Eken Babu to Eken Sirji: How Bangla’s beloved new-age sleuth got lost in translation

He looks like a middle-school teacher, behaves like a schoolboy and seems like the last person who would solve a crime. Eken Babu, aka Ekendra Sen, the plainclothes Kolkata Police detective from Sujan Dasgupta’s bestselling Bengali novels, ticks all the aforementioned boxes. The character returned to the big screen this Durga Puja with his fourth feature film, The Eken: Kerala-e Kurukshetra (Mayhem in Kerala). Now, Eken Babu appears poised to reach a wider audience, with Netflix releasing the three most recent seasons of the nine-season Bengali series in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

However, the three dubbed seasons of the series leave room for improvement. Netflix clearly wants to introduce Bengal’s beloved new-age detective to audiences beyond the state, but the adapted dialogues and English subtitles lack punch. Eken Babu’s signature cheeky wit is lost in translation when he speaks Hindi as Eken Sirji.

Eken rocks the big screen, but is at a loss for words on OTT

The shortcomings of the dubbing become all the more glaring because Eken Babu’s quirky remarks and mannerisms, brought to life with understated brilliance by actor Anirban Chakrabarti, are what make the character unique. Without an effective translation, Eken comes across as just another detective among the many vying for attention in the OTT space.

Eken Babu’s success owes as much to the complex cases he cracks as to the outrageous things he says. Fans have grown to love his peculiar vocabulary and the confidence with which he mangles famous proverbs, just as they eagerly await the unexpected twists in his cases. He insists on speaking English for no apparent reason, despite his poor grasp of the language. He might gaze admiringly at a magnificent waterfall and exclaim, “Downfalls!” before finding a way to logically justify his blunder. Defying all logic, he habitually addresses everyone, regardless of age or gender, as “Sir”.

There’s more that makes Eken Babu stand out among Bengal’s rich legacy of fictional sleuths, which includes Feluda, Byomkesh Bakshi, Sona Da, Kiriti Roy and Shabor Dasgupta. Unlike these detectives, Eken challenges conventional notions of heroism, both in appearance and political correctness. A balding man of medium build, he might innocently expect meat to be served for lunch at an ashram or casually help himself to a favourite sweet from someone else’s plate.

Eken Babu breaks the traditional mould of the picture-perfect crime-solving hero. Yet, unlike Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther, he never comes across as an idiot.

Like Feluda, like Eken

Despite his largely original characterisation, Eken Babu bears the unmistakable influence of an iconic predecessor. Almost every fictional detective to emerge from Bengal since Satyajit Ray published the first Feluda story in 1965 (Feludar Goendagiri, titled Danger in Darjeeling in English) has been influenced to some extent by the legendary sleuth. Eken Babu is no exception.

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Look closely, and you can spot nods to classic Feluda stories in most of Eken Babu’s cases. Like Ray’s creation, Eken often hunts for rare artefacts or priceless stolen manuscripts. Places and moments from Feluda stories also find their way into Eken’s adventures as tributes to the iconic detective.

Ray created the Feluda stories as adventures for young adults, and unlike his globally acclaimed films, these tales do not delve into profound socio-cultural themes. Dasgupta’s Eken Babu adventures, too, cater to a similar readership, as do their film adaptations.

Importantly, there is a method to the madness that Eken Babu brings to the screen. Sujan Dasgupta’s approach seems clear: he envisioned Eken Babu as a blend of Feluda and his goofy novelist friend Lalmohan Ganguly, aka Jatayu, who accompanies the detective on almost all his adventures. Eken Babu is as comical in his mannerisms as Jatayu, but having studied criminology in the US, he also possesses Feluda’s meticulous approach to solving crimes, along with the agility of a trained police officer. He switches seamlessly between putting his foot in his mouth and displaying remarkable intellectual sharpness. Essentially, Dasgupta has given Eken Babu Feluda’s mind and Jatayu’s personality. It is a combination that continues to entertain Bengali readers and draw audiences to cinemas.

Like Feluda, Eken Babu is accompanied by two sidekicks on all his adventures. His companions are Baapi (Suhotra Mukhopadhyay) and Promotho (Somak Ghosh), both professors by profession. Being older than the two, Eken constantly bosses them around. For instance, across four films and nine OTT seasons, he has never been seen footing the bill for any expenses incurred during their trips. Naturally, his companions are expected to pick up the tab.

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Nine OTT seasons and four films in eight years

Eken Babu’s transformation into Eken Sirji needs to capture all these eccentricities through his dialogues. A more concerted effort could help the Bengali entertainment industry make its presence felt beyond the state’s borders. After all, Feluda and Byomkesh remain the only two detectives from Bengal’s vast literary tradition to have made a significant mark in the pan-Indian film market. With OTT platforms facilitating the crossover of regional content, Eken Babu has an opportunity to follow in their footsteps.

Author Sujan Dasgupta published his first Eken adventure, Manhattaney Moonstone (Moonstone in Manhattan), in 1991, but it took the Bengali entertainment industry 27 years to recognise the character’s screen potential. Eken Babu made his screen debut in 2018 with the eponymous streaming series. Its success is evident from the fact that it has run for nine seasons in eight years. The films have been equally successful in Bengal, with four releases in as many years since the first film hit theatres in 2022.

Arguably, no other fictional detective in India has enjoyed such frequent releases across film and streaming platforms over the past decade. If Netflix hopes to turn Eken Babu into a pan-Indian favourite, it needs to bring the same care to translating his distinctive humour and personality as the original creators have brought to the character.