Soumitra Chatterjee 1935-2020

An edited version of this obituary was published in today’s Hindustan Times. All photos used below are not mine and nicked off Twitter (if you own any of these and would like me to take them down, please let me know).

Legendary actor, poet, essayist and dramatist Soumitra Chatterjee passed away on November 15, in Kolkata, following complications from Covid-19. He was 85. Chatterjee, a cancer survivor, had been admitted to Bellevue Nursing Home on October 6 and his condition started worsening from October 9, when he was put on oxygen support. Since then, he had been in critical condition. Chatterjee passed away on Sunday afternoon. He is survived by his wife, daughter, son and extended family. 

An icon of Bengali cinema and theatre, Chatterjee was best known for being a favourite of celebrated filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Ray cast Chatterjee in 14 films, including Apur Sansar, Charulata, Devi, Ghare Baire and the Feluda series. The two would remain close friends for more than 30 years, with Ray saying of Chatterjee, “I will have faith in Soumitra till the last day of my creative life.” With 2020 being Ray’s birth centenary year, the timing of Chatterjee’s passing is a fittingly poignant coda to the two men’s legendary friendship.  

In the course of his career, Chatterjee would become one of the biggest stars of Tollywood (as the Bengali commercial film industry is nicknamed) and also work with the most respected directors in Bengali cinema, including auteurs like Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Rituparno Ghosh. Chatterjee was known for the realism of his performances and being a scene-stealer. His distinctive voice, perfect diction and the complexity he brought to his roles have been mainstays of the Bengali cultural scene for over 50 years. Even a cameo by Chatterjee or a voiceover of his would be enough to make audiences sit up and take notice. 

Born on January 19, 1935, Chatterjee spent his early years in Krishnanagar, in Nadia district, before his family moved to Calcutta. Both his parents were teachers and bibliophiles, imbibing in him a love of reading and culture from a young age. Chatterjee studied literature at City College, in Calcutta, and was an undergraduate student when he watched a performance by thespian Sisir Bhaduri. Enchanted by Bhaduri’s acting, Chatterjee decided to become a theatre actor. The love for the stage would stay with him over the decades and Chatterjee would in later years direct some memorable adaptations like Tiktiki (from Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth) and Raja Lear (from William Shakespeare’s King Lear).   

As far as the young Chatterjee was concerned, theatre was art while films were just show business, but his opinion changed in 1955 after he saw Ray’s Pather Panchali. “The days and nights that followed were about nothing but Pather Panchali,” Chatterjee would write in his memoir, The Master and I (translated by Arunava Sinha). In 1957, when Chatterjee was working as an announcer in All India Radio, a friend introduced Chatterjee to Ray. Ray would later say that it was meeting Chatterjee that convinced him to make Apur Sansar, the last part of the Apu trilogy and the first of 14 films in which Ray would cast Chatterjee.

One of Chatterjee’s most cherished memories of his debut film was seeing the poster that Ray had designed, featuring Chatterjee. In an interview with Amitava Nag, Chatterjee said*, “When Limelight was released in Kolkata, there was a big poster of Charlie Chaplin in Chowringhee. That poster was made by Manik-da [Ray]. When Apur Sansar was released… there was another poster made by Manik-da: the bearded face of Apu. I can’t explain how thrilled I felt when I saw that poster for the first time – as if I had achieved something really big.”

[image error]Satyajit Ray, sketching Soumitra Chatterjee

Under Ray’s direction, Chatterjee would embody some of Bengali cinema’s most iconic characters, like the sensitive Amal from Charulata and the detective Felu-da. For many, Chatterjee will first and foremost be Amal from Charulata, which was based on one of Chatterjee’s favourite texts by Tagore, Nastaneer (The Broken Nest). “I had to change my Bengali handwriting for good. There were many sequences showing Amal writing,” said Chatterjee*. “Manik-da felt that since the story was written by Tagore, the setting had to reflect an earlier period … so he collected and consulted a lot of texts of the pre-Tagore era, and showed me how the alphabets would be. … I diligently practised it for the next six months,” the actor told Nag, offering a glimpse into the detailing that both Ray and Chatterjee invested into their work.       

Chatterjee shone in other filmmakers’ works too, delivering notable performances in films like Mrinal Sen’s Akash Kusum and Wheel Chair by Tapan Sinha. At a time when Bengali cinema — commercial and non-mainstream — could boast of talented actors like Madhabi Mukherjee, Sabitri Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt and Rabi Ghosh, Chatterjee stood out not just for his electric dialogue delivery, which was born out of his theatre experience, but also for the subtleties that Chatterjee brought to his body language while playing a role.

In the 1960s, Chatterjee became the first to challenge actor Uttam Kumar’s domination of the Bengali box office. While the early films had earned him critical acclaim, mainstream audiences woke up to Chatterjee’s charms when he played the anti-hero Mayurbahan in Sinha’s Jhinder Bandi (an adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda). Kumar had the heroic double role in the film, but it was Chatterjee’s bad-boy angularity that made pulses flutter.

