Review: Soumitra Chatterjee – His Life in Cinema and Beyond by Amitava Nag
Amitava Nag's latest book, Soumitra Chatterjee - His Life and Beyond explores the many talents and interests of the Indian cinema icon
Though everyone associates Soumitra Chatterjee with Indian cinema in general and Ray’s cinema in particular, he was much more than an actor. He made rich contributions to different segments of Bengali culture including theatre, poetry, elocution, writing and painting. Few have explored his multiple talents and the many interests that he pursued with equal commitment. Amitava Nag’s latest book, the all-encompassing Soumitra Chatterjee - his Life and Beyond does just that.
An independent film critic, scholar and author, Nag is the editor of The Silhouette, an online magazine on cinema and his poetry and short fiction have been published in Bengali and English. His earlier books to do with Chatterjee included Beyond Apu and Murmurs: Silent Steals with Soumitra Chatterjee. While the first explored 20 roles that showcased his range as an actor, the second presented the artiste as a common man with frailties and insecurities. This new book is a biography. Divided into 10 well-structured chapters, it also has an excellent appendix that comprises lists of his top 150 films, plays, works on Doordarshan and major awards, and also a comprehensive bibliography.
In the Introduction, Nag writes:
In this book, I trace his initial years of searching for identities and then the final decades of consolidation. He remained a phenomenon till his very end, though the term has lost its relevance, having been used for lesser successes. He was on the Bengali psyche almost like a drape shrouding our own existence. That is why when he was fighting for his life in the hospital, the Bengali diaspora worldwide felt so devastated. He was the last of the magicians, descending from Tagore to Ray and then him. Amartya Sen is the other pride but his relevance in the minds of the commoner is dubious at best.
The book is particularly interesting for the little-known nuggets it presents. In Chapter 3, A Golden Streak, the author explains how Chatterjee realized quite early in his career that to be a professional actor and to appear as a hero in films, he needed to have an elegant gait apart from a handsome face. Observing the animal grace of sportsmen and the physicality of workmen and farmers, he started walking with a pile of books on his head. Filmmaker Tapan Sinha taught him a scientific and accurate lesson about walking for a sustained period of time with the same, natural freshness. All of this gives the reader an idea of how committed Chatterjee was to becoming an exemplary actor.
He was also adept at creating opportunities. In the late 1970s, he realized he was no more the automatic choice for the hero’s role. At that point, he wasn’t yet old enough to mature into character roles – something he did later. That’s when he turned to theatre. He could be the hero of his own plays and assay a range of characters that cinema was not offering him. It was a smart move to keep himself creatively relevant. Theatre combined with poetry and his magazine Ekshan (Now) meant he did not have to look outside to sustain himself.
Ekshan featured some remarkable writing. Chatterjee’s essay, Rajkumar, which was dedicated to the workers and technicians of the Bengali film industry, was first published in the periodical in 1974 and then as a book in 1975 by Subarnarekha Publications. It was also presented as a play regularly in the late 1970s on the commercial stage at Kashi Biswanath Mancha in north Calcutta.
Nag, who was very young when Soumitra Chatterjee was at his peak, outlines all the work that went into the book: “I re-read all his plays, his published essays and that opened up some new paths to him, so far undiscovered. I lamented about why I had not read them earlier with such passion when he was alive. I could have validated a few theories of mine, dispelled a few confusions – not only about him but about the golden period of Bengali cinema in general.”
The author believes that though Chatterjee’s primary identity was that of an actor, both on screen and on stage, he was a subtle playwright and a very competent theatre director as well. “He began to edit the very prestigious literary magazine Ekshon with his friend Nirmalya Acharya in the 1970s. The way he and the late Nirmalya Acharya could publish writings of contemporary artists and also republish old archival material is fascinating considering the financial obstacles they had to overcome. I found this aspect of his being an archivist equally fascinating. For someone who is a romantic hero in films, projection of the Self is all but natural. While the role of a magazine editor is that of projecting new writings, new voices by staying in the background. It is not easy to perform both these roles in life with similar finesse.”
That he managed to do it all with such style is what sets Soumitra Chatterjee apart.
The research that went into this book is astounding; the language and style of narration is arresting and the book is well-designed and planned. This is a must read for film aficionados and those interested in the life and enormous talent of Soumitra Chatterjee.
