The culture that we didn't know - the incandescent versatility of Saumitra Chattopadhyay

When Sahabzade Irffan Khan died on April 29th, 2020 little did we know that one more star from the brightest constellation will fall again... The only difference being the earlier had much to offer when death snatched him while Saumitra although was working had a wide range of 60 years behind him .At very best he would have worked another 2-3 years.

You learn about a culture WHEN YOU NOTICE who they mourn. When the common man thronged the streets on the evening of 15th of November , braving a COVID threat , they were not mourning a heavyweight politician , a religious guru , a swashbuckling movie star or an iconic sports star. Definitely not !  They came out to mourn an actor ,who personified humanity which we thrive to aspire & life which we chose to live. He was a next door neighbor for all of us …

Calling Chatterjee an actor diminishes him - he did act in films but he was a renaissance man who acted in plays ,wrote  and recited poetry and painted .  He was honored and celebrated more in abroad than in his own country much like his Auteur . Even during his last few years , he found time to oppose the CAA and he always spoke for those whose voices people with power tried to stifle.

We remember him mainly for the 14 films that he made with RAY, and to be fair those made him a household names beyond Bengal and India . If Tagore was the original ambassador of Bengali genius ,Ray gave it the wings cinema could.  But Ray's artistry needed a face , and that was the handsome and winsome Chatterjee .  Apu - in Apur Sansar , he is seen fondling the hairpin on his pillow soon after his unexpected marriage with Aparna ( Sharmila Tagore). After his death, the pathos he undergoes that is personified by his floating the novel he is writing by letting it float , and the legendary final scene where he reconciles with his son , lifts him on his shoulders and takes him back with him, on that long road - where the song of the road , PATHER PANCHALI  will continue . As Pradosh Mitter or Feluda, the Charminar smoking sleuth with an encyclopedic memory , intrepid brain & boyish curiosity , he solves intractable mysteries in Sonar Kella and  Joy Baba Felunath. And like a great actor the transition from Apu to Feluda has been seamless and effortless ..

And then there is the archetypal innocence of Amal in Charulata , as he rushes into his  cousin's home like the whirlwind , scarcely aware that he could be seen as a cause of disruption , marveling at the onomatopoeic beauty of the word, playing the piano and singing Ami chini go chini  to an indulgent and adoring Madhabi Mukhopadhyay.  

As Sandip in Ghare Baire , he betrays his old friend Nikhilesh . seduces his wife Bimala,  while rousing masses against the British and sowing the seeds of violence at the time of partition of Bengal in 1905.

To be honest , RAY made him famous and universally iconic but the truth remains RAY was but a small fraction of his many other roles. He was larger than life and equally comfortable with Mrinal Sen , Tapan Sinha , Ajoy Kar and other titanic names of Bengal Cinema . Eg . - In Atanka , he confronts the reality of his own students committing murder during lawless phase of Bengal Politics. In Mrinal Sen's Pratinidhi , he is Niren , where he tries to earn the love of his step-son . but the child's unwillingness shatters the family. And in POSTO , he is Dinen Lahiri , in an inter - generational conflict with his grandson.

Fortunate are those who saw him on stage - yours truly is one of them - as Oswald Alwing in Bidehi, his translation of another Ibsen play the Ghosts , & his magnificent performance as Shakespeare's King Lear.  The week of his death saw the release of  his recording of Sukumar Ray's nonsense verse, Abol Tabol. Even in his winter , he was a Lion.

We know the remarkable durability and longevity of Ray - Chatterjee relationship - other partnerships have been stormy to say the least - ( Mifune & Kurosawa),  Kinski and Werner Herzog , or shorter ( Mastroianni and Fellini) . His magnum opus with other directors - Ajoy Kar , Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen shows how his talent was his : Ray nurtured it and created a mental image of who he was.

Saumitra Chattopadhyay embodied the nuance of a character , showing human frailties & fragility : whether an unlikeable protagonist who reveals unexpected humanity, to a middle class man well read . he portrayed people as they are. He personified the angst of modern educated Indian , tied down by tradition and accepting it because he must , and yet nursing his own skepticism. 

His going away is a pain no doubt but it must not be allowed to overwhelm us as his guiding light of what he shined brightly  over the last 6 decades was in itself an extensive façade of humanism - natural honest and human.   As long as humanity will be alive in this world, APU will continue to hold a place in our heart .