Directed by Tapan Sinha, Jhinder Bandi was a lavish production for its time, with an all-star cast that included Kumar, Arundhati Mukherjee and Chatterjee as an anti-hero. “This was my first film with Uttam Kumar. He was already a very successful actor. … What I learnt that day [watching Kumar shoot] was that when I am giving a shot it is mine and no one else’s – neither the cameraman’s nor the director’s. To give the perfect shot I feel I have the right to go to any length and even cancel a shot myself,” recalled Chatterjee*.

Kumar and Chatterjee worked together in a number of films and developed a deep friendship, despite their professional rivalry. Chatterjee steadily established himself as what came to be known as “a thinking man’s hero”, taking on roles that posed different kinds of challenges; like the dance sequence in Teen Bhubaner Paare, which will forever occupy cult status among fans of Bengali cinema. The film had no dance director, so Chatterjee (who had actually learnt ballroom dancing in the past from veteran dance trainer Bob Das) did the choreography. Another iconic Chatterjee moment was with actor Suchitra Sen who ripped his kurta in a scene in Saat Paake Badha. At a success party for the film, Sen teasingly came up to Chatterjee and grabbed him by his kurta, as if she was about to recreate that scene. It made for a fantastic set of photographs and set tongues wagging in Kolkata.

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[image error]Soumitra Chatterjee and Suchitra Sen

With films like Saat Paake Badha, Parineeta and Teen Bhubaner Paare, Chatterjee became a commercially bankable star who was equally at ease in non-mainstream projects. By the 1970s, Chatterjee was at the height of his commercial career, with no real competition in sight. Films like Baksa Badal and Basanta Bilap established him as a beloved romantic lead. Remembering the shooting of Basanta Bilap, director Dinen Gupta recalled an anecdote involving Chatterjee and actor Anup Kumar. “I was in the middle of a take… and suddenly noticed that Anup had climbed onto Soumitra’s lap to apply colour on him. I pulled Anup up, saying, ‘Why on earth are you on his lap?’ Anup replied coolly, ‘What else can I do? … Soumitra is too tall and I am so short,’” said Gupta*.  

As the years rolled on, there was no pause in Chatterjee’s working life. He consistently drew audiences to cinemas even as he grew older and was cast in cameos and supporting roles. In later years, Chatterjee made no secret of being disappointed by the quality of cinema being produced in Bengal and the work offered to him. However, he would also point out that acting was a profession and since this was his source of livelihood, he didn’t have the luxury of a retirement. Chatterjee spoke frankly about his experiences in Bengali film and theatre in interviews, and wrote numerous essays and articles on contemporary Bengali culture. Many of these offered candid critique and perspective, drawing upon his own experiences but also a wealth of reading that marked him out to be among those actors who were genuinely erudite.

Chatterjee also made no secret of his Leftist leanings and was often critical of the political establishment at the state and Centre. Most recently, Chatterjee was among those celebrities who joined the popular protests on the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, which dissidents have argued is discriminatory towards certain communities, including Muslims and Tibetan refugees.

Despite all the critical acclaim, Chatterjee only won awards for his acting when he was well past his prime. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2004; the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2012; and France’s Legion d’Honneur in 2018. Throughout his career, he steered clear of Hindi and other film industries, effectively cementing himself as an ideal of both Bengali masculinity and intellectualism through his on and off-screen personae.

[image error]Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendall, Madhur Jaffrey and Soumitra Chatterjee (L to R) at Berlinale in 1975

Alongside his unrelenting shooting schedule, Chatterjee maintained a steady writing career, with books of poetry, plays and essays. Not even a cancer diagnosis could slow him down, but it did make Chatterjee keenly aware of his mortality. In recent years, he’d invariably mention the polymath and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Albert Schweitzer, whose controversial legacy includes humanitarian work in Africa as well as allegations of racism. Chatterjee focused his attention on Schweitzer’s determination to give back to society and work for the betterment of the underprivileged. In a 2017 interview to Scroll, Chatterjee said, “If things were conducive, I would have ideally given up everything, like Albert Schweitzer, and served in a labour camp. But I cannot do that. But then I realised, if I can at least bring joy to people’s lives, even if for a few hours, that is also service in some way.”

Acting in films; reciting and writing poetry; performing in and directing plays; editing a literary magazine; dabbling in painting — Chatterjee was a force of culture in Bengal, and all the more beloved because he chose Kolkata and its Coffee House culture over Mumbai and Bollywood. In the hearts of fans and cinephiles, he was and will remain the quintessential Bengali. 

*Quote from Beyond Apu: 20 Favourite Film Roles of Soumitra Chatterjee, by Amitava Nag (Harper Collins).