By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: July is the cruellest month for film lovers in Bengal. Many away from the state mourn this day as their favourite matinee idol Uttam Kumar journeyed to the land of sleep on July 24, 1980. He had become a screen icon portraying some of the best characteristics of Bengali manhood. If it was the dutiful elder brother in Basu Paribar, an upper class youth who has an equal mix of an adventurous streak and chivalry in Jhinder Bandi, a man with a golden heart who frequents houses of ill fame in Nishipadma and befriends a motherless child there, a romantic lover in Share Chuattor, a top bracket freedom fighter in Sabyasachi, a sleuth in Chiriakhana.
And of course, there is Nayak where he portrayed his everyday life of a superstar with its moments of hope, happiness and the lack of it together with the strange and sad feeling of being lonely at the top. Directed by none other than Satyajit Ray, the maestro later said he could find some glitches in his direction but Uttam Kumar’s screen performance was flawless.
Incidentally, Uttam Kumar excelled in portraying some of the characters with darkest shades in Bengali films. Remember Ranjan Mallik in Aparichito the playboy who will stop at nothing to get his pleasure, Bhaba Banerjee in Baghbandi Khela who will starve his son, make a fortune in flesh trade while camouflaging himself as the man who has given away his wordly possessions and prefers to live in seclusion.
What about Madhab Dutta, the lecherous landlord surrounded by his sycophants in Stree. Uttam Kumar breathed life into this character enriching it with characteristics of a similar individual he had seen as a boy near his maternal uncle’s place in Ahiritola in north Kolkata.
In Kuhak, he enacts a snatcher. The criminal used a not too big statue of a deity as the scabbard of his knife, the tool of his trade. But name and fame did not come in a day. Working as a clerk for a living, he made rounds of the film studios in Tollygunge.
In his struggling years in early fifties, the films he starred as a hero bombed at the box office. He was promptly dubbed Flop Master General. He had married by then. Responsibilities were mounting, when his career looked up after his performance in Basu Paribar with Supriya Choudhury in the role of his sister.
Little did he know of the time when they would be inseparable in life and on screen. She would be at his side in his darkest hours. Sare Chuattor, hit the screen setting the cash boxes jingling in a way they would whenever Uttam Kumar appeared on screen. It marked the beginning of the career of another screen legend-Suchitra Sen.
The duo would give a long string of hits becoming the most successful pair of Bengali screen. But it was not a smooth sailing as Sen’s ego threatened to be a submerged rock which could sink the ship.
Uttam Kumar was surprised by some worried producers flocking to him saying that Sen has insisted her name appear above his hero in posters and billboards. “Do it by all means; after all the crowds come to see her.” Uttam Kumar said pouring oil on troubled waters and defusing an ego clash.
Having come up the hard way, Uttam Kumar was the soul of politeness and cooperation. Like the Hollywood star Erol Flynn, Uttam too knew that one should be polite to all while going to the top as he will come across them while going down the staircase.
Uttam Kumar chose his roles with care. Enacting the role of a dapper industrialist of Harano Sur, he effortlessly slipped into the role of an old servant in Khokababur Pratyabartan.
But after his ambitious foray in Hindi filmdom Chotisi Mulaqat starring Vyjayantimala bombed, Uttam Kumar was almost upto his neck in debts. He pulled himself up by his boot laces, only after acting in a series of B-grade films to return to an even financial keel.
His professional rivalry with Soumitra Chatterjee added fuel to the popularity of both the stars. In real life, they were almost blood brothers though they never yielded an inch to each other on screen.
Uttam Kumar’s private life was a huge draw for his fans and gossip magazines. His name was linked to many of his leading ladies but not Sen who preferred her solitary splendour.
The skies opened up as if the heavens were in tears like the mortals below on earth when Uttam Kumar passed away 46 years ago. Of his mortal remains went on its last journey atop a truck , his face decked in designs of sandalwood paste like a groom while his co-stars clustered round him, not one of them was dry eyed.
But it was disallowed from being kept in state at Rabindra Sadan, apparently on an order which finds no place in government files. It does not matter. Uttam Kumar lives in the hearts of his fans as a Mahanayak. The small minded act has found its place in the dust bin of history.
Grieving men and women, some with bouquet to give their idol for the last time lined the route of the cortege. Their children stood by in silence unaware of the passing of the thespian but with the knowledge of their elders weighed down by a great sorrow.
Addressing the condolence meeting of Uttam Kumar attended by many of his co-actors, Kanan Devi who needs no introduction, said “Uttam had name, fame, pelf and privilege but he had no friends.” Born in 1926 in the then Calcutta, he died only at the age of 54 in the prime of his youth. He told his co actor Soumitra Chatterjee years before his death “ I don’t want to be old. I want to leave the world in my prime”. The film lovers of Bengal had to get that shock as the super star wanted. (IPA Service)
