Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (Bangla: শরদিন্দু বন্দোপাধ্যায়) (30 March 1899 – 22 September 1970) was a well known literary figure of Bengal. He was also actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. One of his immortal creations is the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi. Later he shifted to Pune.

Sharadindu Bandopadhyay wrote different forms of prose: novels, short stories, plays and screenplays. However, his forte was short stories and novels. To aficionados of his writings, his historical fictions like kaaler mandiraa, gouRo mollar (initially named as Mouri Nodir tirey), tumi sandhyara megh, tungabhadraar teere (all novels), chua-chandan, maru o sangha (later made into a Hindi film named Trishangni) and stories of the unnatural with the recurring character Barada score high points.

Shradindu's writing was well researched, mellifluous, humorous and full of insights into human nature and contemporary urban Bengali society.

Life

Sharadindu was born to Tarabhushan and Bijaliprabha Bandyopadhyay at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, India. He passed the matriculation examination in 1915 and took admission in Vidyasagar college. While studying in Vidyasagar College, Calcutta, he published his first work, Jaubansmriti, a collection of poems, at the age of 20. In 1919, he passed the B.A. examination. He studied law in Patna and then devoted his time to writing. The first Byomkesh Bakshi work appeared in 1932. One of his earliest stories, Raktasandhya, appeared in Bengali in 1939. It was later included in "The Scarlet Dusk" (2003), a collection of 5 of his stories translated into English.

He moved to Bombay in 1938 to write screenplays for Bombay Talkies and other film banners. He gave up ties with the film industry in 1952, and moved to Pune, to concentrate on writing. He wrote several ghost stories, historical romances and children's stories in Bengali over the next 18 years. He died in 1970.

List of works

Novels

• Kaaler Mandira (1951)
• Gaur Mallar (1954)
• Tumi Sandhyar Megh (1958)
• Kumarsambhaber Kabi (1963)
• Tungabhadrar Tire (1965)

Short stories

• Jatismar (1933)
• Chua Chandan (1935)
• Bish Kanya (1942)
• Shada Prithibi (1948)
• Amon Dine (1963)
• Shankha Kankan (1963)

Collected works

• Sharadindu Omnibus (in 12 volumes) (edited by Pratul Chandra Gupta and published by the Ananda Publishers, Kolkata).

(See also Byomkesh Bakshi for individual stories featuring this detective)

Filmography

As screenplay writer :

• Durga (1939)
• Kangan (1939)
• Navjeevan (1939)
• Azad (1940)

Films based on Sharadindu's writings

Bengali

• Chiriyakhana directed by Satyajit Ray is based on one of the most intricate detective novels ever written in Bengali. It features supersleuth Byomkesh Bakshi
• Jhinder Bondi directed by Tapan Sinha is based on a recreation of Prisoner of Zenda written by Anthony Hope. This novel is categorized as one of Sharadindu's romantic novels.
• Dadar Kirti directed by Tarun Mazumdar. This full-length feature is based on a short-story of the same name.

Hindi

• Trishagni (1988) is an award-winning film directed by Nabendu Ghosh, based on Sharadindu's historical short-story Moru o shangho.

Awards

Bandyopadhyay was awarded the Rabindra Purashkar in 1967 for the novel Tungabhadrar Tirey. The Calcutta University honoured him with the Sarat Smriti Purashkar in 1967 too.

See also

• Byomkesh Bakshi

External links

• 2 short stories
• An English translation of some of the stories
• Another Book