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“Nishchinto ar thaka gyalo na re Topshe” (There’s no room for complacency anymore, Topshe).
That’s how Pradosh C. Mitter aka Feluda, the inimitable hero of Satyajit Ray’s detective fiction-turned cult film Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress, 1974), warned his teenage nephew-cum-sidekick Tapesh of the upcoming risks the duo was about to face in its quest to rescue a six-year previous little one from the clutches of ‘duddharsh dushman’ (harmful dacoits, not of the Aravalli hills however of Kolkata). The dialogue, in fact, was mouthed by Ray’s hottest collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee who went on to behave in 14 of Ray’s 30 characteristic movies and two shorts over a interval of 31 years starting 1959.
It’s maybe the identical sinking feeling of Feluda’s unsettled perspicacity that permeated the hearts and minds of each Soumitra Chatterjee fan throughout the globe when information broke on 6 October this 12 months that the 85-year previous cultural icon was contaminated with Covid-19 and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a non-public hospital in Kolkata.
Knowledge about his underlying co-morbidities and the truth that he had recovered from pneumonia barely a 12 months in the past solely worsened that uncanny feeling.
Chatterjee fought valiantly for 40 days within the hospital with Covid-induced Encephalopathy which downed his sensorium, compromised his lungs and weakened his kidneys earlier than giving up the battle which was one-sided from the beginning. Yet that’s not what I wish to speak about right here. Chatterjee has offered us with greater than sufficient materials to have fun his life and there are too many takeaways to disregard. An try and scratch the floor or take a sneak peek into the highlights of his versatile profession is a concurrently daunting and rewarding expertise which his absence from the mortal world at present solely reinforces.
The Ray-Chatterjee Partnership:
“Acting in Ray’s films gave me an opportunity to get glimpses of the answers to my own problems in life,” Chatterjee had reminisced in his reminiscences of Satyajit Ray earlier than Belgian musician Bo Van Der Werf in 1999 for his documentary Satyajit Ray Negatives. “I tried to find my answers through these characters I played, beginning with Apu. Not in the context of what happened to him, but the way he looked and life and explained its realities,” Chatterjee recounted.
In his memoirs of Ray, The Master and I, Chatterjee described Ray’s “possessiveness” about him as “like a father is of his son” whereas narrating the “complex but enjoyable relationship” the duo shared.
Read: Soumitra Chatterjee, Legendary Actor of Bengali Cinema, Passes Away At 85
Opinions on the perfect outputs of the Ray-Chatterjee partnership, which most undoubtedly went past the skilled area of collaboration into the extra intimate realm of the previous mentoring the latter, are prone to be subjective, private and ferociously owned by film buffs. But if I have been to stay my neck out and select 5 Ray motion pictures the place Chatterjee dazzled, these could be my picks and in no specific order: Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), Abhijan (The Expedition, 1962), Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights within the Forest, 1969); Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder, 1973) and Ghare Baire (The Home and the World, 1984).
In 2018, at an emotional perform at a resort in Kolkata, Chatterjee, immaculately dressed as a quintessential Bengali in an embroidered Kurta, dhoti and scarf, was conferred with the very best civilian award of the French Government, Legion d’Honneur: Commandeur de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, some three many years after his mentor Satyajit Ray was honoured with an an identical distinction on the steps of town’s National Library by then French President Francois Mitterrand. Many, together with Satyajit’s son and director Sandip Ray, understandably felt that Chatterjee’s second of glory made his journey by cinema flip a full circle.
Chatterjee Beyond Ray:
Chatterjee’s collaborations with Ray however, his virtually unnoticeable passage from a preferred Bengali movie hero to the hallowed area of legends of Indian cinema was maybe due to his capability to transcend Ray and go away his mark in each facet of creativity he touched upon.
