When Soumitra Chatterjee debuted in Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar in 1959-the final part of Ray's Apu trilogy-a star was born in Bengali cinema. Soumitra soon transcended the boundaries of the Bengali film industry to become an internationally celebrated actor who was compared to the best in the business, from Max von Sydow to Marcello Mastroanni Famously known as 'Ray's actor in a career spanning six decades, Soumitra worked with practically every Bengali director worth the name-Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Chidananda Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, Tarun Majumdar, Rituparno Ghosh and Goutam Ghose, to name but a few.
Following Apur Sansar, Soumitra played the lead in another Ray film, Devi, in 1960. From then until the posthumously released Abhijon and Belashuru (2022). the more than 300 films in which he acted rank among the best in Bengali cinema, and won him a string of awards, including the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2004), the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2012) and the Legion d'Honour awarded by the French Government (2018). But it was not just on the silver screen that Soumitra shone. He was also an accomplished playwright and theatre actor, a poet, a painter, the literary editor of the magazine, Ekshan, and an elocutionist.
Soumitra Chatterjee: His Life in Cinema and Beyond, is the first comprehensive attempt to portray the life of the actor in all its facets. It traces Soumitra's initial years of searching for identities to the final decades when he reached the pinnacle of his career as an actor and an artist. Written from the vantage point of someone who shared an exceptionally close relationship with the actor, film critic Amitava Nag has drawn an intimate portrait of the star thespian and his art beyond acting. which will be essential reading for his legion of fans, and for all those interested in cinema.
AMITAVA NAG is an independent film critic based in Kolkata, and editor of Silhouette Film Magazine. His most recent books on cinema are Ghunchu Kirtan, The Cinema of Tapan Sinha: An Introduction, Murmurs: Silent Steals with Soumitra Chatterjee, 16 Frames and Smriti Satta o Cinema. His earlier writings include the acclaimed books Satyajit Ray's Heroes and Heroines and Beyond Apu: 20 Favourite Film Roles of Soumitra Chatterjee.
Amitava also writes and has published books on poetry and short fiction in Bengali and English. His latest poetry collection Forever Meera and translation anthology of Soumitra Chatterjee's poems titled Walking Through the Mist were published in 2020.
When my friend and editor, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, called me up shortly after Soumitra Chatterjee passed away and asked me to consider writing a biography of sorts, I was truly overwhelmed. I was going through a very difficult time at that point and was trying to cope with an insurmountable grief. More importantly, I never realized, in spite of my close association with Soumitra-babu (as I called him), that his passing away would leave such a void-emotional and creative. I had written the first book on him in English, Beyond Apu: 20 Favourite Film Roles of Soumitra Chatterjee, which Shantanu had edited in 2016. Soumitra-babu and I selected the roles on the basis of lengthy interviews with him and my analyses of the films. I worked on the book for over a year since the beginning of 2012, and it was then that I interacted with Soumitra-babu at length and got to know of some of his lonely times.
Till 2018, he was probably busier than most actors in the Bengali film industry. He would dub, act, recite, do theatre, record for CDs of newcomers and also veterans...the list was endless. More often than not, when I would pay him a surprise visit, I would return empty handed. The security guard at his residence would announce, 'Babu to kaape beriyechben'-(Sir has gone out for work). If I called him afterwards, he would always lament, 'Oh, you should have checked before coming all the way. What about the coming Thursday in the evening? Will you be free and will you mind coming over?'
The Thursdays could be any days of the week. He maintained a small diary of sorts and wrote all the engagements he had in it. My formal interviews had found a place in them as well back in 2012 and 2013. He would look up his diary, tell me when he was free and ask me if I could meet him. I guess it was his way of asking someone to pay him a visit-never an authoritative summons but a gentle request.
I am grateful that Soumitra Chatterjee allowed me to visit him regularly in the last couple of years before the COVID pandemic robbed us of one-to-one interactions. It was mostly he who would call me to find out whether I was available in the evenings or not. I seldom missed the opportunity to spend time with him. He was no longer just a film star to me. All his achievements and awards, all his accolades and adorations, were behind us. In those meetings, we discussed poetry since we both persisted with the broken verse; we spoke about love, life, longing and regrets. We spoke about separation and desire, about the time I was looking ahead to and the one he had crossed already in his journey.
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist