Ruddhaswas Rajasthan trailer review: Anirban Chakrabarti’s Eken Babu is packed with usual puns but garnished with Satyajit Ray

Poila Boishakh is around the corner and a number of films are queued up to be released during that time. Ranjit Mallick will make a grand comeback with Ankush and Oindrila Sen in Love Marriage. Prosenjit Chatterjee and Atanu Ghosh’s Sesh Pata will also release during the Bengali New Year. And finally, like last year, Anirban Chakrabarti will be back with his iconic detective flick Eken Babu. The trailer of the second film, The Eken – Ruddhaswas Rajasthan (TERR), was dropped on March 14. 

After its popularity on OTT, the detective character debuted on the big screen with The Eken last year with an adventure in Darjeeling. This year, the second film will be released. Along with Anirban as Eken, Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, and Somak Ghosh will be seen as his assistant Bapi and Promotho. Rajatava Dutta, Sandipta Sen, Rajesh Sharma, and others are there in the thriller. 

Directed by Joydeep Mukherjee, this time, the story is based on Indian artifact smuggling – a crime that is touched upon in the previous film as well. Eken Babu author Sujan Dasgupta breathed his last in January this year during his visit to Kolkata. Just before that, the sixth season of Eken Babu was dropped on Hoichoi in December. 

Comedy is one of the pivotal elements of Eken Babu's adventures. Quite contrary to the other Bengali detectives, who are smart and suave, Eken Babu’s USP is an endless use of malapropism, spoonerism, and puns. It is Anirban’s spot-on comic timing, the overuse of such errors gets converted into a laugh riot. The trailer of Ruddhaswas Rajasthan gives a similar comic relief. 

Additionally, the trailer also hints at a tribute to Satyajit Ray’s iconic film Sonar Kella and Feluda's novel, Kailashey Kelenkari. Eken babu visits the Sonar Kella and the ‘Circuit House’ in Jaisalmir, where Feluda, Topshey, fake Dr Hazra, his associate Mandar Bose and Mukul stay. Meanwhile, the illegal trade of Indian sculptures gives us a throwback to Kailashey Kelenkari. 

All in all, the trailer promises to follow the usual ‘tested’ track of Eken Babu and in all fairness, the success of the literary character gives no reason to change the style. 

Produced by SVF and directed by Joydeep Mukherjee, The Eken – Ruddhaswas Rajasthan (TERR) will be released on April 14.