Editing Feluda (section)

== Other characters ==

=== Topshe ===
Feluda's paternal (maternal in the first two stories) cousin Tapesh Ranjan Mitter, who is fondly referred to as ''Topshe'',<ref name="Pandey2008">{{cite book|author=Ravi N. Pandey |title=Encyclopaedia of Great Indian Novels And Novelists (Set of 3 Vols.)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WD0qAQAAIAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd|isbn=978-81-261-3700-8|page=228}}</ref> is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's conception of Dr. [[Dr. Watson|John Watson]]. In the first couple of stories, his surname was ''Bose'', but later it changed to ''Mitra''. Just like the former [[British Army|army]] surgeon, Topshe is the quintessential accomplice and faithfully records each of Pradosh Mitter's exploits accurately. Topshe is a smart teenager. In the first story of Feluda series (i.e. ''Feludar Goyendagiri''), Topshe was thirteen and a half where Feluda's age was twenty-seven, just the double of Topshe. Though Feluda often teases his young cousin, he is extremely fond and very protective of him. Feluda lives with Topshe's family. Topshe's father, Binay Mitter is the younger brother of Feluda's father, and therefore his uncle, and they all reside at 21, Rajani Sen Road, Kolkata-700029.<ref name="Feluda's Home"/> Although there really is a 'Rajani Sen Road'<ref name="Feluda's Home"/> in [[Kolkata]], the house number is missing. Formerly, they all used to live in Tara road, Kolkata. Though not mentioned explicitly, Topshe is good-looking, fair, tall and handsome, as per different illustrations made by Satyajit Ray himself. During Sonar Kella, he was 5'5.5" tall (he was two inches taller than Jatayu, who was 5'3.5"). But during Golokdham Rahasya, he become taller and reached the height of 5'7".

Detailed knowledge regarding Topshe's high school education is not available, but he used to go to school during the adventure of ''[[Sonar Kella]]'' (the sixth book of Feluda series). In the film adaptation of ''Sonar Kella'', Topshe's mother shows her concern regarding his career and study as he spends much time solving cases with Feluda. By the time of [[Kailashey Kelenkari (novel)|''Kailashe Kelenkari'']] (the ninth book of the series) he have had his secondary examination ('[[Madhyamik Pariksha]]'). Just like Feluda, Topshe also used to read lot of books to enhance his knowledge. Topshe often gets his lessons from Feluda himself. In many cases, Feluda tests his deductive knowledge and he usually passes the test satisfactorily. In the movie '' Sonar Kella'' Topshe's father aptly said that Topshe is a lucky boy who got Feluda as his mentor. Topshe is fond of '[[Adventures of Tintin]]' comic series. In the book '' [[Kailashey Kelenkari (novel)|Kailashe Kelenkari]]'', he is found reading '[[Tintin in Tibet]]'.

Topshe always takes an active part in Feluda's adventure. Though in most cases, he follows Feluda's instructions or indications, there are instances where he himself gets involved into some action/investigation. To mention a few, he and Jatayu (a.k.a. Lalmohan Ganguly) sneaks into a warehouse in '[[Patan, Nepal|Patan]]' (Nepal) to discover vast collection of smuggled narcotics (book ''Jato Kando Kathmandute''); finds out the [[stabbed]] [[Human body|body]] of a missing man in the woods (book ''Darjeeling Jomjomat''); replaces the pink [[pearl]] with a fake for safe-keeping (book ''[[Golapi Mukta Rahasya]]''). The last incident impressed Feluda as well. However, all these activities mainly comes in the latter part of the series. He also interrogated the suspects in ''Apsara Theaterer Mamla'' when Feluda was sick and [[bedridden.]] Feluda solved the case just from the report of that interrogation.

In movies and TV films the character of Feluda has been played by [[Soumitra Chatterjee]], [[Shashi Kapoor]], [[Sabyasachi Chakrabarty]] and recently [[Abir Chatterjee]], while Topshe has been played by [[Siddartha Chatterjee]], Alankar Joshi,  [[Saswata Chatterjee]], [[Parambrata Chatterjee|Parambrata Chattopadhyay]] and [[Saheb Bhattacharya]] over the years. In Sandip Ray's 2014 film ''[[Badshahi Angti (film)|Badshahi Angti]]'', actor Sourav Das played the role.

