Dear Mr Sandip Ray,

I am writing to you on behalf of all Satyajit Ray fans. After watching your latest film, Kailashey Kelenkari, I have a request to make. Please do not make any more Feluda movies. We love the stories your father wrote, especially those involving the sleuth and his cousin. So we cannot bear the vandalisation of these evergreen characters on celluloid. We cannot bear to see a pot-bellied and heavy-jowled Feluda, a pompous brat of a Topshe, and a silly Jatayu. It goes against our grain to accept a movie where Feluda's deduction abilities are largely left to the audience's imagination, where Jatayu is ridiculously excited about an ad shoot, where Topshey is so condescending towards Jatayu that one winces.

While we adore Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath, we completely understand your father's decision not to make any more Feluda movies after Santosh Dutta's untimely death. Filling such a great void would always be difficult, and subsequent attempts by thespians such as Robi Ghosh, Anup Kumar, and Mohan Agashe proved that. Now, your experiments with Bibhu has touched the nadir of characterisation. Jatayu, as seen in SK and JBF, was a celebrity in his own right, not inferior to Felu or Topshe, nor a mere comic relief. That is how your father conceptualised him. But the Jatayu in your films, especially in Kailashey Kelenkari, is nothing more than a joker, a buffoon to be laughed at. That's a gross misreading of the character, Mr Ray (Junior).

Another instance is that of Topshe. Why is a 27-year-old man playing the role of a 15-year-old boy? A young-looking 21-year-old is still acceptable, but we refuse to accept the pretentious and pompous Parambrata as Topshe. He is not Topshe. Never.

We like Sabyasachi. We really do. We still remember the strapping young man of Tero Parbon who was such a change from the Abhisheks and Prosenjits. And he does fill Feluda's shoes quite nicely. Rather, he did. Sabyasachi no longer looks suitable to play Prodosh Mitter. Just take a look at any of illustrations your father made for his Feluda books and you will understand why. Feluda would never have a pot-belly, however small, or heavy jowls, like the ones Sabyasachi sported in Kailashey Kelenkari.

I will not even go into the stilted dialogues or the completely awry characterisation throughout the movie. If the three main draws of a Feluda film are such flops, the rest do not hold much attraction. Get real, Mr Ray (Junior), you are just not equipped to carry your father's legacy forward. It must be stressful trying to live up to your father's reputation as a film-maker, so just give it up. No one will miss it. I swear.

You must be earning enough from the copyrights of your father's books. Just put some of the money in a sound investment scheme and take voluntary retirement. Buy yourself a nice vacation in Darjeeling and throw away all those half-finished scripts into a deep gorge. Or into a fireplace. Leave Feluda alone. And Goopy-Bagha too. They deserve it.

Yours (really) sincerely...