With presumably the only exception of Ritwick Ghatak, Chatterjee labored with virtually all stalwart administrators of yesteryears in Bengal. Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Asit Sen, Ajoy Kar, Tarun Majumder and Dinen Gupta had repeatedly collaborated with Chatterjee and delivered unforgettable narratives forming the crux of movie repository belonging not simply to Chatterjee but in addition crammed up the cultural area of all those that grew up in Bengal within the latter half of the 20th Century. To their unwavering delight.
Tapan Sinha’s Kshudita Pashan (Hungry Stones, 1960), Jhinder Bandi (The Prisoner of Jhind, 1961) and Atanka (Terror, 1986), Ajoy Kar’s Saat Paake Bandha (Marriage Vows, 1963), Mrinal Sen’s Akash Kusum (Up In The Clouds, 1965), Tarun Majumder’s Sansar Simante (On the Edge of the World, 1975) and Ganadevata (The People, 1978) and Dinen Gupta’s Basanta Bilap (1973) are solely instances in level to a for much longer listing.
And then take into account the so-called “one-offs” with Chatterjee’s comparatively unacknowledged director-collaborators, movies that are firmly positioned within the realm of classics: Bijoy Bose’s Baghini (Tigress, 1968), Salil Dutta’s Aparichito (Stranger, 1969), Asutosh Bandyopadhyay’s Teen Bhubaner Pare (On the Shores of the World, 1969), Nityananda Dutta’s Baksha Badal (The Luggage Switch, 1970), Saroj Dey’s Koni (1984) and Prabhat Roy’s Lathi (The Stick, 1996) to call a couple of. Chatterjee’s performances in every of them keep as mesmerizingly common as a few of his best-known works with Satyajit Ray.
Chatterjee and Contemporary Filmmakers:
In retaining with his mastery over the medium, Chatterjee went on to turn into amongst essentially the most sought-after actors with up to date filmmakers. While Sandip Ray went forward with his father’s alternative in directing Chatterjee in at the least two of his motion pictures, certainly one of which was a Feluda story, Chatterjee labored with Rituparno Ghosh’s National Award profitable Asukh (Illness, 1999). Aparna Sen – who Chatterjee romanced in lots of a film within the black and white celluloid age and, certainly, made her profession debut reverse Chatterjee in Ray’s Teen Kanya (Samapti) again in 1961 – was director and co-actor to Chatterjee in Paromitar Ekdin (House of Memories, 2000). The movie went on to win three National Awards together with greatest characteristic movie in Bangla that 12 months.
In 2001, Goutam Ghosh’s Dekha (Sight) the place Chatterjee performed the character of a bitter and ageing poet dealing with blindness received the actor a particular jury award within the National Awards listing that 12 months which the actor declined on grounds of questionable “bias” of the awards panel after filmmaker Ghosh had additionally turned down the award for the Best Bengali Film.
Chatterjee’s roles in Srijit Mukherjee’s Hemlock Society (2012), Nandita Roy/Shiboprosad Mukherjee’s Bela Seshe (2015) and Sujoy Ghosh’s quick movie Ahalya (2015) stay etched in public reminiscence for his or her various and difficult character portrayals. Special point out must also be made for his stellar efficiency in Atanu Ghosh’s Mayurakshi (2017) that delved deep into a fancy and emotional father-son bonding with co-actor Prosenjit Chatterjee at the same time as each went on to win Filmfare recognition for his or her roles.
Read: Cultural Icon and the Most Prominent Face of Indian Cinema Abroad
But it was Chatterjee’s stint with economist-turned-filmmaker Suman Ghosh, whose debut enterprise Podokkhep (Footsteps, 2006) lastly gave the actor his first and solely National Film Award for Best Actor. He accepted the award with a stinker of a rider: “After decades of acting, I do not attach too much value to it.” The movie additionally went on to win the National Award for Best Bengali Feature Film that 12 months. Ghosh went on to collaborate with Chatterjee in three of his movies within the decade that adopted.