In Srijit Mukherjee's Webseries, Topshe was played by Kalpan Mitra and Feluda was played by [[Tota Roy Chowdhury]]. In Arindam Sil's Webseries, Feluda was played by [[Parambrata Chatterjee|Parambrata Chattopadhyay]] and Topshe by [[Rwitobroto Mukherjee]].

=== Lalmohan Ganguli or Jatayu<!--DON'T ADD BENGALI NAME--> ===
{{Main|Lalmohan Ganguly}}

Lalmohan Ganguli is a close friend of Pradosh Chandra Mitter, and is described as the author of a series of Bengali crime thrillers written under the pseudonym '[[Jatayu]]'. His crime stories and novels are usually derided as unbelievable, considering that his main character is always the superhero Prakhar Rudra. Though all his novels seem to have become best-sellers, he often tends to make extremely silly mistakes such as spelling [[igloo]]s as 'ilgoos'. In ''Baksho Rahasya'' or ''Incident on the Kalka [[Mail]]'', he confuses [[hippo]]s with [[walrus]]es&nbsp;— a tendency that Feluda often tries to correct. He sometimes serves as a perfect foil to the group and in Ray's own words provides 'dollops of [[humour]]', although he sometimes does some brave acts not expected of him. To mention a few, he knocked out goons in ''Baksho Rahasya'' (using his [[boomerang]]), ''Joto Kando [[Kathmandu]]te'' (using a [[prayer wheel]]), ''[[Tintoretto]]r Jishu'' (using a packing box) and ''Ebar Kando [[Kedarnath]]e'' (using a stick), which impressed Feluda as well. He owns a 'Madrasi green' [[Hindustan Ambassador|Ambassador]] car. Jatayu makes his first appearance in ''Sonar Kella'' joining Feluda and Topshe in the train at [[Agra]], on their way to [[Jodhpur]]. In the first two films on Feluda, which were directed by Ray himself, the character was played by [[Santosh Dutta]], and after the first one, Ray modified the literary character to some extent, making him look and behave quite like Dutta himself. In the next films directed by Ray's son, Sandip Ray, this character was played by [[Mohan Agashe]], [[Rabi Ghosh]], [[Anup Kumar (actor)|Anup Kumar]] and [[Bibhu Bhattacharya]] respectively. Jatayu also has a fantasy of collecting weapons. In various books he carried weapons like '[[kukri]]' (Nepali [[knife]]), and [[smoke bomb]]. Jatayu lives at Garpar in Kolkata, and it may be recalled that Satyajit Ray himself passed his childhood at 100, Garpar.

=== Sidhu Jetha<!--DON'T ADD BENGALI NAME--> ===
Sidhu Jetha's formal name is Siddheshwar Bose. He is an aged character who has described himself to be like [[Sherlock Holmes]]'s brother [[Mycroft Holmes|Mycroft]], living in Sardar Sankar Road, Lake Market, [[Kalighat]], [[Kolkata]]. He is a [[bibliophile]], and has an extensive base of general knowledge, current and historical affairs. He is a close friend of Feluda's father, being former neighbours in their ancestral village in [[Bangladesh]]. Feluda's jyatha (that is, [[uncle]]) is said to have a 'photographic memory', and is a vast source of information which comes in handy when Feluda is in need of some. His vast knowledge comes from his collection of varied kinds of newspaper clippings which he has accumulated over the years. The role was played by [[Harindranath Chattopadhyay]] in ''[[Sonar Kella]]'', [[Ajit Bandyopadhyay (actor)|Ajit Bandopadhyay]] in ''[[Baksho Rahashya (film)|Baksho Rahashya]]'', Dibya Bhattacharya in Golapi Mukto Rahashya, [[Haradhan Banerjee]] in ''[[Kailashey Kelenkari (film)|Kailashe Kelenkari]]'' and in ''[[Gorosthaney Sabdhan (film)|Gorosthaney Sabdhan]]'' and by [[Paran Bandyopadhyay]] in ''[[Double Feluda]]''. Following recent Feluda films made by Sandip Ray, Satyajit Ray's son, there have been questions over Sidhu Jyatha's continued relevance in the stories considering technologies such as the internet offer a faster, wider and more effective knowledge base than a well-read person.

=== Haripada Datta<!--DON'T ADD BENGALI NAME--> ===
Haripada Datta is the driver of Lalmohon Ganguli's [[second-hand]] green Mark II ''[[Hindustan Ambassador|Ambasador]]'' car. He is a loyal, intelligent and reliable person and is of great help when needed. He played a crucial role in ''Gorosthaney Sabhdhan'' where he saved the lives of Feluda, Jatayu, and Topshe. He also has a minor role in ''Boshpukery Khunkharapi'', where he takes part in a surveillance mission with the rest of Feluda's gang in [[disguise]] playing 29 cardgame.

