Professor Shonku
Professor Shonku is a fictional scientist created by Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) in a series of Bengali science fiction books published from 1965. He is one of the most important characters in the science fiction of Bengal. His full name is Trilokeshwar Shonku, and by occupation, he is a physicist and an inventor. He is the son of Dr. Tripureshwar Shonku. Character development of Professor Shonku. Introduction to the character. The real name of Professor Shonku is Trilokeshwar Shonku. He lives in Giridih. He has a male-servant named Pralhad and a cat named Newton. In his story "ব্যোমযাত্রীর  ডায়রি" (Byomjatrir Diary) Ray introduced Professor Shonku, the protagonist of his science-fiction stories. Professor Shonku's father Tripureshwar was a physician. Professor Shonku was born on 16 June . His nickname is Tilu. Professor Shonku passed matriculation examination of the University of Calcutta at the age of 12. At the age of 16, Professor Shonku received his BSc degree with honours in two subjects, Physics and Chemistry. In Satyajit Ray's last finished novel of the series, "Swarnaparnee", that was initially published in the Special Puja issue of "Anandamela" children's magazine in 1992, it was mentioned that at the  age of 20, Professor Shonku took his first job as a professor of physics in Calcutta's Scottish Church College. Professor Shonku is a polyglot who knows 69 languages. His pet cat 'Newton' is 24 years old. Inspiration. Ray admitted that he had based Prof. Shonku on Professor Challenger, by Arthur Conan Doyle, and a character created by Ray's father Sukumar Ray named "Hesoram Hushiar". Inventions of Professor Shonku. He has his own laboratory there in his house in Giridih where he researches loads of new and fantastic inventions. His extraordinary inventions are: The adventures. Professor Shonku had many  adventures, in both real and fantastical places, some with historical leanings and some with great revelations connected to human civilisation. Excerpts of some interesting adventures follow: A child who otherwise used to be normal, has "changed" after he fell and hurt his head. Once happy and normal, this child has become melancholy and speaks things which the parents do not follow and term as gibberish. The parents desperately seek help to get their boy back. A doctor finally suggests to see Shonku. Although initially Shonku was reluctant to see this boy as practicing medicines is not his profession — after he  sees the boy it soon becomes obvious that this is indeed an extraordinary case worthy of his attention. What appeared as "gibberish" to his parents were actually meaningful facts which should normally be well beyond his or many other peoples reach, spoken in many different languages which the child had no way to learn. He also demonstrates psychic ability, where the flash of a camera stops working after he declares he does not want to be pictured but the reporter insists. Although the child seems to be omniscient, he appears sad and detached from the material world. The story ends  when the child concocts a potion by mixing several very dangerous chemicals and acids, some of which were Shonku's own inventions, and gulps it down before Shonku had a chance to stop him. A short period of unconsciousness follows, after which the child wakes up as his normal old self. He then makes friends with Shonku, states he has no memory of things which happened in the last few days, and even asks for chocolates. Professor Shonku meets a fakir who has this ability to re-animate a living thing from its bones. Shonku tries to investigate, and to  do so, he records the spell using his recorder, which enrages the fakir and causes him to curse Shonku. Later in his life, Shonku along with an assistant discovers the remains of a dinosaur in a cave. The curse starts to take effect and the dinosaur comes back to life. Shonku gets hold of a mysterious sphere which changes its color spontaneously and emanates various sounds. In fact, the sphere is a planet from another solar system and it has brought extraterrestrial life along. The Professor is haunted by a repeating dream where he along, with his friends, are stranded  on a beautiful exotic island without any inhabitants. His friends also experience the same dream. It is as if the mysterious island is beckoning great scientists of the world to it. The plants seep people's intelligence and attracts their attention using dreams. Shonku goes to Tibet, to find out about a Unicorn which is reported to be seen there. In the adventure, Shonku discovers a place where everybody's dreams come true... a Utopia. Shonku tries to prove that human civilization has prospered thanks to the help of some alien civilisation that comes to Earth every 5000 years and  teaches them something extraordinary. What are they going to reveal this time? Nokurbabu has the ability to make others see what he is thinking. He and Shonku are caught in a chain of events that lead them to the deep jungles of South America where El Dorado has always eluded discovery. Several sightings of UFOs makes headlines worldwide. However, this news is outdone by the news of the demolition of some of the greatest monuments of mankind. The Eiffel Tower and the Angkor Wat are destroyed, and the aliens are blamed. Nokurbabu joins Shonku and other scientists who discover that  the UFO has its base in the Gobi desert. They find the UFO and go aboard. They are captured immediately, not by the aliens, but by a mad scientist who is the present owner of the UFO and who is in fact the destroyer of the monuments, driven because he was denied his due honour in the scientific community. His next target is the Taj Mahal. This is the story of a young Shonku and the invention of his Miracurall and the time when he visited Germany on the eve of World War II. A fascinating story about how Shonku  went on to meet Hermann Göring and finally evaded the Nazis. Professor Shonku in other media. Comics. Some of Professor Shonku stories has been made into comics and published by Ananda Publishers. Radio. In the "Sunday Suspense Series" of 98.3 "Radio Mirchi" several "Professor Shonku" stories has been performed by RJs, like Mir and Deep and they became very popular. Film. The film was announced officially in November 2017. It has been titled "Professor Shonku O El Dorado", the pre-production of the film has been started in 2018 and released on 20 December 2019. The film is based on  the story named "Nakurbabu O El Dorado." Actor Dhritiman Chatterjee, who acted in a number of films by Satyajit Ray, portrayed the title role in the film, produced by Shree Venkatesh Films. In the film Nakurbabu is portrayed by Subhasish Mukherjee. The film is directed by the son of Satyajit Ray, Sandip Ray.