Uttam Kumar showed his excellence in his last film Ogo Bodhu Sundari too.

Uttam Kumar showed his excellence in his last film Ogo Bodhu Sundari too.

Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar dominated Bengali cinema from the late 40s and for 35 years remained the uncrowned king of Bengali cinema. Even in his last film Ogo Bodhu Sundari released in 1980, he showed his excellence. He died at the set of Ogo Bodhu Sundari after suffering heart attack.

Uttam Kumar played the main role in Pijush Bose’s film Ogo Bodhu Sundari based on Bertrand Russell’s classic literature Pygmalion. He was married to Sumitra Mukherjee in the film. She met Meenakshi Goswami and her new husband Haradhon Banerjee in parties. Uttam Kumar brought Moushumi Chatterji from the streets and taught her Bengali and English.

Uttam Kumar’s assistant Santosh Dutta told him that it was not possible to reform Moushumi Chatterji as she spoke absolutely rustic language. She used to show games with two monkeys on streets. Uttam Kumar taught her horse riding, motor driving, swimming and made her modern.

Sumitra Mukherjee got irritated with Uttam Kumar and went to her grandfather Bikash Roy’s house. Her brother Ranjit Mullick fell in love with Moushumi Chatterji. Uttam Kumar proved that if proper training is given to even an uneducated person, that person can be trained.

Bappi Lahiri composed music for the film and all the songs of Uttam Kumar were sung by Kishore Kumar. The songs like “shudhu tumi nou abalakanto”, “ami ekjon shantoshishto”, “ei to jiban” became super hit. The most striking factor was that it was Uttam Kumar’s last film. He was in his 50s. Even then his glamour and dynamism still played a huge role.

The coloured film became super hit due to sheer brilliance of Uttam Kumar. The comedy sequences in the film were well portrayed by Moushumi Chatterji, Santosh Dutta and Sumitra Mukherjee. It is sad that Uttam Kumar died at such an age, otherwise he could have given super hits for more years later.

Review of Sandip Ray's Baksho Rahasya.

Review of Sandip Ray’s Baksho Rahasya.

Sandip Ray had the huge challenge of satisfying the tastes of readers of Satyajit Ray’s detective stories while making the film Baksho Rahashya based on the epic literature of Satyajit Ray. Satyajit Ray previously made films based on Feluda stories including Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath in the 70s.

Sandip Ray used a different team in the film Baksho Rahasya, with Sabyasachi Chakravarty playing the role of Feluda, Saswata Chatterji playing the role of Topse and Robi Ghosh playing the role of Lalmohan Ganguly (Jatuyu). Previously the roles were played by Soumitra Chatterji, Siddharta Chatterji and Santosh Dutta.

In this film Feluda had to go to Shimla from Kolkata to bring back the suitcase of Haradhon Banerjee that got interchanged in train. He had to give the suitcase to Mr. Dhameja and take Haradhon Banerjee’s suitcase in turn. Feluda, Topse and Jatayu travelled from Kolkata to New Delhi in flight. From there they boarded Kalka Mail and reached Shimla.

After exchanging the bag in Shimla, Feluda was attacked by Pradip Mukherjee, the relative of Haradhon Banerjee. He kept a diamond in a kodak’s empty filmbox, which he coloured. He attacked Feluda to get it back. Feluda showed his daringness to manage him and get the diamond back. He was assaulted with a boomerang thrown by Jatayu.

The other complication arose out of a manuscript of a Book written by writer Shambhucharan who was famous for writing stories based on travel experiences. The manuscript was stolen by Mr. Pakrasi, who knew its value and who typed most of it in his type writer, as the book was unpublished and Mr. Shambhucharan’s copyright ended. Feluda to the book and the manuscript away and returned it to Haradhan Banerjee.

Feluda was attacked a number of times in the film, one time at Pretoria Street, the other times in hotel in New Delhi. The shooting of Sandip Ray in the hills of Shimla and Kufri was excellent. Although Rabi Ghosh could not match the expectation created by Santosh Dutta in the role of Jatayu, Sabyasachi Chakravarty did a great job in the role of Feluda.

The film should be preserved with English sub-titles to reach Satyajit Ray’s literature the international audience.