Indeed, Soumitra Chatterjee’s lengthy and energetic movie profession made him maybe uniquely disposed to behave as the one residing bridge between the period of black and white classics to the rigorously nuanced modern-day movie making. It is that facet which gave him an edge over his peer and Bengal movie trade’s greatest star Uttam Kumar and with whom Chatterjee has so usually been in contrast with. Leaving that cliched comparability apart, the truth that Uttam Kumar handed away in 1980 when he was solely 53 left Bengal movie aficionados with solely Chatterjee to hold that torch by the late 20th Century and into 21st Century filmmaking… a job that Chatterjee carried out with outstanding adaptability, consistency and elan.
That is why Soumitra Chatterjee’s profound presence on the planet of movie appreciation continued to dominate actively over the awe and fondness over Uttam Kumar who’s relatively seemed upon as a romantic hero, a doyen from the previous and stays, at greatest, within the realm of nostalgia.
That is why Soumitra Chatterjee is a vital a part of the residing and vibrant cultural lifetime of at the least three generations of Bengalis who handed by the earlier century into the present millennium. That is why he’s so inextricably linked to our coming of age and rising up.
When in 2012 the Dadasaheb Phalke award lastly got here his means Chatterjee, flanked by then Vice President Hamid Ansari, stated in his attribute method, “I have always been in doubt with my work,” earlier than happening to thank his admirers for supplying him “with energy and dedication of what I think is good art.”
Beyond Films:
But Chatterjee wasn’t all about movies, has by no means been. His various contribution in efficiency arts ranged from his life-long bonding with theatre to being a recitation artist of appreciable reputation (a expertise caught on digicam by Ray in Chatterjee’s debut movie Apur Sansar). Back in 1956, Chatterjee started his profession as an announcer with the All India Radio earlier than Ray picked him up for probably the most fruitful collaborations in Indian movie historical past. But his calling for radio turned full circle when on the fag-end of his profession, Chatterjee returned to host a extensively common weekly present on a Kolkata-based FM station on a topic near his coronary heart and over which he maintained appreciable experience: Rabindranath Tagore.
He was additionally a poet, with over 15 revealed poetry titles to his credit score, and editor of certainly one of Bengal’s most revered literary magazines Ekshan for twenty years. Chatterjee’s relatively seamless enterprise into the world of high-quality arts engaged on water color and acrylic mediums on canvases are effectively appreciated. It was a ardour he most well-liked to maintain largely throughout the bounds of his closest circles, although.
But theatre at all times remained Chatterjee’s past love and he returned to it at each alternative that beaconed. For somebody who was handheld and influenced by stage personalities like Mrityunjoy Sil and Sisir Bhaduri throughout his days as a pupil, Chatterjee performing prowess on stage had already been formed by the likes of Ahindra Choudhury even earlier than he stepped into the world of cinema. In the course of time, Chatterjee carried ahead the fantastic custom of stage stalwarts who made it massive in cinema – actors like Jahar Roy, Utpal Dutta, Rabi Ghosh, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Sabitri Chatterjee and Sobha Sen – and directed and acted in over a dozen performs to carry a couple of contemporary look to public theatre in Bengal.
A journey that began with Mukhosh, an adaptation of WW Jacob’s horror quick story, in 1956 went by the annals of Bengal’s stage manufacturing historical past with performs like Phera (1987), Nilkantha (1988), Ghatak Biday (1990), Tiktiki (1995) and Homapakhi (2006), to call a couple of.
Since November 2010, the thespian’s portrayal of Raja Lear, Shakespeare’s indignant previous king, in Suman Mukhopadhyay’s adaptation of King Lear allowed Chatterjee to fulfil his long-cherished dream of enjoying a Shakespearean protagonist and dominate the stage like a colossus earlier than curtains have been compelled on the play few years later. Chatterjee had publicly regretted the discontinuance and expressed his want to return for that position which, alas, he by no means might. In 2011, Chatterjee even wrote, directed and acted in an autobiographical manufacturing, Tritiyo Onko Otoeb (The Third Act, Therefore) which mapped the non-public, social, political and historic journey he underwent in his eventful life.
