Not only in comedy, but also in various other genres, Narayan Debnath's excellence and brilliance can be observed throughout his extensive body of work. The story of the magician continues ater Bantul and Hada Bhoda.
In 1969, another leading publishing house, Patra Bharati, approached Debnath Babu to start a comic series
similar to Hada Bhoda for their magazine, Kishore Bharati. Debnath started his new series, Nonte Fonte,
which was similar to Hada Bhoda and primarily focused on the mischievous activities of two young kids. Later, he watched the film Jagriti and drew inspiration from it, leading him to introduce the concept of a boarding school in the series.
He also came across the film "Paribartan," which inspired him to
create the popular character of Superintendent Sir, & Patiram Hati became a cult figure. He also included a sweet and mischievous character named Keltu, which completed the final form of the Nonte Fonte
series.
During the 1980s, Nonte Fonte was published as separate comic books after being detached from Kishore Bharati magazine. Nonte Fonte gained maximum popularity after its solo book release compared to its earlier publication in the magazine.
Following this trend, Bantul and Hada Bhoda were also published as separate books for a significant number of years, whereas previously they were part of magazines.
Among Narayan Debnath's extensive body of work, these three series, especially Bantul and Nonte Fonte,
stood out, and their fan following is unparalleled to this day. They have become cult classics, and their
absence in new adventures and stories is deeply felt. It wasn't that comedy was his only favourite genre of work.
He was a big fan of thriller series and always aspired to create his own detective stories. Soon, he began illustrating a series based on Indrajit Roy aka the highly popular pulp hero, Black Diamond. These works fell under the adventure genre. According to many readers,
Black Diamond is still considered the best Bengali pulp comic to date, although the stories in this series were written by another author, Dilip Chatterjee.
Debnath's long-standing desire to write and illustrate a full-fledged thriller series materialized in 1975
when he created his own detective character named Goyenda Koushik Roy. Koushik Roy was a spy agent of the Indian government trained in martial arts and possessed a mechanical hand with various powers, such as acting as an iron fist, long iron claws, and a laser beam spitter.
Goyenda Koushik received a warm response from the audience and continued as the cover story of Suktara magazine for many years. Debnath even created a crossover between his characters in one issue. In the Goyenda Koushik series,
Debnath explored various cinematic elements. From an artistic standpoint, many consider this series to be his best work. He meticulously designed each frame using cinematic shot division, following camera angles
commonly seen in movies—
close-ups, long shots, wide angles, wrote strong one liner dialogues. Narayan literally incorporated everything, designed high-octane action sequences following western standards, and developed a style of drawing heroic and realistic human figures for the series.
Debnath drew inspiration
from vintage Hollywood thrillers, Bruce Lee films, Tarzan series, his imagination, and his skill.
Among Narayan Debnath's other works are the popular comic series "Bahadur Beral" for Suktara during the 80s, "Potolchand the Magician," and "Lalu Bhulu."
He also created another comic series called "Danpite Khadu aar taar Chemical Dadu," and “Petuk Master Batuklal” which was likely one of his final series. Referring to his earlier works, shortly after the success of Hadu Bhoda,
he created a female spinoff of the series called "Sutki Mutki." It was based on a similar context and featured two female protagonists. However, its publication was discontinued due to objections raised by some readers.
Among his serious works for seniors, "Heerer Taira" for Nobokkol gained popularity. His complete comic biographical works on Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore's childhood, Shivaji, and the tales of Gautam Buddha and Jataka received much appreciation.
He also illustrated comic series based on historical stories such as "Itihaaser Doiroth", as well as science fiction stories set in space and on other planets. Additionally, he worked on adaptations of Bankim Chandra's "Durgeshnandini" and many more projects.
In addition to comics, Narayan Debnath has also illustrated numerous popular books by esteemed authors, designed book covers, & even created movie posters & title calligraphy. He designed covers for books written by U Roychowdhury, Abol Tabol by Sukumar Ray, Nabakallol magazine,
"Thakumar Jhuli," "Bajpakhi," and other popular pulp series by the legendary Swapan Kumar. He also worked on the "Harshavardhan Gobardhan" series by Shibram Chakraborty, as well as translations of popular English classics like much popular "Adventures of Tarzan,"
Gulliver's Travels," "Robin Hood," "Trials of the Sea," "David Copperfield," "Three Musketeers," and many more. His film works included "Ishwarer
Mrittyu," "Hawa Bodol," "Bedini," and others.
