Suchitra Sen (Bengali:[ʃuˈt͡ʃitːraˈʃen]ⓘ; born Roma Dasgupta, Bengali:[ˈrɔmaˈdaʃɡupto]ⓘ; 6 April 1931 – 17 January 2014), widely known as the Mahanayika[1][2] (lit.'Great actress'), was an Indian actress who worked in Bengali and Hindi cinema. The movies in which she was paired opposite Uttam Kumar became classics in the history of Bengali cinema.[3]
Sen was the first Indian actress to receive an award at an international film festival when, at the 1963 Moscow International Film Festival, she won the Silver Prize for Best Actress for Saat Pake Bandha.[4][5] She was catapulted to stardom after she was cast as Vishnupriya by Devaki Kumar Bose in his Bhagaban Shree Krishna Chaitanya (1953).[6]
In 1972, she was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.[7] From 1979 on, she retreated from public life and shunned all forms of public contact; for this she is often compared to Greta Garbo.[8][9] In 2005, she refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest cinematic award in India, to stay out of the public eye.[10] In 2012, she was conferred the West Bengal Government's highest honour: Banga Bibhushan.[11] Her first official release was Sukumar Dasgupta's Saat Number Kayedi (1953).[12]
Personal life and education
Sen in Devdas.
Suchitra Sen was born on 6 April 1931, in a Bengali family[13] of Bhanga Bari village of Sirajganj District, Bengal (now in Sirajganj District, Bangladesh).[14][15] Her father, Korunamoy Dasgupta, was a Sanitary Inspector of Pabna Municipality and her mother, Indira Devi, was a homemaker. Sen was their fifth child and second daughter. She was a granddaughter of the poet Rajanikanta Sen.[16] She received her formal education in Pabna Government Girls High School. The violence of Partition in 1947 brought her family to West Bengal.[17] Here she married Dibanath Sen, son of wealthy industrialist Adinath Sen, in 1947, at the age of 16 years.[18][19] She had one daughter, Moon Moon Sen, who is a former actress. Suchitra's father-in-law, Adinath Sen, was supportive of her acting career in films after her marriage.[20] Her industrialist husband invested greatly in her career and supported her.[21] He died in 1970.
Sen had made a successful entry into Bengali films in 1952, and then a less successful transition into the Hindi movie industry. According to persistent but unconfirmed reports in the Bengali press, her marriage was strained by her success in the film industry.[22]
Career
Suchitra Sen made her debut in films with Shesh Kothaay in 1952, but it was never released.[23] The following year saw her act opposite Uttam Kumar in Sharey Chuattor, a film by Nirmal Dey. It was a box-office hit and is remembered for launching Uttam-Suchitra as a leading pair. They went on to become the icons for Bengali dramas for more than 20 years, becoming almost a genre unto themselves.[24] She has acted in 30 of her 60 films with Uttam Kumar. Her first Hindi movie was Devdas (1955). Dilip Kumar won the Filmfare Award best actor award and Vyjayantimala won best supporting actress award. Her Bengali melodramas and romances, especially with Uttam Kumar, made her the most famous Bengali actress ever.[25]
Her films ran through the 1960s and '70s. Suchitra went on to act in films such as in the Hindi film Aandhi (1974). Aandhi was inspired by India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[26] Sen received a Filmfare Award nomination as Best Actress, and Sanjeev Kumar, who played the role of her husband, won the Filmfare as Best Actor.[27]
One of her best known performances was in Deep Jwele Jaai (1959). She played in a character named Radha Mitra, a hospital nurse employed by a progressive psychiatrist, Pahadi Sanyal, who is expected to develop a personal relationship with male patients as part of their therapy. Sanyal diagnoses the hero, Basanta Choudhury, as having an unresolved Oedipal dilemma. He orders Radha to play the role though she is hesitant as in a similar case she had fallen in love with the patient. She finally agrees and bears up to Choudhury's violence, impersonates his mother, sings his poetic compositions and in the process falls in love again. In the end, even as she brings about his cure, she suffers a nervous breakdown. The film is noted for its partly lit close-ups of Sen, which set the tone of the film.[28]Asit Sen remade the film in Hindi as Khamoshi (1969), with Waheeda Rehman in the Suchitra Sen role.[29]
Suchitra Sen's other landmark film with Asit Sen was Uttar Falguni (1963). She plays the dual role of a courtesan, Pannabai, and her daughter Suparna, a lawyer. Critics note that she brought a great deal of poise, grace and dignity to the role of a fallen woman determined to see her daughter grow up in a good, clean environment.[30][31][32]
Suchitra Sen's international success came in 1963, when she won the best actress award at the Moscow International Film Festival for the movie Saat Paake Bandha, becoming the first Indian actress to receive an international film award.[33][34]
A film critic Saibal Chatterjee summed up Suchitra Sen's career and continuing legacy as "one half of one of Indian cinema's most popular and abiding screen pairs, Suchitra Sen redefined stardom in a way that few actors have done, combining understated sensuality, feminine charm and emotive force and a no-nonsense gravitas to carve out a persona that has never been matched, let alone surpassed in Indian cinema".[35]
In retirement
Smritituku Thak a tribute to Sen at the Kolkata Book Fair in 2014. 29 Jan 2014.
