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The Child from Krishnanagar
Soumitra Chatterjee was born in the district town of Krishanagar, some 100 km away from Kolkata, on 19th January 1935. His father Mohitkumar was involved in the Non-Cooperation Movement in his youth. By the time of his second son's birth,
he was an established lawyer practicing in Kolkata. The newborn was named after a character in Michael Madhusudan Dutt's epic poem Meghnadbadh Kabya which his mother Ashalata Devi admired a lot. It was from his parents that Soumitra inherited an abiding interest in poetry. Much of his childhood was spent in the sylvan world of Krishnanagar, playing by the river Jalangi, taking solitary rides on country boats, listening to the vibrations of the railbridge as the train ran over. The same restlessness spilled over his early education at Krishnanagar C M S School. He gained quite notoriety as a truant schoolboy.
The Chatterjee family ran an amateur theatre group. Alongside boys of his generation, Soumitra featured in some of the juvenile theatre productions including Rabindranath Tagore's Mukut. He had a stellar role in a school production of The Sleeping Princess directed by the Principal of British origin. The thespian in Soumitra was already born.
Like Apu in Bibhutibhushan Banerjee's Pather Panchali, Soumitra left Krishnanagar at the age of 10. Having spent a year in Barasat, the Chatterjee family stayed in Howrah for some time. Soumitra took his Matriculation examination from Howrah Jilla School. By that time he was winning accolades for his acting prowess, both inside the school and outside. A school production of Mahendra Gupta's popular play Maharaja Nandakumar found him playing the role of British General with élan. His achievements in the sporting arena were no less spectacular. A born athlete, Soumitra was a regular in his school hockey team.
Open City Kolkata
The advantage of having relatives in Kolkata ensured regular passages to the imperial city for the Chatterjee family. With Soumitra getting admitted to City College on Amherst Street in 1951, the family came over and settled in the
Mirzapur Street residence of his maternal uncle. During his years of studying Bengali literature under the stalwarts like Narayan Ganguly, an eminent littérateur, young Soumitra thrived on world literature, getting into heated arguments over the novels of Bibhubhusan, the plays of George Bernard Shaw, the magic of Romain Rolland's John Christopher with his companions. The lives of Napoleon, Disarelli and Van Gogh fuelled their imagination. Winter nights passed by listening to the music of Allauddin Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Days dawned with paintings of Nandalal Bose and Gopal Ghosh. They friends strolled past the Red Road singing Tagore's Amra nutan joubaner dut, reciting his poems. The release of Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali in 1955 saw them discussing issues relating to world cinema within the haloed precincts of College Street Coffee House, the intellectual hub of Kolkata in the post-Independence years.
Reminiscing those days Soumitra says, "There was a plethora of romanticism in the atmosphere we were brought up, the tradition handed over by our predecessors. The leftist idealism developed into a conviction leading us forward in the decade of 1950s."
At Awe With Sisir Kumar
Those youthful years also saw Soumitra forming a close contact with Sisir Kumar Bhaduri (1889-1959). To Soumitra and his friends, he was not only an actor par
excellence but a true representative of Bengali nationalism. In his twilight years, Sisir Kumar was performing at Srirangam till the theatre closed down after staging Girish Chandra Ghose's Prafulla on 24th January 1956. At the end of show Soumitra was introduced to the master thespian. Meanwhile he made up his mind to pursue acting seriously. The veteran actor consolidated his confidence in more ways than one.
He also acted under his mentor on one occasion at a special performance of Prafulla in Marcus Square. Soumitra played Suresh to Sisir Kumar's Jogesh in this historic show hosted by Banga Sanskriti Sammelan. During the rehearsals the young learner picked up finer lessons in understanding a part, reading between the lines and dialogue delivery, three skills that Soumitra later honed to perfection. The association continued till Sisir Kumar breathed his last.
The Broadcaster
After his graduation Soumitra got admitted for his Masters in Calcutta University,
represented his university in All India Inter-University Youth Festival, winning the best actor award for his role in a Bengali adaptation W W Jacob's The Monkey's Paw. Meanwhile Soumitra took up odd jobs, primarily to escape the boredom of academics, secondarily to support the family following his father's retirement. Months before his Masters exams Soumitra was appointed a Staff Artiste with All India Radio. That helped him sever links with university and concentrate on broadcaster's job. He also got an appointment at the Delhi station of All India Radio. However his love for theatre was enough to resist the temptation. Soumitra was not very keen to continue with his announcement duty at the Kolkata station either. The lure of arclight was about to whisk him away.
Celluloid Beckons
Soumitra's first brush with Bengali cinema occurred rather accidentally during his college days. An acquaintance took him to the New Theatre Studio for a screen test of Kartick Chatterjee's film Nilachale Mahaprabhu, a Bengali devotional. Much to his
delight, he did not clear the test. Soumitra was already heading towards the neo-realist direction that Satyajit Ray initiated in Indian cinema. He was studying Stanislavsky, Eijenstein and Cherkasov intensely, watching Charles Chaplin's Lime Light with a critical eye. One fine morning in 1956 Soumitra met Satyajit on his own, asking for a role in Aparajito. The maestro was looking for a younger actor for the hero's part. But he kept Soumitra in mind and called him in 1958 when he was looking for an adult Apu for Apur Sansar. The all-too-enthusiastic actor fitted the role of a young man in search for an identity to perfection. Apur Sansar was released the next year. Soumitra was catapulted to stardom.
