5 Famous Fictional Detectives

5 Detectives Whose Legacies Still Live On

 

My childhood was pretty much spent hogging on detective story books which ranged from Nancy Drew, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventures of Tintin, Sherlock Homes and many more. I think each and everyone at some point in our lives wanted to become detectives and solve crimes all day long.

Here are five detectives who are still going strong:

Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation Sherlock Holmes is the epitome of detectives. We all eat, breathe and sleep Sherlock Holmes. Residing at 221B Baker Street, London with his friend Dr. Watson who accompanies him on his investigations he is a genius in its truest sense. His immense popularity instills in us the feeling that maybe he isn’t a fictional character after all but a real individual. Whether it is one of his conversations with his elder brother Mycroft, a government official or being a remarkable gentleman to Mrs. Hudson, he portrays himself as a chivalrous opponent. Even though we have found him saying in The Valley of Fear, “I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind”, we have come across Irene Adler for whom Holmes holds a very high regard. For Holmes, she is ‘the woman’ who predominates the whole of her sex. Sherlock Holmes is also the god of disguise as sometimes even Dr. Watson fails to recognize him.

Inspector Clouseau – Inspector Clouseau belongs to the imagination of Blake Edwards. He is the Chief Inspector in The Pink Panther series which aims at entertaining the audience by providing them with situations which are highly exaggerated, has a larger than life feel to it and thus often comes across as highly improbable but hilarious nevertheless. Not only is he exceptionally maladroit, his actions convey to us that he is not cut out for this job as we see him falling down the stairs to accidentally shooting another officer to finding out the culprits completely by chance. What still makes us laugh out loud even today is also the preposterous and elaborate costumes of his and his exaggerated French accent which even the French characters in the movie have a hard time grasping.

Byomkesh Bakshi – This bespectacled genius belongs to the evergreen Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Besides preferring to call himself a ‘Satyanweshi’ or seeker of truth rather than a detective he was also very different from the other detectives in the sense that he aged, got married and had a son as well just like any other normal person, and this sense of reality in this fictional character made us love him even more.

Tintin – Sporting a pair of brown trousers, a blue polo shirt, and with Snowy, his dog beside him Tintin is the most famous fictional detective of a comic series penned down by the Belgian cartoonist Herge. Whereas sometimes we find him to be a tad bit doltish, he is omniscient at the very next moment. However, it is his portrayal of loyal friendship and the sense of humor which makes it much more appealing.

Feluda – Prodosh Chandra Mitter or Feluda is the creation of Satyajit Ray who found his inspiration in Sherlock Holmes fictions. He is accompanied by Tapash, his cousin and Lal Mohon Ganguly who is described as a writer of Bengali crime thrillers in the novels. At twenty-seven and towering over a height of 6’2″ the most appropriate adjective to describe him would definitely have to be ‘sauve’. Inspite of being a strongly built man Feluda relies on his ‘Magajastra’ or brain-weapon to solve all his cases.

 

Ashmita Saha: I am final year undergraduate student pursuing International Relations from Jadavpur University. Before coming to this university which has a larger than life feel to it, fourteen years of my life has been spent in Mahadevi Birla Girls’ Higher Secondary School. If you don’t know where that is, it is the school beside Don Bosco, Park Circus on Darga Road. All my school life I have been so accustomed to my school’s lack of identity that for this sole reason I hate Don Bosco and the all the Bosconians. At a very young age, I was introduced to a lot of story books. As I have an elder brother all his story books became mine. Since then I have been a voracious reader. I am also an enthusiast when it comes to food and trying out new cuisines. You know how there are bathroom singers, I pride myself to be a bathroom guitarist. However, I love music. I am quite a social animal and enjoy people’s company.

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