Recognition:
Indeed, recognition poured in for Chatterjee a lot later in his profession than he or his followers would have anticipated them to come back. Chatterjee was awarded with Padma Bhushan in 2004 which he accepted after refusing Padma Shri twice earlier than. His skepticism for National Awards presumably stemmed from a latent grudge that a few of his greatest works with Ray and different administrators in his heydays weren’t acknowledged. “A National Award calls for a lot of lobbyism. It is not an honest appreciation of someone’s skill,” the actor had maintained.
One recognition that Chatterjee will need to have cherished over most others is the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna in 1998 for his contribution to Bengali theatre. Only Dadasaheb Phalke and the French Legion of Honour awards might have equaled that recognition of feat or marginally extra.
Of the 4 Filmfare awards he received, the Lifetime Achievement Award – South in 1995 might have held some benefit for him as a result of certainly one of Chatterjee’s admired administrators, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, additionally shared dais with him for a similar award that 12 months.
But Chatterjee’s biggest award has at all times been the love and admiration of his followers and colleagues within the trade and within the bigger cultural area of Bengal. A workaholic to the core, Chatterjee was in a position to proceed performing until his final day until Covid 19 compelled him to be hospitalized. Chatterjee confessed on a number of events that he uttered the chorus “Fight-Koni-Fight”, the leitmotif of Koni, in his personal life to carry his ageing spirits in tough instances. He embodied that fighter spirit until the very finish.
The lithe, tall man who burst on to the area of Indian cinema six many years in the past with an infectious smile whereas enjoying Apu, certainly one of Indian cinema’s most adorable characters, and went on to propound the naturalist type of performing in Bengali cinema after which transitioned to character roles which fitted virtually naturally with his swish ageing, Chatterjee will stay as certainly one of Bengal’s final Renaissance man in a Hall of Fame that’s reserved for a handful.
Thank you, Soumitra Chatterjee, for residing amongst us.Sougata Mukhopadhyay
“Nishchinto ar thaka gyalo na re Topshe” (There’s no room for complacency anymore, Topshe).
That’s how Pradosh C. Mitter aka Feluda, the inimitable hero of Satyajit Ray’s detective fiction-turned cult film Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress, 1974), warned his teenage nephew-cum-sidekick Tapesh of the upcoming risks the duo was about to face in its quest to rescue a six-year previous little one from the clutches of duddharsh dushman (harmful dacoits, not of the Aravalli hills however of Kolkata). The dialogue, in fact, was mouthed by Ray’s hottest collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee who went on to behave in 14 of Ray’s 30 characteristic movies and two shorts over a interval of 31 years starting 1959.
It’s maybe the identical sinking feeling of Feluda’s unsettled perspicacity that permeated the hearts and minds of each Soumitra Chatterjee fan throughout the globe when information broke on 6 October this 12 months that the 85-year previous cultural icon was contaminated with Covid-19 and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a non-public hospital in Kolkata.
Knowledge about his underlying co-morbidities and the truth that he had recovered from pneumonia barely a 12 months in the past solely worsened that uncanny feeling.
Chatterjee fought valiantly for 40 days within the hospital with Covid-induced Encephalopathy which downed his sensorium, compromised his lungs and weakened his kidneys earlier than giving up the battle which was one-sided from the beginning. Yet that’s not what I wish to speak about right here. Chatterjee has offered us with greater than sufficient materials to have fun his life and there are too many takeaways to disregard. An try and scratch the floor or take a sneak peek into the highlights of his versatile profession is a concurrently daunting and rewarding expertise which his absence from the mortal world at present solely reinforces.
