mark, the episode could have been a disaster. As said earlier, the director played a vital role in wisely giving enough footage to these many characters, and still he was able to winding up the entire story in a single episode. The background music is very effective. It sets up the mood as per the requirements.
It is interesting to see a blossoming love story in the backdrop of a mystery.
Summary:
Overall a nice episode with many characters and effective performances. Definitely worth to go for.
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Also, fasten your seat belts for the ride of another case of Byomkesh where he and Ajit are trying to solve the mystery of Chiriya Ghar, which is spread over 2 episodes.
