The world of Apu and Soumitra Chatterjee’s legacy

 A deeply-researched new biography sheds light on the life and work of one of Satyajit Ray’s favourite actors.

Bengalis and cinephiles know their Apu and Feluda well, but the life and work of a versatile actor, poet, artist, theatreperson need to be celebrated even more widely. A new biography, Soumitra Chatterjee and His World (Vintage), by journalist Sanghamitra Chakraborty, aims to fill the gap, and presents Chatterjee in all his myriad selves.

Deeply researched, Ms. Chakraborty spoke to people who had worked with the actor and pored over his journals and letters to get a sense of Chatterjee and his milieu, and why his passing away in 2020 is felt so acutely. Fans and admirers of Chatterjee gathered at the Kolkata Literary Meet on Thursday to celebrate the publication of the biography. Moderated by historian Priyadarshinee Guha, Ms. Chakraborty and Soumitra Chatterjee’s daughter, Poulomi, also a theatre person, regaled a full house with anecdotes and readings from the book, looking back at an extraordinary life rooted in Bengal’s culture.

Ms. Chakraborty said Chatterjee was lucky in having three mentors – Rabindranath Tagore (whom he never met, but was deeply influenced by his words), theatre great Shishir Bhaduri and Satyajit Ray of course. Chatterjee starred in 14 Ray films, including the iconic Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), Joy Baba Felunath (The Elephant God), Devi (The Goddess), Charulata (The Lonely Wife), Ghare Baire (The Home and the World).

He loved a good adda, and Sharmila Tagore (Soumitra Chatterjee’s co-star in Apur Sansar and other films) underscores this in her Foreword. “The hero of my first film was erudite, witty, a great raconteur and a gentleman... I considered him the best adda companion and would return from our catch-ups heartily entertained—and enriched,” she writes. He was well-read and compassionate, and Ms. Chakraborty said two incidents in his childhood greatly influenced the person he became: the Bengal famine of 1943, when he saw a person die of hunger; and the communal riots pre and post Independence. “Throughout his life he was a great proponent of communal harmony and spoke up whenever he saw a wrong,” recalled his daughter.

Sharmila Tagore calls him the most “unconventional movie star,” walking the streets, dropping his children to school, and driving around the city. This was unlike the other superstar who dominated the cultural space of Bengal around the same time – Uttam Kumar. But as Ms. Chakraborty writes in the book, though Bengalis across generations have been “locked in bloody feuds” over the two, Soumitra Chatterjee and Uttam Kumar were friends -- they bonded well, and had some “secret meetings” despite “occasional tiffs.”

Over ten sections, Ms. Chakraborty profiles Chatterjee’s life and career, devoting three chapters to his Ray phase, before going on to describe his work on stage, his poetry, editorship (of a magazine) and art. The biography will go a long way in ensuring that the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee is opened up to new generations, both at home and in the world.