The Ray-Chatterjee Partnership:
“Acting in Ray’s films gave me an opportunity to get glimpses of the answers to my own problems in life,” Chatterjee had reminisced in his reminiscences of Satyajit Ray earlier than Belgian musician Bo Van Der Werf in 1999 for his documentary Satyajit Ray Negatives. “I tried to find my answers through these characters I played, beginning with Apu. Not in the context of what happened to him, but the way he looked and life and explained its realities,” Chatterjee recounted.
In his memoirs of Ray, The Master and I, Chatterjee described Ray’s “possessiveness” about him as “like a father is of his son” whereas narrating the “complex but enjoyable relationship” the duo shared.
Opinions on the perfect outputs of the Ray-Chatterjee partnership, which most undoubtedly went past the skilled area of collaboration into the extra intimate realm of the previous mentoring the latter, are prone to be subjective, private and ferociously owned by film buffs. But if I have been to stay my neck out and select 5 Ray motion pictures the place Chatterjee dazzled, these could be my picks and in no specific order: Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), Abhijan (The Expedition, 1962), Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights within the Forest, 1969); Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder, 1973) and Ghare Baire (The Home and the World, 1984).
In 2018, at an emotional perform at a resort in Kolkata, Chatterjee, immaculately dressed as a quintessential Bengali in an embroidered Kurta, dhoti and scarf, was conferred with the very best civilian award of the French Government, Legion d’Honneur: Commandeur de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, some three many years after his mentor Satyajit Ray was honoured with an an identical distinction on the steps of town’s National Library by then French President Francois Mitterrand. Many, together with Satyajit’s son and director Sandip Ray, understandably felt that Chatterjee’s second of glory made his journey by cinema flip a full circle.
Chatterjee Beyond Ray:
Chatterjee’s collaborations with Ray however, his virtually unnoticeable passage from a preferred Bengali movie hero to the hallowed area of legends of Indian cinema was maybe due to his capability to transcend Ray and go away his mark in each facet of creativity he touched upon.
With presumably the only exception of Ritwick Ghatak, Chatterjee labored with virtually all stalwart administrators of yesteryears in Bengal. Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Asit Sen, Ajoy Kar, Tarun Majumder and Dinen Gupta had repeatedly collaborated with Chatterjee and delivered unforgettable narratives forming the crux of movie repository belonging not simply to Chatterjee but in addition crammed up the cultural area of all those that grew up in Bengal within the latter half of the 20th Century. To their unwavering delight.
Tapan Sinha’s Kshudita Pashan (Hungry Stones, 1960), Jhinder Bandi (The Prisoner of Jhind, 1961) and Atanka (Terror, 1986), Ajoy Kar’s Saat Paake Bandha (Marriage Vows, 1963), Mrinal Sen’s Akash Kusum (Up In The Clouds, 1965), Tarun Majumder’s Sansar Simante (On the Edge of the World, 1975) and Ganadevata (The People, 1978) and Dinen Gupta’s Basanta Bilap (1973) are solely instances in level to a for much longer listing.
And then take into account the so-called “one-offs” with Chatterjee’s comparatively unacknowledged director-collaborators, movies that are firmly positioned within the realm of classics: Bijoy Bose’s Baghini (Tigress, 1968), Salil Dutta’s Aparichito (Stranger, 1969), Asutosh Bandyopadhyay’s Teen Bhubaner Pare (On the Shores of the World, 1969), Nityananda Dutta’s Baksha Badal (The Luggage Switch, 1970), Saroj Dey’s Koni (1984) and Prabhat Roy’s Lathi (The Stick, 1996) to call a couple of. Chatterjee’s performances in every of them keep as mesmerizingly common as a few of his best-known works with Satyajit Ray.
