What made Soumitra Chatterjee Bengal’s much-loved actor? 

Two Indians of the twentieth Century to have discovered among the many biggest world recognition within the arts are Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray. And, intently tied to their life and work was Soumitra Chatterjee (1935-2020). Together, they performed essential roles within the flourishing of a tradition that was concurrently very Bengali but common.  It was totally different  from different elements of India — this was a world the place Russian literature and German music combined with Sanskrit and Bengali poetry.  

Rabindranath, a pal of Satyajit’s grandfather, Upendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, was a guru to Satyajit, who, in flip, was  Soumitra’s mentor.  The Indian authorities commissioned Satyajit to make a documentary on Rabindranath for the latter’s delivery centenary (1961) —  he additionally made movies based mostly on Rabindranath’s works, together with Teen Kanya, 1961, Charulata (1964) and Ghare Baire (1984).  In these movies, Soumitra performed a hero who appeared to be Rabindranath himself as a lot as one in all his literary heroes, a super of the Bengali man.  

Soumitra acted in 14, that’s 50 per cent of the movies Satyajit Ray made.  He labored with different  main administrators, together with Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen. He by no means labored with Ritwik Ghatak, whom he disliked intensely.  

Soumitra had an class about him, in his refined seems and his nice private type. Like many legendary cinema actors, he was additionally skilled in theatre, and labored intently together with his administrators to good his ‘less is more’ appearing.  His command of Bengali and its dialects and registers contributed immensely to his performances.   

Soumitra with Madhabi Mukherjee in Ray’s traditional Charulatha
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

In these movies, Soumitra usually performed an informed, cultural bhadralok determine, modern or historic, normally romantic, typically maudlin. It is straightforward to conflate the actor with the roles, and lots of proceed to see him as Apu, after his first movie with Satyajit, Apur Sansar (1959).  

Sometimes, Soumitra  performed a extra ambivalent character, notably as a seducer of sad wives — be it the harmless Amal of Charulata or the exploitative Sandip of Ghare Baire.  He was convincing at the same time as Narsingh in Abhijan, the inspiration for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Soumitra was additionally liked for his non-romantic Feluda, the Indian Sherlock Holmes, as Feluda himself acknowledges within the tales.

Although Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan could also be among the many higher identified Indian actors globally, Soumitra is understood to all who watch world or arthouse cinema.  He was by far probably the most good-looking amongst of his extremely proficient contemporaries, which included greats equivalent to Chabi Biswas, Robi Ghosh and Utpal Dutta.  Soumitra acted with most of the good and trendy actresses of his technology, together with Madhabi Mukherjee, Supriya Choudhury, Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore, in addition to Waheeda Rehman.  

Soumitra with Satyajit Ray on the units of Ghaire Baire (1984).
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

Many comparisons are made between Soumitra and Uttam Kumar.  The suave Uttam Kumar was the brightest star in  well-liked Bengali cinema, all the time a star, the Mahanayak. Soumitra, however, was an actor and an extraordinary man going about Calcutta.  Unlike Soumitra’s introspective bhadralok/Rabindranathian hero, Uttam’s melodramas usually present him as a delicate middle-class Bengali man negotiating complicated roles and wider social questions in his seek for love and stability. 

Although Uttam Kumar was senior, the 2 actors have been on good phrases, and even acted collectively in Tapan Sinha’s Jhinder Bondi (1961), a model of ‘The prisoner of Zenda’, the place Soumitra took on a detrimental position towards Uttam’s recommendation.

Soumitra’s offscreen life was well-known though it appears uneventful for one in all India’s most well-known and admired actors, being centred on household, pals, work and a few political actions.  Author Sanghamitra Chakraborty has accomplished a effective job of writing a fascinating and fluent ebook.  She attracts on a variety of printed works, Soumitra’s personal writings, and a variety of interviews .  The ebook is structured round his work relatively than offered chronologically, so his severe movies, his missable movies, then his theatre work together with his different nice mentor, Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, earlier than taking a look at his poetry, his artwork, and his work because the editor of a literary journal.  

There aren’t any salacious revelations, solely discrete mentions of shut friendships with different girls however it’s principally an evaluation of his work set towards a relatively unhappy story of a person who felt dissatisfied with himself and typically with life. 

The new biography
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Although the ebook is large, I loved each web page. Sometimes there are lengthy digressions equivalent to into the lifetime of Satyajit Ray. It is tough   to jot down a ebook for native audiences (Bengalis who learn English) in addition to for a world readership.  The publishers ought to have gotten higher images or added an index so this could additionally perform as a reference work.