Commenting on his acting in Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya, veteran director Shyam Benegal had once observed –
“Soumitra Chatterjee’s performance can be compared to a fine Persian carpet, subtle and exquisite. It is only when you turn to look at the back of the carpet do you see the intricate weave that has gone into its making.”
So which Soumitra Chatterjee are you going to reminisce today ?
The Actor
The Poet
The Writer
The Playwright
The Reciter
The Painter
The Public intellectual
Soumitra Chatterjee, the thespian , was all of the above and much more.
He was the protagonist of one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made in world cinema and he was also the voice of Amit Ray in Tagore’s শেষের কবিতা (Shesher Kabita).
To call Soumitra babu as one the greatest actors this country has ever produced , would be an understatement. He is an institution, a cultural icon and right up there in the pantheon of legends along with the likes of Toshiro Mifune, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Robert DeNiro & Marlon Brando.
Chatterjee was also someone who has steadfastly remained an integral part of the Bengali cultural landscape for close to six decades, an embodiment of the typical Bengali bhadralok — sensitive, vulnerable, and intelligent.
The world of Apu catapulted Soumitra to international acclaim, but his naturally unique and sensitive portrayal of Amal in Charulata is unforgettable and also took him closest to his one of his three mentors , Tagore ( the others being of course theatre legend Shishir Bhaduri & the auteur Satyajit Ray himself ). Chatterjee has acted in 14 films directed by Ray that comprised of many diverse layers of characterization, performance, style and presentation. His epochal collaborations with Ray ( his alter-ego according to many ) have few parallels in world cinema , only two instances of worth I can recollect right away ‘Kurosawa – Mifune’ & ‘Fellini – Mastroianni’.
It is hard to believe that someone who essayed the role of Bhibutibhushan’s Apu could also reinvent himself as the proud and ill-tempered taxi driver Narasingh Rajput in Abhijan (অভিযান, The Expedition). In fact it is a little known fact that the character of Narasingh was a direct influence for the character of the cynical cab driver Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. On one frame he was the conscientious and honest Dr. Gupta is Ganashatru, on the other , the revolutionary Sandip in Ghare Baire.
Writing in the New Yorker, critic Pauline Kael said this about Chatterjee: ‘Soumitra Chatterjee, Ray’s one-man stock company, moves so differently in the different roles he plays them, he is almost unrecognisable.’. In Tapan Sinha’s adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda, Jhinder Bandi, Soumitro could play the role of handsome but fiendishly wicked Mayurbahan with equal elan. All this while he was never typecast and could also effortlessly straddle the world of commercial films with star turns in Teen Bhuboner Pare , Saat Pake Bandha & Basanta Bilap to name a few.
But then there was this other side of Soumitra babu as the public thinker and many of his characters brought his intellectual beliefs to the fore as someone who could speak truth to power , be it Udayan Pandit in Hiraak Rajar Deshe ( দড়ি ধরে মারো টান, রাজা হবে খান খান ) or as the swimming coach Khidda in Koni struggling against the impossible odds of the corrupt system (“ Fight Koni, fight !!), memorable performances which will forever remain etched in the cinematic lore.
Chatterjee was a polymath. Apart from the 300 or so films under his belt, he was also a dramatist with over 15 adaptations and more than 30 productions to his name, poet, writer , elocution artist , painter and an editor for two decades of one of Bengal’s most versatile literary magazines Ekshan. On stage, he is most famous for his rendition of Shakespeare’s King Lear.
The last time I saw his acting was in Mayurakshi , an intensely emotional tale of an 84-year-old Sushovan, a brilliant former professor of History, presently suffering from dementia and cognitive decline. In fact, Chatterjee is no stranger to the current Netflix generation , remember the short film Ahalya by Sujoy Ghosh where he was cast opposite Radhika Apte.
With his passing away today, another remnant of my childhood is also gone forever. You cannot imagine Hercule Poirot without David Suchet, Sherlock Holmes without Jeremy Brett. Similarly, Soumitra Chatterjee immortalized Ray’s super sleuth Feluda a.k.a Pradosh C Mitter on the silver screen. His antics as the cerebral detective in Sonar Kella , his sparring duels with Utpal Dutta’s Machiavellian Maganlal Meghraj in Joy Baba Felunath are all part of a cherished memory jukebox and any Bong kid worth his/her salt , will happily attest to the same.
And that brings me back to my earlier question. Which Soumitra Chatterjee will I remember ?
The answer, Soumitra Chatterjee … Bengal’s Last Renaissance Man.
For someone of his stature , one can’t write an obituary .. maybe an eulogy , not that he needs one.
Let me end by borrowing words from one of Tagore’s immortal creations , boundless reverence for whom , we both share.
মোর লাগি করিয়ো না শোক,
আমার রয়েছে কর্ম, আমার রয়েছে বিশ্বলোক।
মোর পাত্র রিক্ত হয় নাই–
শূন্যেরে করিব পূর্ণ, এই ব্রত বহিব সদাই।
…..
ওগো তুমি নিরুপম,
হে ঐশ্বর্যবান,
তোমারে যা দিয়েছিনু সে তোমারি দান–
গ্রহণ করেছ যত ঋণী তত করেছ আমায়।
হে বন্ধু, বিদায়।
Calcutta Chromosome 