In a school exam we were once asked to write an essay
on our favourite movie. I had written about Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’. I
hadn’t seen Ray’s landmark movie then, nor did I have a chance to read the epic
novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The essay book at hand bailed me out
then.
Many years later, I had to write the same essay again. This
time, however, I was in the look-out for a job. By that time I had watched ‘Sat
Paake Bandha’ - a film on a dignified
lady’s love for a modest earning professor against the wishes of her ambitious
mother - several times. Each time I watched the movie, I wished the marriage
between Archana (the role played by Suchitra Sen) and Sukhendu (Soumitra
Chatterjee) had survived.
Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ may have ushered in a new era in the
history of Indian films, yet I, as a middle class semi-urban Bengali, couldn’t relate to it. On the other hand, Suchitra Sen’s ‘Sat Pake Bandha’, which
fetched her the award of the best actress at the Moscow Film Festival – first
by an Indian actress in any foreign film fest, portrayed the emotions and
aspirations of the middle class. What made Suchitra Sen unique in the film was
the multi-shaded dilemma between the emotions she had for her husband and the
aspirations of her mother. And it is this uniqueness which won the
hearts and minds of thousands of cine-goers and made her an epitome of
romanticism.
It is a well-known fact that Ray wanted to direct ‘Devi
Chaudhurani’ – a novel by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee where a charismatic lady
led the struggle against the oppression of the British – with Suchitra Sen in
the lead role. However, it didn’t materialise as Suchitra Sen didn’t have dates
which matched Ray’s schedule. Ray also wanted Suchitra Sen to act exclusively for him (i.e. she wouldn’t act in any other film till the shooting of
Devi Chaudhurani’ was over). Suchitra Sen, however, refused the offer, stating
that she couldn’t overlook those directors who made her the star that she
was. This only proves that her path to
stardom was not guided by intellectual fame alone, and she knew how to pull the
right chord to sway popular imagination.
Such was her glamorous screen presence and influence on
people’s mind that every young male lover in the 1960s and 1970s desired to see Suchitra Sen in their fiancée. Obviously, the socio-historic context was
important. India was a young nation, mired with numerous problems, including
poverty, unemployment and the toiling middle class looked at her as a respite
in the midst of the struggle that they had to undergo. Her fans thronged the matinee shows in large
numbers only for a rendezvous with their favourite screen idol.
With Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen formed one of the formidable
on-screen pairs in the history of Indian cinema. Their on screen presence was epitomised by films like ‘Sare Chuattor’, ‘Harano Sur’ ‘Pathe Holo Deri’ and
‘Saptopadi’, only to name a few of the 30 films they acted together. Yet some
believe that Suchitra Sen performed even better in those movies where she wasn’t opposite the thespian.
Apart from ‘Sat Pake Bandha’, ‘Uttar
Falguni’, where she acted in a double role of a courtesan mother and a lawyer daughter,
‘Dwep Jele Jai’, where she played the role of a nurse hired by a psychiatrist to develop
personal relationships with male patients, ‘Bhagaban Shree Krishna
Chaitanya’ are some of the films where Suchitra Sen was sophistication and
dignity personified. And this sophistication and dignity were also her off-screen
hallmarks. In a way, Suchitra Sen changed the way the female actors were seen
in the cinema industry, especially in Bengal.
Bharati Devi, Chaya Devi, Kanan Devi, Sandhya Rani, Sumitra Devi - veterans to Suchitra
Sen in the film industry, were undoubtedly gifted actors. However, they were
submissive in their personalities and their on screen presence was subdued by
playing second fiddle to the heroes. This male domination was in a way
challenged by Suchitra Sen, when she shared the screen with Uttam Kumar as
equal partners.
In some of the films which she did with Uttam Kumar, her name got precedence in the title cards, posters and banners. And in films like ‘Uttar Falguni’ and
‘Dwip Jele Jai’ it was Suchitra Sen who led the show. It was the same
with Gulzar’s ‘Aandhi’, where Suchitra Sen was cast in a character, believed
to be profoundly influenced by the persona of Indira Gandhi.
‘Aandhi’ was banned during the emergency, later on when the
ban was lifted and the film was screened at Kolkata’s Nandan, we were college
students. I remember many of us had thronged to watch ‘Aandhi’, not expecting anything
else but only to watch Suchitra Sen on the silver screen.
Her Hindi accent in the film was pathetic to
say the least and that she was aging when the film was shot was evident, yet
people thronged to have a feel as to how Suchitra Sen looked like. By that time
she had already retired into recluse, which made the cine-goers all the more
curious.
Her feminine charm and emotive force definitely strengthened
the idea of feminism, but such was her grace that Suchitra Sen never had to
shout out loud to make herself heard. She challenged the patriarchy by her on
and off screen presence but probably never defied it. Even after separating from her husband Dibanath Sen, Suchitra Sen took up the responsibility of bringing the body to Kolkata and carrying out his last rites after he died abroad.
No one knows why she retired into recluse after her last
film in 1978, yet it is widely believed that she took to spiritualism. While
her illusive retirement retained her image as a star in the hearts and minds of
thousands of cine-lovers, it also redefined the idea of stardom and demonstrated that it was not only confined
to the screen.
(A version of this write up was first published in DNA)
Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
All comments are personal.
No comments:
Post a Comment