Sonar Kella
Front cover of 1992 edition of the book published by Ananda Publishers
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| Author | Satyajit Ray |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Satyajit Ray |
| Country | India |
| Language | Bengali |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Ananda Publishers |
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Publication date
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1971 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Gangtokey Gondogol |
| Followed by | Baksho Rahashya |
| Sonar Kella | |
|---|---|
DVD cover art
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| Directed by | Satyajit Ray |
| Produced by | Government of West Bengal |
| Written by | Satyajit Ray |
| Starring |
Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee, Kushal Chakraborty |
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Release date
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27 December 1974 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Bengali |
| Budget | Rs 7 lakhs |
| Box office | Rs 13 lakhs |
Sonar Kella (Bengali: সোনার কেল্লা), also Shonar Kella is a 1971 mystery novel by Bengali writer and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. In 1974, Ray directed a film adaption of the book, also named Sonar Kella, starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee and Kushal Chakraborty. The movie was released in the United States as The Golden Fortress.
The film begins where Mukul Dhar (played by Kushal Chakraborty), a kid who is said to be able to remember events of his previous life, stays up late into the night and draws sketches about peacocks, forts and of battles that he claims to remember as he had seen, and soon receives the media attention. This finally ended up his father narrating the following incidents to Prodosh Mitter, at his residence about how he met Dr. Hemanga Hajra (Sailen Mukherjee), a parapsychologist, in his book store who in turn enthusiastically offers for help believing it might also help him in his research. After listening to Mukul's descriptions of deserts and peacocks, Dr. Hajra guesses that the place he describes might be in the deserts of Rajasthan. Mukul also mentions that he lived in the Golden Fortress [Sonar Kella] and that their house had lots of gems. Dr. Hajra decides to take Mukul on a trip to Rajasthan hoping this may shed deeper light into such parapsychological phenomenon, as well as help cure the boy.
A newspaper report on Mukul states that the reporter had seen gems in Mukul's house, which alerts two criminals by the names of Amiyanath Burman and Mandar Bose, the villains in the story. Burman and Bose had earlier had encounters with Dr. Hajra, when he had exposed fraudulent activities of the pair. They interpret his mention of gems as a hidden treasure and plan to kidnap Mukul in hope of getting their hands on it. Their first attempt at the kidnapping fails when they pick up another boy, also named Mukul (Santanu Bagchi), from the same neighborhood. The other Mukul, who could recall his previous life, had already left for Rajasthan along with Dr Hajra, who was completely unaware of these occurrences during this period.
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