With pink skin and icy cool attitude, the ‘leaping panther’ is the subject of Jerry Beck’s Pink Panther — The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Cat in Town! For more than 45 years, the creature that debuted in Blake Edwards’s The Pink Panther now has a full-length book of its own, making it one of the few animated stars to have one.

The cat strolled onscreen to Henry Mancini’s all-time-great jazz-based theme and has since won the hearts of all who have seen her. A trip through the careers of characters, including the inept Inspector Jacques Clouseau as well as the Pink Panther, Ant and the Aardvark, The Inspector, Hoot Kloot, The Dogfather and Crazy Legs Crane keep you entertained throughout.For the benefit of new and old fans, the career as well as plot outline of the pink feline and friends are detailed chronologically. In this decade-wise phenomenon, we move from 1960s to the new millennium where the first new Pink Panther movie was released featuring Steve Martin as Clouseau.

Quotes from the series like ‘You know he is an idiot, I know he is an idiot. But to the rest of the world, he is the greatest detective since Sherlock Holmes’ define all.

Needless to say, the bumbling Inspector Clouseau used to and still does believe that he is the most brilliant detective in the world, if not a genius. He is murdered, blown away, jailed, poisoned et al during his career but doesn’t die, simply because he is as clueless as a Clouseau.

His film career is discussed along with the cast, crew and reception of The Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Son of the Pink Panther (1993) and The Pink Panther (2006).

For a seasoned fan, the absence of the hilarious Return of the Pink Panther does pose a question, as does the presence of Inspector Clouseau (1968) where Alan Arkin played the title role instead of Peter Sellers and Bud Yorkin called the shots in place of Blake Edwards!

The interview of Steve Martin, the current Inspector Clouseau, adds colour to this ‘pink’ classic. So if you don’t know about the origin of the Pink Panther or why does the inspector always call a large and pink fictitious diamond as the Pink Panther, don’t worry. You have the licence to know all once you have the Pink Panther — The Ultimate Guide To The Coolest Cat In Town!— Seema Faruqi