Shoma A Chatterji is an independent journalist. She lives in Kolkata.
Though everyone associates Soumitra Chatterjee with Indian cinema in general and Ray’s cinema in particular, he was much more than an actor. He made rich contributions to different segments of Bengali culture including theatre, poetry, elocution, writing and painting. Few have explored his multiple talents and the many interests that he pursued with equal commitment. Amitava Nag’s latest book, the all-encompassing Soumitra Chatterjee - his Life and Beyond does just that.
An independent film critic, scholar and author, Nag is the editor of The Silhouette, an online magazine on cinema and his poetry and short fiction have been published in Bengali and English. His earlier books to do with Chatterjee included Beyond Apu and Murmurs: Silent Steals with Soumitra Chatterjee. While the first explored 20 roles that showcased his range as an actor, the second presented the artiste as a common man with frailties and insecurities. This new book is a biography. Divided into 10 well-structured chapters, it also has an excellent appendix that comprises lists of his top 150 films, plays, works on Doordarshan and major awards, and also a comprehensive bibliography.
In the Introduction, Nag writes:
In this book, I trace his initial years of searching for identities and then the final decades of consolidation. He remained a phenomenon till his very end, though the term has lost its relevance, having been used for lesser successes. He was on the Bengali psyche almost like a drape shrouding our own existence. That is why when he was fighting for his life in the hospital, the Bengali diaspora worldwide felt so devastated. He was the last of the magicians, descending from Tagore to Ray and then him. Amartya Sen is the other pride but his relevance in the minds of the commoner is dubious at best.
The book is particularly interesting for the little-known nuggets it presents. In Chapter 3, A Golden Streak, the author explains how Chatterjee realized quite early in his career that to be a professional actor and to appear as a hero in films, he needed to have an elegant gait apart from a handsome face. Observing the animal grace of sportsmen and the physicality of workmen and farmers, he started walking with a pile of books on his head. Filmmaker Tapan Sinha taught him a scientific and accurate lesson about walking for a sustained period of time with the same, natural freshness. All of this gives the reader an idea of how committed Chatterjee was to becoming an exemplary actor.
He was also adept at creating opportunities. In the late 1970s, he realized he was no more the automatic choice for the hero’s role. At that point, he wasn’t yet old enough to mature into character roles – something he did later. That’s when he turned to theatre. He could be the hero of his own plays and assay a range of characters that cinema was not offering him. It was a smart move to keep himself creatively relevant. Theatre combined with poetry and his magazine Ekshan (Now) meant he did not have to look outside to sustain himself.
Ekshan featured some remarkable writing. Chatterjee’s essay, Rajkumar, which was dedicated to the workers and technicians of the Bengali film industry, was first published in the periodical in 1974 and then as a book in 1975 by Subarnarekha Publications. It was also presented as a play regularly in the late 1970s on the commercial stage at Kashi Biswanath Mancha in north Calcutta.
Nag, who was very young when Soumitra Chatterjee was at his peak, outlines all the work that went into the book: “I re-read all his plays, his published essays and that opened up some new paths to him, so far undiscovered. I lamented about why I had not read them earlier with such passion when he was alive. I could have validated a few theories of mine, dispelled a few confusions – not only about him but about the golden period of Bengali cinema in general.”
The author believes that though Chatterjee’s primary identity was that of an actor, both on screen and on stage, he was a subtle playwright and a very competent theatre director as well. “He began to edit the very prestigious literary magazine Ekshon with his friend Nirmalya Acharya in the 1970s. The way he and the late Nirmalya Acharya could publish writings of contemporary artists and also republish old archival material is fascinating considering the financial obstacles they had to overcome. I found this aspect of his being an archivist equally fascinating. For someone who is a romantic hero in films, projection of the Self is all but natural. While the role of a magazine editor is that of projecting new writings, new voices by staying in the background. It is not easy to perform both these roles in life with similar finesse.”
That he managed to do it all with such style is what sets Soumitra Chatterjee apart.
The research that went into this book is astounding; the language and style of narration is arresting and the book is well-designed and planned. This is a must read for film aficionados and those interested in the life and enormous talent of Soumitra Chatterjee.
Shoma A Chatterji is an independent journalist. She lives in Kolkata.