=== Maganlal Meghraj<!--DON'T ADD BENGALI NAME--> ===
[[File:Maganlal_Meghraj.png|thumb|right|Maganlal Meghraj, as drawn by Satyajit Ray]]
Meghraj is a villainous character who appears in three Feluda stories, including ''Joi Baba Felunath'', ''Joto Kando Kathmandute'', and ''Golapi Mukta Rahasya''. He has been compared to [[Professor Moriarty]] of the [[Sherlock Holmes]] series. [[Utpal Dutta]] immortalised this character in one Feluda movie ''[[Joi Baba Felunath (film)|Joi Baba Felunath]]'' and a Hindi Feluda Telefilm [[Kissa Kathmandu Mein]], which [[Satyajit Ray]] and [[Sandip Ray]] directed respectively. After him [[Mohan Agashe]] played this character twice in telefilms.

Maganlal lives in Benaras. He has a house in Joka, Kolkata also. His son's name is Surajlal Meghraj. He is officially a money-lender but is involved in smuggling artifacts, [[narcotics]] (through Indo-Nepal border) and jewellery. His Kolkata house had been raided once but he escaped any charges until Feluda caught him red-handed in smuggling an invaluable Ganesh Murti (an idol of the elephant god) during the case of ''[[Joi Baba Felunath (film)|Joi Baba Felunath]]''. However, he was not behind bars for a long time. In the nineteenth book, ''Jato Kando Kathmandute'', Feluda said that he was not at all surprised seeing Meghraj out of jail as that was nothing for such an influential person. Once again he was arrested in charge of [[murder]] and smuggling, yet he averted any long term punishment and we saw him once again in the thirty-first story, ''Golapi Mukta Rahasya.''

Maganlal is a good judge of human character. He lured ''Bikash Singh'', secretary of ''Umanath Ghoshal'', to steal the invaluable 'Ganesh Murti' from the Ghoshal-house. He also has a special interest in humiliating ''Jatayu''. In ''Joi Baba Felunath'' he made Jatayu the subject of a knife-throwing play. In ''Jato Kando Kathmandute'', he purposefully slips an [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]]-laced [[sugar cube]] in Jatayu's tea. In his third appearance, he made Jatayu to sing a Tagore song (which Jatayu said his first time experience of singing a song). Surprisingly, he shows a queer fondness to Jatayu and usually calls him 'Uncle'.

During these three stories, we see many accomplices of Maganlal. Some of them are Machhli-Baba, Bikash Sinha, Arjun the [[knife]] thrower, Anantalaal Batra, Dr. Dibakar and Manohar. Maganlaal has his own ''Bajra'' by which he travels in Ganga near Benaras. The door of his house in Benaras is painted with figures of two swordsmen. During the making of the movie, ''[[Joi Baba Felunath (film)|''Joi Baba Felunath'']]'', this swordsmen were painted by Satyajit Ray himself.

=== Pulak Ghoshal<!--DON'T ADD BENGALI NAME--> ===
Ghoshal is a [[Mumbai]]-based popular Hindi film director hailing from Kolkata. His original home in Kolkata is in the neighbourhood of Lalmohonbabu's in northern Kolkata's Garpar. He has directed two films based on Lalmohonbabu's stories. During the shooting of both these films, dangerous events took place, resulting in arrest of a producer in one film (''[[Bombaiyer Bombete (film)|Bombaiyer Bombete]]'') and arrest of an actor in another film (''Darjeeling Jamjomat'').

=== Minor characters ===
* '''Srinath''' is the domestic help of Feluda and Topshe. He is often seen serving tea and snacks for Feluda and his clients.
* '''Jagannath''' is the household cook at Feluda's place. 
* '''Bharadwaj''' is the household cook at Lalmohan Babu's place.
* '''Baikuntha Nath Mallik''' was a poet, tourist and Bangla teacher at Ethenium Institution where Lalmohan Babu used to study. When he was in the seventh grade, he won prize for reciting Baikuntha's poem on sea. Lalmohan Babu often describes him as a great poet who did not get the adulation he deserved. There is no presence of him in the story but in some stories we can see Jatayu reciting his poems.