Chatterjee and Contemporary Filmmakers:
In retaining with his mastery over the medium, Chatterjee went on to turn into amongst essentially the most sought-after actors with up to date filmmakers. While Sandip Ray went forward with his father’s alternative in directing Chatterjee in at the least two of his motion pictures, certainly one of which was a Feluda story, Chatterjee labored with Rituparno Ghosh’s National Award profitable Asukh (Illness, 1999). Aparna Sen – who Chatterjee romanced in lots of a film within the black and white celluloid age and, certainly, made her profession debut reverse Chatterjee in Ray’s Teen Kanya (Samapti) again in 1961 – was director and co-actor to Chatterjee in Paromitar Ekdin (House of Memories, 2000). The movie went on to win three National Awards together with greatest characteristic movie in Bangla that 12 months.
In 2001, Goutam Ghosh’s Dekha (Sight) the place Chatterjee performed the character of a bitter and ageing poet dealing with blindness received the actor a particular jury award within the National Awards listing that 12 months which the actor declined on grounds of questionable “bias” of the awards panel after filmmaker Ghosh had additionally turned down the award for the Best Bengali Film.
Chatterjee’s roles in Srijit Mukherjee’s Hemlock Society (2012), Nandita Roy/Shiboprosad Mukherjee’s Bela Seshe (2015) and Sujoy Ghosh’s quick movie Ahalya (2015) stay etched in public reminiscence for his or her various and difficult character portrayals. Special point out must also be made for his stellar efficiency in Atanu Ghosh’s Mayurakshi (2017) that delved deep into a fancy and emotional father-son bonding with co-actor Prosenjit Chatterjee at the same time as each went on to win Filmfare recognition for his or her roles.
But it was Chatterjee’s stint with economist-turned-filmmaker Suman Ghosh, whose debut enterprise Podokkhep (Footsteps, 2006) lastly gave the actor his first and solely National Film Award for Best Actor. He accepted the award with a stinker of a rider: “After decades of acting, I do not attach too much value to it.” The movie additionally went on to win the National Award for Best Bengali Feature Film that 12 months. Ghosh went on to collaborate with Chatterjee in three of his movies within the decade that adopted.
Indeed, Soumitra Chatterjee’s lengthy and energetic movie profession made him maybe uniquely disposed to behave as the one residing bridge between the period of black and white classics to the rigorously nuanced modern-day movie making. It is that facet which gave him an edge over his peer and Bengal movie trade’s greatest star Uttam Kumar and with whom Chatterjee has so usually been in contrast with. Leaving that cliched comparability apart, the truth that Uttam Kumar handed away in 1980 when he was solely 53 left Bengal movie aficionados with solely Chatterjee to hold that torch by the late 20th Century and into 21st Century filmmaking… a job that Chatterjee carried out with outstanding adaptability, consistency and elan.
That is why Soumitra Chatterjee’s profound presence on the planet of movie appreciation continued to dominate actively over the awe and fondness over Uttam Kumar who’s relatively seemed upon as a romantic hero, a doyen from the previous and stays, at greatest, within the realm of nostalgia.
That is why Soumitra Chatterjee is a vital a part of the residing and vibrant cultural lifetime of at the least three generations of Bengalis who handed by the earlier century into the present millennium. That is why he’s so inextricably linked to our coming of age and rising up.
When in 2012 the Dadasaheb Phalke award lastly got here his means Chatterjee, flanked by then Vice President Hamid Ansari, stated in his attribute method, “I have always been in doubt with my work,” earlier than happening to thank his admirers for supplying him “with energy and dedication of what I think is good art.”
Beyond Films:
But Chatterjee wasn’t all about movies, has by no means been. His various contribution in efficiency arts ranged from his life-long bonding with theatre to being a recitation artist of appreciable reputation (a expertise caught on digicam by Ray in Chatterjee’s debut movie Apur Sansar). Back in 1956, Chatterjee started his profession as an announcer with the All India Radio earlier than Ray picked him up for probably the most fruitful collaborations in Indian movie historical past. But his calling for radio turned full circle when on the fag-end of his profession, Chatterjee returned to host a extensively common weekly present on a Kolkata-based FM station on a topic near his coronary heart and over which he maintained appreciable experience: Rabindranath Tagore.
