The following day, the information of Uttam Kumar’s presence on the cinema corridor unfold and all hell broke unfastened that day. By late afternoon, roads resulting in Bhowanipore had been barricaded. Uttam Kumar’s automotive – by most accounts a Chevrolet Impala – needed to be piloted by the by-lanes. The theatre was actually shaking below the burden of uproarious chanting, ‘Guru, guru’, with calls for to get a glimpse of the star. The corridor supervisor rushed to Ray. “Sir, if we don’t deliver him up on stage there can be a severe law-and-order problem.” Minutes later, the lights had been on and Mahanayak was seen standing on the platform proper in entrance the display screen. He was elevating his hand and the gang immediately fell silent, as if it’s a waving of a magic wand. “I request you to please be silent and watch the movie. Don’t neglect it’s a Satyajit Ray movie,” Uttam requested everybody.
This story is a piquant testimonial to Bengal’s two foremost immortals and it’s maybe apocryphal. However that takes nothing away from what this story testifies to – be it Satyajit Ray’s sway over his solid, the pliant theatre supervisor and the exceptional stardom of Uttam Kumar. In some methods, this story of cosmopolitanism additionally encapsulates the fantasy that was Bengali cinema. However as is understood, it’s not Ray who colonised that cinema, whether or not it’s as fantasy or as commerce. It was Uttam Kumar. And solely Uttam Kumar!
Uttam Kumar’s first few movies tanked on the field workplace, and he determined to maneuver on with a – then profitable – profession as a Calcutta Port Trust clerk. Nonetheless, Arun’s household who had a theatre tradition at dwelling, even his sisters satisfied him to get again to movies. And the remainder is historical past! After the primary few flops, what a profession he had loved.
Between 1945 and 1980, he did a outstanding 375 movies, averaging nearly 11 movies annually. He had essayed roles in each Bangla and Hindi movies, acted reverse nearly each heroine in these instances: be it Sabitri Debi and Madhabi Mukherjee, to, in a while, Aparna Sen.
However it was the Uttam-Suchitra jodi that floored Bengalis for years: with Uttam’s effete bhadralok picture and Suchitra’s innate sophistication with restrained sexuality, their pair turned unbeatable and bankable on-screen affair. Nonetheless, Suchitra Sen determined to go recluse in 1979, one yr earlier than Uttam’s tragic loss of life.
Celebrated in his life and loss of life, delivering blockbusters by the dozen, he turned ‘Mahanayak’ – ‘Nice Hero’ – lengthy earlier than he handed away. But, he wasn’t the best actor to have dominated Bengali cinema and his closely accented Hindi additionally failed his Bollywood productions on the field workplace.
Contemplating his persona as the most important Bengali romantic hero of all time, it’s fairly stunning that his two most enduring performances had been something however that. These two got here out again to again, throughout a turbulent time in Bengal, in 1966 and 1967 – Nayak and Chiriyakhana.
There are maybe two such incidents within the historical past of Kolkata that characterize Bengal – when a loss of life turned out to be a historical past. The primary event was Rabindranath Tagore’s demise on 7 August 1941. It led to mass hysteria – 1000’s gathered round his useless physique whereas it was en path to cremation. Shockingly many had torn bits off his hair and beard for mementos! It was a catastrophe.
Nonetheless, the second time it didn’t turn out to be too ugly. That was when Arun Kumar Chatterjee handed away in 1980. He was carried, with plenty of dignity, in a coated carriage. No one obtained an opportunity to gather items of his beard or mustache, since he didn’t have one.
His demise noticed total forests being chopped down, as Bengali media mourned him for days. The primitive TV we had then, endlessly, and tiresomely, began exhibiting his films. As a result of it wasn’t Arun Kumar Chatterjee who died: Uttam Kumar had handed away. And everybody cried their hearts out at his passing for days.
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