Nitya Chakraborty
Sanghamitra Chakraborty’s just released book ‘Soumitra Chatterjee and His World’ is perhaps the first authoritative biography in English of the great Bengali icon, who was not just the chosen on-screen face for Satyajit Ray, featuring centrally in fourteen of his twenty-eight feature films, but also a writer of plays, a director, a poet and the pro-active editor of one of Bengal’s prestigious literary magazines “Ekkhon”. In his younger days, Soumitra was sought after by the youth of Bengal for recitation programmes, while in his last years, he focused on painting, and many of works got appreciation from eminent artistes like Jogen Chowdhury.
As Sanghamitra tells us in her book, she began writing it in 2021, a few months after the demise of Soumitra Chatterjee on November 15, 2020 from Covid-related complications. In the intervening weeks, enormous amount of writings, particularly in Bengali, but also some in English, appeared on Bengal’s last cultural icon revered universally across its prominent political divides. Chakraborty, naturally, had the advantage of reading all those materials. Besides, she met his family members, friends and all others close to Soumitra Chatterjee, who could give her real insights into the making of the man and his intensive search for finding out who he was, and what he was aiming for.
For Soumitra, it was a lifelong quest since his early days, when he was a student of a school in Howrah. He was born in 1935 on January 19, in an educated middle class family, headed by a lawyer father who inherited the traits of honesty, nationalism, as also love for theatre. Soumitra’s family was connected with the families of Bengal tiger Ashutosh Mukherjee, as also one of the well-known literary figures of those times, Sourindra Mohan Mukherjee, the father of the legendary Rabindrasangeet singer, Suchitra Mitra.
Sanghamitra in her 435-page book has divided Soumitra’s journey into ten sections from the beginning to end with enough details, some of which are known, while some others are new facts brought to light with her work. The biography will be of big help for the non-Bengali readers who are aware of the achievements of Soumitra Chatterjee, though he confined himself to only Bengali films and declined to move to Hindi films, even when requested. Sanghamitra has portrayed the dilemma of a creative person like Soumitra in agreeing to act in more than three hundred films in his 65-year-old film career, the majority of which were of low cinematic standards, which he did not particularly cherish working in, but had to accept due to monetary reasons.
Soumitra Chatterjee is a classic case of a left-leaning cultural icon of Bengal, who operated in the second half of the last century and the first twenty years in the 21st century with a dream of excelling in his role of an actor, producing plays that were satisfying to his creative instincts and participating in his own way in the building of a just and equitable society in Bengal along the lines of his ideological belief for a better world. Except his occasional excellence in portrayals of onscreen characters in a slew of films, most of which were directed by his mentor, Satyajit Ray, all other dreams came to a naught during Soumitra’s lifetime.
In the last three decades of his life, his inner struggle became more intense as he felt himself loveless in his own home and sought solace from outside. He was looking for real love, not casual relations or sex which he could have enjoyed if he wanted. But Soumitra was an idealist influenced by Tagorean ideals. He looked to Tagore, his poem and songs whenever he was in a personal crisis. He was a different man with both a heart and a brain, and not like many other actors or directors of the film world.
This aspect of the inner struggle of Soumitra, especially in his last twenty eight tears since 1996, has not got adequate reflection in Sanghamitra’s book. She has given the hint but this was very cursory and incomplete. She, I presume got hold of Soumitra’s diaries from Amit Ranjan Biswas and Paramita Banerjee. She has mentioned in a portion in her book, but these are too inadequate to explain the intense personal pain which Soumitra was undergoing after his relations got severed with his wife and soulmate Deepa in the 1990s. This was a great personal tragedy for Soumitra and over the next thirty years, overcoming an occasional health scare or two, he was chiefly looking for work and more work, only to be out of his sweet home in Golf Green, where he was a loner, despite having all the family members, including his wife.