(END OF PART II)
(To be continued)
Here is the link for the Part I, which you can checkout for a recap. 🔗🔗
(Thank you)
(Rights of the pictures used in the thread belong to it's artist)
https://t.co/1mS99OFMPD
🌼 To the Origin of an Idiom, Rathyatra, & More 🛕🌼🧵
Since it's Rathyatra today, let’s talk about a very popular Bengali saying: "রথ দেখা কলা বেচা' (Rath Dekha Kola Becha), which literally translates to seeing the Rath and selling the bananas. Talking about the origin.
It means gaining double benefits from a single opportunity. Now, delving deeper into this phrase, it actually has a connection to an important ritual associated with Rathyatra celebrations.
For instance, in the Rathyatra of Mahesh and Guptipara in Bengal celebrated for over 600 and 400 years respectively and second only to Puri there is a unique tradition where ripe bananas are thrown towards the Rath by housewives and locals as it passes through the streets.
The other Raash 🧵🌼: The Raash season is on, and isn't it surprising that Nabadwip, being one of the core centers for the propagation of Vaishnavite traditions, is famous for its own Shakta Raash instead of Radha-Krishna’s Raash celebrated elsewhere. 1/10
Shakta Raash is associated with the worship of gigantic goddess idols and many unorthodox forms of the goddess, whose worship you won’t commonly see elsewhere. You will find intriguing names like Bhadrakali, Ugrachanda, Ganga, various unorthodox forms of Kali, etc., 2/10
all grand and symmetrical. Nabadwip Raash idols have their own distinctive artistry and backstory not much following the scriptures which makes it special. Tracing back how a purely Vaishnavite festival became linked to hardcore Tantrik and Shakta 3/10
🌸Decoding Mahishasurmardini 🧵
One program, 90+ years of magic —what binds us to the magic of Mahisashurmardini? Over time, glory of the broadcast has transcended into ritual, becoming almost synonymous with festival. Here, we delve into some snippets centering on the nostalgia.
Mahishasurmardini longest running broadcast of AIR, as we hear it today, mainly stands on the shoulders of three key great personalities in the history of Indian radio: Pankaj Mullick, Banikumar, and Birendrakrishna Bhadra. Pankaj Mullick was the first among this trio to join
and start working at Indian Broadcasting Company as early as September 1927. Baidyanath Bhattacharya, aka Banikumar, came next. A mixed broadcast of literature readings and live singing was the most popular broadcast, Betar Bichitra, back then.
If you were a resident of early 19-20th century Kolkata, you would have sighted a majestic European castle in the city while roaming. Yes, Calcutta did have a grand majestic castle owned by a Bengali.
In the Pathuriaghata area once existed the Tagore Castle in its full glory. The majestic castle was remodeled from the old house bought in 1820 by Kaliprasanna Tagore, who was an associate of Dwarkanath Tagore. His brother, Prasanna K Tagore, inherited the house at Pathuriaghata.
Later, Prasanna's nephew Yutindramohun Tagore inherited the property and remodeled the house into a majestic castle in 1892. The planning of Tagore Castle was inspired by the popular Windsor Castle of England. The popular Mackintosh Burn company engineered the Castle of Calcutta.
Bishnu Charan Ghosh popularized Indian Yoga in the Western world much before it came into fashion, as early as the 1930s. Alongside his son-in-law Buddha Bose, Ghosh traveled to the USA, Europe, Japan, campaigning to promote Indian yogic practices and exercises. 1/5
Ghosh's expertise lay in the Hatha Yoga sect, and he was well aware that even these skills could be used to attract crowds and attention through the display of stunts, asanas, and more. Post India's Independence, Ghosh returned to India. Bose mentored Manohar Aich, 2/5
who later gained international fame for his fitness. Bishnu Charan authored multiple tutorial books, which have received worldwide recognition. He was invited for lecture tours at renowned universities globally. 3/5
Do you know how Dolyatra got its name? ✨
One of the legends attached to Dol's origin traces back to Puri. Lord Jagannath of Puri has two representative idols (proxy metal deities) in two forms: Madanmohan in the Krishna form and Dol Govinda in the Narayan form. 1/6
Dol Govinda is worshipped along with his two consorts, Shree Devi (Lakshmi) and Bhu Devi. The idols are placed just below the wooden main Jagannath in the sanctum throughout the year. But during this specific purnima tithi, 2/6
the Dol Govinda idol is taken out from the main temple in a special traditional swing palanquin, and sevaks carry the procession of Dol Govinda touring around the temple premises, nearby houses, even from door to door. During Dol festival, the Dol Govinda is offered the dol 3/6