Sen continued to act after her husband's death in 1970, but called it a day when Pronoy Pasha flopped,[37] and retired from the screen in 1978 after a career of over 25 years to a life of quiet seclusion. She was to do a film project; Nati Binodini, also starring Rajesh Khanna,[38] but the film was shelved mid-way after shooting when she decided to quit acting.
She assiduously avoided the public gaze after her retirement and devoted her time to the Ramakrishna Mission.[14]
Death
Suchitra Sen remembrance at Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata, on 19 January 2014.
Suchitra Sen was admitted to the hospital on 24 December 2013 and was diagnosed with a lung infection. She was reported to have been recovering well in the first week of January.[39] But her condition worsened later and she died at 8.25 am on 17 January 2014, due to a heart attack. She was 82 years old.[40][41]
Respecting her fierce desire for complete privacy, her last rites were performed at Kolkata's Kaioratola crematorium, barely five and half hours after she died, with her coffin reaching the crematorium in a flower-decked hearse with dark-tinted windows. Despite being Bengal's greatest star, referred to as "Mahanayika", she had consciously chosen to step into oblivion and she remained an enigma till her last, although thousands of fans had converged at the crematorium to catch one last glimpse of their idol. Her entire medical treatment had also been done in seclusion and secrecy.[44]
Filmography
From 1953 to 1978, both in Bengali and Hindi, Suchitra Sen acted in 61 films.
No
Year
Movie
Release date
Role
Director
Hero
Notes
1
1952
Shesh Kothaay
NA
NA
Bireswar Basu (??)
NA
Never released. However, after 22 years in January 1974 this movie was finally released in different name as " Shrabana Shandhya ", directed by may be Bireswar Basu (??).
First hit of legendary "Basanta-Suchitra" pair. And it was one of the first Suchitra Sen's Hindu Vaishnab Philosophy based movies. She acted the role of "Vishnu Priya', the wife of Sri Cahaitanya Mahaprobhu
Based on Scottish Writer A. J. Cronin's 1950 novel, "Beyond This Place". From this novel Bengali Movie "Sabar Uparey" was made in 1955. Then in 1958 Dev Anand made the same story in Hindi name "Kala Pani" starring Dev Anand and Madhubala and directed by Raj Khoshla. However, the English film with the same title of the book was released in 1959 starring Van Johnson, Vera Mills and Emlyn Williams and directed by Jack Cardiff
Based on the 1949 Warner Brothers film "The Fountain Head" written by then Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. Starring Garry Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Messy, Kent Smith, the film was directed by Mr. King Vidor. In the Bengali film "Suryatoran", Suchitra Sen did the role of "Dominique" the main female character which was portrayed by Ms. Patricia Neal in "The Fountainhead".
The Story was taken from Samual Hopkins Adams's one of the short stories " Night Bus" publishes in 1933. Director Frank Capra made it later a 1934 Oscar-winning block-buster Hollywood movie "It Happened One Night", starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
This was the first film where Suchitra Sen charged Rs. one lakh for doing her role., and this was the first time any Bengali actor (male or Female) received Rs. One Lakh for doing any film acting role. It was a milestone for Bengali movie history.
However, " Shrabana Shandhya's " original name was " Shesy Kothaay " it was half done in 1952 and was never released at that time, after 22 years later it came out and released in Jan 1974, may be it was directed by Bireswar Basu (??), who was the original Director of " Shesy Kothaay " film in 1952 .
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