He was additionally a poet, with over 15 revealed poetry titles to his credit score, and editor of certainly one of Bengal’s most revered literary magazines Ekshan for twenty years. Chatterjee’s relatively seamless enterprise into the world of high-quality arts engaged on water color and acrylic mediums on canvases are effectively appreciated. It was a ardour he most well-liked to maintain largely throughout the bounds of his closest circles, although.
But theatre at all times remained Chatterjee’s past love and he returned to it at each alternative that beaconed. For somebody who was handheld and influenced by stage personalities like Mrityunjoy Sil and Sisir Bhaduri throughout his days as a pupil, Chatterjee performing prowess on stage had already been formed by the likes of Ahindra Choudhury even earlier than he stepped into the world of cinema. In the course of time, Chatterjee carried ahead the fantastic custom of stage stalwarts who made it massive in cinema – actors like Jahar Roy, Utpal Dutta, Rabi Ghosh, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Sabitri Chatterjee and Sobha Sen – and directed and acted in over a dozen performs to carry a couple of contemporary look to public theatre in Bengal.
A journey that began with Mukhosh, an adaptation of WW Jacob’s horror quick story, in 1956 went by the annals of Bengal’s stage manufacturing historical past with performs like Phera (1987), Nilkantha (1988), Ghatak Biday (1990), Tiktiki (1995) and Homapakhi (2006), to call a couple of.
Since November 2010, the thespian’s portrayal of Raja Lear, Shakespeare’s indignant previous king, in Suman Mukhopadhyay’s adaptation of King Lear allowed Chatterjee to fulfil his long-cherished dream of enjoying a Shakespearean protagonist and dominate the stage like a colossus earlier than curtains have been compelled on the play few years later. Chatterjee had publicly regretted the discontinuance and expressed his want to return for that position which, alas, he by no means might. In 2011, Chatterjee even wrote, directed and acted in an autobiographical manufacturing, Tritiyo Onko Otoeb (The Third Act, Therefore) which mapped the non-public, social, political and historic journey he underwent in his eventful life.
Recognition:
Indeed, recognition poured in for Chatterjee a lot later in his profession than he or his followers would have anticipated them to come back. Chatterjee was awarded with Padma Bhushan in 2004 which he accepted after refusing Padma Shri twice earlier than. His skepticism for National Awards presumably stemmed from a latent grudge that a few of his greatest works with Ray and different administrators in his heydays weren’t acknowledged. “A National Award calls for a lot of lobbyism. It is not an honest appreciation of someone’s skill,” the actor had maintained.
One recognition that Chatterjee will need to have cherished over most others is the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna in 1998 for his contribution to Bengali theatre. Only Dadasaheb Phalke and the French Legion of Honour awards might have equaled that recognition of feat or marginally extra.
Of the 4 Filmfare awards he received, the Lifetime Achievement Award – South in 1995 might have held some benefit for him as a result of certainly one of Chatterjee’s admired administrators, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, additionally shared dais with him for a similar award that 12 months.
But Chatterjee’s biggest award has at all times been the love and admiration of his followers and colleagues within the trade and within the bigger cultural area of Bengal. A workaholic to the core, Chatterjee was in a position to proceed performing until his final day until Covid 19 compelled him to be hospitalized. Chatterjee confessed on a number of events that he uttered the chorus “Fight-Koni-Fight”, the leitmotif of Koni, in his personal life to carry his ageing spirits in tough instances. He embodied that fighter spirit until the very finish.
The lithe, tall man who burst on to the area of Indian cinema six many years in the past with an infectious smile whereas enjoying Apu, certainly one of Indian cinema’s most adorable characters, and went on to propound the naturalist type of performing in Bengali cinema after which transitioned to character roles which fitted virtually naturally with his swish ageing, Chatterjee will stay as certainly one of Bengal’s final Renaissance man in a Hall of Fame that’s reserved for a handful.
Thank you, Soumitra Chatterjee, for residing amongst us.
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