The Actor Arrives
In 1959, the Bengali film industry was having a ball. With Uttam Kumar reigning supreme in romantic roles, the commercial films were happy nurturing the
archetypal hero in him. Paired with Suchitra Sen in romantic comedies, Uttam Kumar was the ultimate middle-class hero with more than 70 films below his belt. Soumitra's intelligent looks and cerebral acting style set him in a league different from the matinee idol. The roaring success of Apur Sansar (1959) made him a favourite with the art-house film-makers in no time. Those unconcerned about the heroic stereotype and looking for a protagonist made a beeline for Soumitra. Within years he was the automatic choice for lead roles in films by Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, Asit Sen, Mrinal Sen among others. His portrayal of the middle-class angst was different. His range was awesome. As an artist in Swaralipi (1961) he rode on emotional roller-coaster with the same authenticity that he brought to understated romanticism in Kshudhita Pashan (1960). He could even outsmart Uttam Kumar as the swashbuckling horse-riding sword-fighting anti-hero in Jhinder Bandi (1961). In Mrinal Sen's Akash Kusum (1965),he played the desperate protagonist challenging the status quo. The frustration with Nehruvian socialism never had any better cinematic expression.
The decade of 1960s saw him paired with all the major heroines of the day including Suchitra Sen. Their on-screen chemistry in Ajoy Kar's Saat Pake Bandha (1963) was much talked about. In mainstream movies Soumitra carved a niche for himself. Salil Sen's musical Manihar (1966) was a runway hit. So was Ashutosh Banerjee's Tin Bhubaner Pare (1969). The latter dealt with the directionless young generation messing around with football and female attention till reality struck. Soumitra and his mates making twist move to Jibane ki pabo na has angst of the age writ large on it.
His famed rivalry with Uttam Kumar haunted cine-goers for generations. The latter enjoyed much more popular success. This notwithstanding Soumitra consolidated his status as a thinking man's hero.
The Role of Honour
Soumitra remained a farm favourite with Satyajit Ray and he enjoyed the unfailing attention of the cream of Bengali directors. Ajoy Kar, Tarun Majumdar, Salil Sen,
Salil Dutta offered him the best roles. With time he switched to character roles befitting his age. Many such roles have entered the hall-of-fame of Bengali cinema. Among his favourites are Saroj Dey's Kony (1986) where he played a personal trainer to an aspiring swimmer from a poor family. In his mature years Tapan Sinha cast him repeatedly in films like Atanka, Antardhan, Wheelchair. His versatility was exploited by commercial film-makers. The passing away of Satyajit Ray dealt a heavy blow to Soumitra. Yet he recovered and went on delivering commendable performances in films by Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghose, Anjan Das among others. Now in his early 70s, Soumitra continues shooting in films. The small screen offered him appropriate space to keep the creative juice flowing. He has played many memorable roles in television serials and telefilms during the last two decades.
The Curtain Call
All along Soumitra never really stopped acting on stage. Back in 1963, he made a successful stage debut in commercial theatre, doing the hero's garb in Tapasi at
Star Theatre. While serving as the Secretary of Abhinetri Sangha, an actors' association, Soumitra acted and directed in plays by Henrik Ibsen and Dharamvir Bharati. In 1978, he took to theatre more seriously and produced Naam Jiban at Biswarupa Theatre. Its immediate success spurred him stage more plays in the same vein. Rajkumar, Phera, Nilkantha and a few others followed the heels. The fall of commercial theatre in North Kolkata did not deter him from trying out new ventures within the Group Theatre structure. His performance in Swapnasandhani's Tiktiki (1998), an adaptation of Peter Shaffer's Sleuth, has reinstalled him as a stage-actor. Since then he has been tireless in adapting, translating plays, directing them and acting in lead roles. Nilkantha still runs to packed house whenever staged. Homapakhi, his latest directorial work, deals with highs and lows of mental illness.
In 2004 Soumitra tried his chord in Jatra with moderate success. Staging Shakespeare has remained an elusive dream for him. Although too old to play the lead in Hamlet, Soumitra still nurtures a dream of producing King Lear with an ensemble cast.
Intellectual Pursuits
In his youth Soumitra had strong faith in 19th century Bengal renaissance and its outcome.
The enlightenment principles ignited adequate sparks in him to form literary and creative associations. One such association resulted in bringing out Ekshan, a literary and cultural journal, along with friend Nirmalya Acharya. For a long time, Soumitra served as the co-editor of Ekshan, covers of which were designed specially by Satyajit Ray.
Many of the plays he wrote and translated were published. Essays written in journals were brought together in book format. Hundreds of his poems have published in several volumes of poetry. For quite some time Soumitra is recognized as a major figure of Bengali recitation. He has countless albums to his credit and he still revels in participating poetry reading sessions.
Awards and Honours
Arguably the best actor of his generation, Soumitra Chatterjee is rated highly by his peers.
A recipient of numerous acting awards at national and international level, Soumitra has been the subject of many retrospectives. Catherine Berge has made a film on him (The Tree). He has held many organizational positions, lead the actors in times of crisis. At present Soumitra serves as the Chairman of the Kolkata Film Festival Committee. A regular feature in social dos, he has been bestowed with plenty of lifetime achievement awards. The Banglalive Legendary Award handed over by co-actor Madhabi Mukherjee in a special function at Kala Mandir on 24th September is the latest addition to his gallery of trophies and souvenirs.
Home Sweet Home
Today Soumitra lives in his Golf Green residence in the southern part of Kolkata with Dipa, his wife of five decades and also badminton champion in her youth. Their son Sougata, a violin-player, lives with them. Daughter Poulomi is a regular actor in her father's productions.
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