 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Professor Shonku" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Professor Shonku | |
|---|---|
 Professor Shonku (in the middle) along with his English friend Jeremy Saunders and German friendWilhelm Kroll | |
| First appearance | Byomjatrir Diary |
| Last appearance | Drexel Islander Ghatana(Incomplete) |
| Created by | Satyajit Ray |
| Portrayed by | Dhritiman Chatterjee |
| Voiced by |
|
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Trilokeshwar Shonku |
| Nickname | Tilu, Shanks |
| Title | Professor |
| Occupation |
|
| Family | Shonku |
| Relatives | Tripureswar Shonku(father) Batukeshwar Shonku(great-great grandfather (অতি বৃদ্ধ প্রপিতামহ) |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Residence | Giridih,Kolkata |
| Pets |
|
| Robots |
|
| Language skills | Capable of speaking 69languages |
| Mother tongue | Bengali |
| Degree | B.sc; HonoraryDoctorate fromSwedish Academy of Sciences |
Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku (Bengali: প্রফেসর শঙ্কু) is a fictional scientist and inventor created bySatyajit Ray in a series ofBengali science fiction books of the same name published from 1965 on. He is the central protagonist of the series. Professor Shonku resides inGiridih. His house contains a laboratory, and he lives with his pet cat, Newton, named afterSir Isaac Newton and his man-servant, Prahlad. He was born in the year of 1911 on 16th June but his year of death is unknown.
Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku (known popularly as Professor Shonku) is the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's series "The Adventures of Professor Shonku."
The first story of the series introduced him, in "ব্যোমযাত্রীর ডায়রি" (Byomjatrir Diary).
Professor Shonku's father Tripureshwar was a physician. Professor Shonku was born on 16 June 1911. His nickname is Tilu. Professor Shonku passed matriculation examination of theUniversity 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 ofAnandamela 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'sScottish Church College.[2]
Professor Shonku is apolyglot who knows 69 languages. His pet cat 'Newton' is 24 years old.
Ray admitted that he had based Prof. Shonku on the characterProfessor Challenger, byArthur Conan Doyle,[3] and a character created by Ray's fatherSukumar Ray named Hesoram Hushiar. Ray himself described Shonku as a “mild-mannered Professor Challenger”.
(This list may be incomplete.)
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:
The first story in the series is about the Professor'sjourney toMars on arocket of his own manufacture, with Bidhusekhar, a robot, Prahlad, his man-servant and Newton the cat for company. After a fearful encounter with the Martians, they flee from Mars, and land on planet Tafa, populated by large black ants who welcome Shonku as one of their own.
A child hurts his head, thereby acquiring extraordinary ability of omniscience, by speaking in multiple languages, and reciting lines of Shakespeare. He is brought under Shonku's care, in a desperate attempt by the parents to bring the child back to normal. Finally, he cures himself by a concoction of his own creation, including dangerous chemicals, some of which are Shonku's inventions.
Professor Shonku meets afakir who has this ability to re-animate a living thing from its bones. Shonku tries to investigate, and to do so, he records thespell 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 aUnicorn which is reported to be seen there. In the adventure, Shonku discovers a place where everybody's dreams come true... aUtopia.
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 whereEl 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. TheEiffel Tower and theAngkor Wat are destroyed, and the aliens are blamed. Nokurbabu joins Shonku and other scientists who discover that the UFO has its base in theGobi 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 theTaj Mahal.
This is the story of a young Shonku and the invention of hisMiracurall and the time when he visited Germany on the eve ofWorld War II. A fascinating story about how Shonku went on to meetHermann Göring and finally evaded theNazis.
Some Professor Shonku stories have been made into comics and published byAnanda Publishers.
In theSunday Suspense Series of 98.3Radio Mirchi severalProfessor Shonku stories were performed byRJs, likeMir, Deep, Agni and Somak. They became very popular.
In 2017, an English-language animated film titledThe Shonku Diaries: A Unicorn Adventure was released, based onEk Shringa Abhijan.
A telefilmProffesor Shonku O Golok Rahasya is released onDD Bangla.
The film was announced officially in November 2017.[5][6] It is titledProfessor Shonku O El Dorado. Pre-production of the film started in 2018 and it was released on 20 December 2019.[7] The film is based on the storyNakurbabu O El Dorado. ActorDhritiman Chatterjee, who acted in a number of films bySatyajit Ray, portrayed the title role in the film, produced byShree Venkatesh Films.[8] In the film Nakurbabu is portrayed bySubhasish Mukherjee. The film is directed by the son of Satyajit Ray,Sandip Ray.
| Books |
|
|---|---|
| Characters | |
| Films |
|
| Related | |