I am mentioning here only of two aspects of the biography —one, featuring the ties between Deepa and Soumitra, and two, Soumitra’s political location —which could have been more elaborated. Especially, in the Deepa and Soumitra part, Sanghamitra has talked to friends of Soumitra who were quite sympathetic to the plight of the actor, but there was no indication that the writer also spoke to friends of Deepa who could have provided the latter’s side of the story. For a biographer, this is a big lapse. In just six pages, she dismisses the troubled relationship by mentioning at the end: “He hated himself for breaking Deepa’s heart (confession in the diary) but it was not something he had been able to help. He continued to lean on relationships outside his marriage for a long time.”
But how can a biographer fail to go more into this nature of outside relationships after making this observation? Once again, I am hazarding a guess: Sanghamitra must have read the diaries of 1990s, now in the custody of Amit Ranjan Biswas and Paramita Banerjee. The writer talked to them extensively, but missed the most relevant portions of the diary, which portray the acute dilemma of Soumitra in maintaining his relationship intact. Even Soumitra talked of leaving his home for his love, if she agreed. But then he himself said that he was weak.
I am quoting a portion of Soumitra’s diary dated June 12, 1996 on the basis of the extract released by Soumitra’s custodian Amit Ranjan Biswas in the Sunday edition of Sangbad Pratidin. Soumitra wrote on that night: “I am suffering from severe loneliness. I am itching to write a letter to her. Sometimes, I feel like seeking divorce from Deepa so that I can have freedom in the remaining years of my life. I am not a slave. But I have to give up the idea only after thinking of what will happen to Bubu and Mitil if I am not there. I have no place in the life of Deepa. She has only hatred, anger and charge of infidelity against me. I cannot leave this house till she turns me out. This is a terrible pain. Death is far better. I do not know how long this will continue.”
On the same lines, there are entries in Soumitra’s diary on the next two nights also. But the most interesting was the entry on June 15, 1996. Soumitra talked to his girl friend, his real love that morning. She informed that she was questioned by her relatives as the relationship had become widely known. Soumitra got the hint that she would not like to continue the relationship. The dejected Soumitra wrote: “Our love has been defeated. Even for few days, I got back the feeling of love which I missed for long.” Soumitra then wrote, in my last days, “I would say that I have loved Deepa all along. Apart from her, I have found the purity of love in this woman.” Mark the words, “purity of love”. Soumitra himself wrote in another section that he never felt need for physical intimacy with his lady love. He was what the Bengalees call “Bhalobasharjanya Kangal” (thirsty for real love). Without assessing these diaries, the real Soumitra cannot be presented in his totality.
Moreover, there are some factual errors in the book which should have been avoided. It is written that the prestigious periodical “Parichay” was first published in 1939. No, it was founded in 1932. And that at the time, Soumitra was in student politics through Students Federation of India. No, there was no SFI at that time. It was All India Students Federation (AISF). Soumitra was active for some time in AISF, along with his friends in the City College and then in Calcutta University during his M.A. days.. Then it is written the CPI was split in 1961. No, the CPI was split in 1964. Such egregious errors were allowed even by the editors of the book. That is regrettable.
Overall, the biography is readable. Sanghamitra has done a good job in her sections such as “In a World Without Ray” and “Uttamkumar and His Friendship”. Sharmila Tagore’s foreword, especially the last line — “He was and will be my Apu-always”— is superb. Similar is the veteran actress and Soumitra’s co-star in many Bengali films Aparna Sen’s comment. Aparna called Soumitra the last example of a glorious age, an icon who was a repository of its culture and values.
Sanghamitra Chakraborty has made sincere efforts to put forward Soumitra and his times in proper perspective. The book will be of big interest to the film lovers in the West also, who know and appreciate Satyajit Ray so well. What Mifune was to Kurosowa, Marcello Mastroianni was to Vitterio De Sica, Soumitra was the same to Satyajit Ray. Sanghamitra Chakraborty’s biography has good scope for getting international attention. (IPA)
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