Kamla Chatterjee

Kamla Chatterjee

Kamla Chatterjee
Chatterjee's portrait from Filmindia, April 1945
Died(1946-01-10)10 January 1946
OccupationActress
Years active1942–1945
Spouse
​
(m. 1944)​
AwardsBengal Film Journalists' Association – Best Supporting Actress Award (1945)

Kamla Chatterjee[a] (pronounced [kəmlɑː tʃət̪ərdʒiː]; died 10 January 1946) was an Indian actress. During her brief career from 1942 to 1945, she appeared in nine films, including Tansen (1943), Bhanwara (1944), and Dhanna Bhagat (1945). She won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in Shankar Parvati (1943).

Chatterjee married film director Kidar Sharma in 1944. She died on 10 January 1946.

In her unfinished project Bechara Bhagwan, she was replaced by Baby Mumtaz, who later became known as Madhubala after the film was released as Neel Kamal in 1947.

Life and career

Her early screen appearances included supporting roles in the comedy Aankh Michouli (1942),[1] and Jayant Desai's historical Tansen (1943).[2] She then won the BFJA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the mythological film Shankar Parvati (1943).[3] On the sets of Vish Kanya, Chatterjee met film director Kidar Sharma and married him in 1944.[4][5]

The year 1944 saw Chatterjee play leading roles opposite Arun Kumar Ahuja in Aspi's musical Caravan,[6] and in Sharma's comedy Bhanwara. The latter, also starring K. L. Saigal, became one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the year.[7] In 1945, Chatterjee was among the film stars featured in Rangbhoomi Book Depo's Sitaaron Ki Kahaniyan.[8]

Her final release was Sharma's devotional film Dhanna Bhagat (1945). Although the film received a scathing review from critic Baburao Patel, he praised Chatterjee's performance, writing: "In the role of Munni this girl brings life to the screen with every appearance, and one does not like to see the screen without her".[9] A report in The Times of India noted that the film was positively received by audiences.[10]

Death and aftermath

Chatterjee died on 10 January 1946.[11]

Contemporary sources differed regarding the cause of her death: Baburao Patel reported that she died of heart failure,[11] while journalist R. A. Shaikh's book Filmdom (1946) mentioned that she committed suicide for unknown reasons.[12]

Patel published a brief obituary in the February 1946 issue of Filmindia magazine:

Kamla had worked in many Ranjit pictures and had never given a bad performance. She was considered eminently suitable for light roles in which she sang and danced to entertain thousands all over the country. Sweet-natured and charming, Kamla will be missed by one and all in the industry.[11]

Before her death, Sharma had announced a film titled Bechara Bhagwan, featuring Chatterjee and P. Jairaj in leading roles. Sharma later changed the film's title to Neel Kamal, and gave her role to the child actress Baby Mumtaz—who debuted as a leading lady and went on to become known as Madhubala.[13][14]

Filmography

Year Title Role Director Notes
1942 Aankh Michouli Pyari R. S. Choudhury [1]
1943 Aadab Arz Virendra Desai [15]
Shankar Parvati Chaturbhuj Doshi [16]
Tansen Shehzadi Jayant Desai [17]
Gauri Kidar Sharma [18]
Vish Kanya [4]
1944 Caravan Aspi Irani [19]
Bhanwara Bindu Kidar Sharma [17]
1945 Dhanna Bhagat Munni [10]
1946 Bechara Bhagwan — Incomplete film; replaced by Madhubala[20]

Awards

Year Award Work Result Ref.
1945 Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Best Supporting Actress Award Shankar Parvati (1943) Won [3]

Notes

  1. ^ Sometimes spelt as "Kamala" and "Chatterji"

References

  1. ^ a b Patel, Baburao (1 August 1942). "Chowdhary's Brilliant Come-Back!". Filmindia: 71–72. Kamla Chatterjee as "Pyari" gives a pretty performance as a love-struck girl.
  2. ^ Sharda, Ratan (1991). Collections: First Indian Video & Film Guide (3rd ed.). Update Video Publication. p. 143.
  3. ^ a b "1945 – 8th Annual BFJA Awards – Awards For The Year 1944". bfjaawards.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  4. ^ a b Bhatia, Jagdish (1952). Celebrities: A Comprehensive Biographical Thesaurus of Important Men and Women in India. Aeon. p. 126. On the sets of his Vish Kanya, he met a young Bengali actress, Kamla Chatterji, and after a warm romance married her in 1944.
  5. ^ Sharma, Ganga Prasad (2005). Hindī sinemā kā suhānā saphara (in Hindi). Diamond Pocket Books. p. 139. ISBN 978-81-288-0717-6.
  6. ^ ""Caravan" Next Week". The Bombay Chronicle. 10 March 1945. p. 7. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  7. ^ "Top Earners 1944". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  8. ^ "आज ही मंगा कर पढ़िए". सारंग (by All India Radio). 10 (20): 6. 7 October 1945.
  9. ^ Patel, Baburao (1 February 1946). ""Dhanna Bhagat" – Another Devotional Hocus". Filmindia: 56.
  10. ^ a b ""Dhanna Bhagat" Charms Filmgoers". The Times of India. 8 December 1945. p. 8. ProQuest 499672811. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  11. ^ a b c Patel, Baburao (1 February 1946). "Good-Bye Kamla!". Filmindia: 43. We regret to announce the sudden death of Film-actress Kamla Chatterjee (Mrs. Kidar Sharma) on Thursday the 10th January from heart-failure.
  12. ^ Shaikh, R. A. (1946). Filmdom: The All-India Film Directory & Who's Who in the Indian Film Industry. p. 129. He married Kamla Chatterjee as his second wife who recently committed suicide for the reason better known to Kidar.
  13. ^ Dhar, Parthiv; Bhattacharjee, Anirudha (27 October 2022). Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography, Winner of the National Award for Best Book on Cinema, 2022. Harper Collins. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-93-5629-172-0. He [Sharma] was making a film, Bechara Bhagwan, with Jairaj. Kamala Chatterjee, Sharma's wife, was to be the heroine. Her sudden death in January 1946 was a huge shock for Sharma ... Mumtaz ... suddenly found herself right in the forefront as she was now offered the heroine's role ... Bechara Bhagwan became Neel Kamal (1947), starring Raj Kapoor and Mumtaz. That was perhaps the last time Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi ... would be known by her original name. The world would henceforth refer to her as Madhubala
  14. ^ Akbar, Katijia (1 April 2011). I Want to Live: The Story of Madhubala. Hay House. ISBN 9789381398210.
  15. ^ Chatterjee, Bishwanath. Encyclopaedia of Hindi Film Songs (in Hindi). Sumer Sinha Sachdeva. p. 88.
  16. ^ Patel, Baburao (1 July 1943). "Kamla Chatterjee, a new comer, makes a good impress in "Shanker Parvati", a Ranjit picture". Filmindia: 17.
  17. ^ a b Nevile, Pran (2004). K L Saigal: Immortal Singer and Superstar. Nevile Books. p. 180. ISBN 978-81-901166-1-9.
  18. ^ "GOURI". The Bombay Chronicle. 16 February 1946. p. 3. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  19. ^ Rangoonwalla, Firoze; Das, Vishwanath (1970). Indian Filmography: Silent & Hindi Films, 1897-1969. J. Udeshi. p. 189.
  20. ^ Deep, Mohan (1996). The Mystery and Mystique of Madhubala. Magna Books. p. 29.

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