Feluda, or Pradosh Chandra Mitter (Mitra), is a fictional detective and a private investigator created by famous Indian director and writer Satyajit Ray.
Feluda resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal. Feluda first made his appearance in a Bengali children's magazine called Sandesh in 1965, under the editorialship of Satyajit Ray and Subhas Mukhopadhyay. His first adventure was Feludar Goendagiri.
Feluda is often accompanied by his cousin, who is also his assistant, Tapesh Ranjan Mitter (affectionately called Topshe by Feluda), who serves as the narrator of the stories. From the sixth story, Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), the duo are joined by a popular thriller writer Jatayu (Lalmohan Ganguly).
Feluda is a common Bengali man possessing some extraordinary qualities. He has a voracious reading habit, which contributes to his immense general knowledge. This comes in handy, in addition to his observation and analytical skills, when he is speaking to or finding more about the 'suspects' in different cases, which also shows the ability of this man to retain information in his 'Mogojostro' (the brain weapon).
Feluda finds an avid listener in Topshe. While he is very fond of his cousin, he likes to keep Topshe on his toes with questions and riddles to sharpen the young one's 'Mogojostro'.
Jatayu is the ever enthusiastic, adventure-loving, but also nervous thriller writer, who joins the duo on their cases. In his books, he has created a character called Prakhar Rudra, which is based on Feluda. He credits Feluda multiple times for helping him correct the inaccuracies of his writing references. In turn, Feluda, while being thankful for that, does not miss pointing out the inaccuracies that Jatayu has failed to show him, which include confusing hippos with walruses, and spelling 'igloos' as 'ilgoos'.
Feluda, featuring his favourite brand of cigarettes, Charminar and his handy .32 Colt revolver.
A nervous Jatayu with his famous boomerang from the Baksho Rahasya case. He is known to have a fancy collection of weapons, which he borrows from, in their cases. Despite being nervous, he is known to take charge with new-found confidence when Feluda and Topshe need him.
Topshe derives his nickname from the fish species of the same name.
