Lalmohan Ganguly
Lalmohan Ganguly, alias Jatayu is a fictional character in the Feluda stories written by Satyajit Ray. He writes pulp crime thrillers, but is quite weak and nervous in real life. He is fairly wealthy due to the immense sales of his books. He writes at a frequency of two books a year. His crime fiction stories have interesting and catchy names, often characterised by alliterations like 'Sahara-ey Shiharan', 'Honduras-e Hahakar', 'Borneo-r Bibhishika', 'Durdharsh Dushman', 'Vancouver-er Vampire', 'Himalaye Hritkampo', 'Atlantic-er Atanka', 'Anobik Danob', 'Naroker Naam Karakoram', 'Bidghute Bodmash', 'Arokto Arab' etc. The names of several Feluda stories also exhibit this feature, for example Joto Kando Kathmandute, Gangtokey Gondogol, Royal Bengal Rahasya, Robertsoner Ruby, Gosainpur Sargaram, Bombaiyer Bombete, Gorosthaney Sabdhan!, [Kailashey Kelenkari |Kailashey Kelenkari], Bhuswargo Bhayankar, etc. The detective of Jatayu's novel, Prakhar Rudra, is a character with incredible intellect and power. Lalmohan's grandfather gave his name "Sarbogya Gongopadhyay" but Lalmohan does not use that name. In the Hindi Telefilm Kissa Kathmandu Mein, his name was Lalmohan Garg.
Overview
He first meets Feluda in the story Sonar Kella and from then on he accompanies Feluda and Topshe on all their major adventures. He collects weapons but is often reluctant to use them. Weapons collected by him during different adventures include boomerang, Kukri, smoke bomb and even a Pestle etc. His whole demeanour is of hilarity and he regularly provides the comic relief in Feluda stories. He has a history with the villain Maganlal Meghraj who had a circus performer throw knives at him in Joi Baba Felunath and fed him the drug LSD in Jato Kando Kathmandutey. The last time Jatayu met Meghraj was at Golapi Mukta Rahasya.Though in the Feluda adventures his activities invoke quite an amount of comedy, his character is far from a typical comic relief. Rather he often epitomizes an average Bengali person. However, Jatayu's qualities also improve with time and with his association with Feluda gradually making him more knowledgeable, smart and intelligent.
In the movie version of the first story, Sonar Kella, the criminal Mandar Bose escapes due to the folly of Jatayu. But in the later stories we find Jatayu being of great help to Feluda in his work. In a lot of stories, he is seen to suggest important clues mostly unintentionally which is of great help in the investigation. In "Sonar Kella" he uttered "sonar pathorbati" but that immediately enlightened Feluda and he got his most necessary clue to ultimately solve the case. In
Jatayu is a fan of Baikuntha Mallick, a teacher in Athenaeum Institution, Kolkata, who is also a poet. Jatayu often recites his poems, which are also a source of comedy due to their peculiarity. Jatayu walks two miles daily to keep fit and refers to encyclopaedias for writing novels. He is a bachelor and owns three houses. He loves travelling.
'Jayatu Jatayu!' a book written by Shuvadip Adhikari is a compendium of facts on Jatayu. All the facts mentioned in the stories of Feluda are compiled in a single volume.
In the Hindi Telefilm Kissa Kathmandu Mein, his name was Lalmohan Garg.