Uttam Kumar is remembered in Bangladesh.

Uttam Kumar is remembered in Bangladesh.

Mahanayak Uttam Kumar had been remembered in Bangladesh during his 30th death anniversary on 24th July, 2010. The ceremony had started on 24th July and will end on 26th July, 2010.

The Uttam Kumar festival taken place in the capital city Dhaka in Bangladesh. Uttam Kumar had been few of the celebrities who had been remembered and honoured in foreign country like Bangladesh. Previously Bangladesh had honoured the legendary directors Satyajit Ray and Hritwik Ghatak in their country.

During the Uttam Kumar festival, few of his landmark films had been telecast. As the legendary actor had ruled Bengali silver screen over a period of 35 years, so in one festival all his films cannot be covered. So the films like Nayak, Saptapadi, Pathe Holo Deri, Choddobeshi, Dhanni Meye, Harano Sur, etc. , had been telecast.

The striking part of the Uttam Kumar festival lies in the diversity of directors, whose films had been selected where Uttam Kumar had shown his excellence. Nayak had been directed by Oscar Winning Director Satyajit Ray. The film showed the complexity of the life of a matinee idol, which according to the critics had remained the biography of superstar Uttam Kumar.

Harano Sur and Saptapadi were the two greatest blockbusters of Bengali celluloid directed by stylish director Ajoy Kar. Uttam Kumar was the producer of both the films. The films also bolstered the eternal pair Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, who had remained the greatest romantic pair ever to grace Asian silver screen.

Pathe Holo Deri was a romantic film of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen directed by Agradoot. It was a musical blockbuster, where composer Robin Chatterji and singer Sandhya Mukherjee had created history with the romantic songs which became immortal over a period of time.

Dhanni Meye was a comedy film directed by Aurobindo Mukherjee. The film was related to the eternal craze of bengalies with respect to the sport of football. Uttam Kumar played the role of a business tycoon who was still obsessed with football and made his brother a footballer. The comedy sequences were related to the marriage of his brother Partho Mukherjee with the village girl played by Jaya Bacchan. The film did fantastic business in the early 70s. Similarly Choddobeshi was a comedy film where Uttam Kumar and Madhabi Mukherjee played the lead roles. It had been remade in hindi by Hrishikesh Mukherjee with the title Chupke Chupke, where Dharmender played the role of Uttam Kumar.

It had been a great honour for bengalies all across the world that Uttam Kumar had been remembered by a neighbouring country, who share the same mother tongue, to whom still Uttam Kumar still remain a living God. The viewers pay homage and respect to the departed soul and wish his films to be preserved and restored.

Bipasha bolstered the bond of Suchitra Sen, Robin Chatterji and Sandhya Mukherjee.

Bipasha bolstered the bond of Suchitra Sen, Robin Chatterji and Sandhya Mukherjee.

The film Bipasha bolstered the bond of Suchitra Sen, Robin Chatterji and Sandhya Mukherjee. The success of legendary actress Suchitra Sen was largely indebted to the romantic music composed by Robin Chatterji and songs sung by Sandhya Mukherjee. The brilliant team of Suchitra Sen, Sandhya Mukherjee and Robin Chatterji gave evergreen hit songs like “ghum ghum chand” in Sabar Opare, “tumi na hoy rohite” in Pathe Holo Deri, “jani na phurabe” in Sagarika, to name a few. Very significantly all those films directed by Agradoot. Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen are considered to be the greatest romantic pair that ever graced Indian silver screen. They acted in 30 films together and most of their films ended up being cine-classics. Bipasha was released in 1962 and did fantastic business.

It was a film directed by Agradoot where Robin Chatterji composed the music. Suchitra Sen was named Beas (Bipasha in Bengali) as she was born near river Beas. She lost her parents during riots occurring at the time of partition in 1947. She was saved by Kamal Mitra, a divine soul near Sialkot and reached to relief camp in New Delhi. She studied there and got a job in tribal welfare in Panchet in Bihar.

Uttam Kumar was an engineer who worked in Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) projects. Both Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar met each other and entered into an affair. Suchitra Sen gave able lips in Sandhya Mukherjee’s song “aami sapne tomay dekhechi”. When Uttam Kumar wanted to marry Suchitra Sen, he got a letter from his maternal uncle played by Nitish Mukherjee saying that he was illegitimate son of his mother Chaya Debi.

Uttam Kumar went to Allahabad to find his mother and in her absence attempted to commit suicide. Chabi Biswas, a sanyasi there saved him. He wrote a letter saying that Uttam Kumar (Dibyendu Chatterji) was the son of Saradindu Chatterji (Chabi Biswas). Chaya Debi (his wife) gave birth to him before her marriage. Chabi Biswas went abroad and married another foreign girl. The foreigner filed a suit against Chabi Biswas after she knew that he was already married to Chaya Debi. Their Chaya Debi gave false testimony saying that she was not married to Chabi Biswas, to save her husband. Uttam Kumar came to be known as illegitimate son from that time. After that Chabi Biswas gave the contact details of Chaya Debi. Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen found her and film ended there.

The powerful story was given adequate expression by compassionate performance of legendary actor Chabi Biswas. Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen’s romantic performance just improved from film to film and viewers started thinking that both of them were husband and wife.

It is a pity that Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen did not show their powerful performance in bollywood films, otherwise they would have given very tough competition to Raj Kapoor and Nargis and Dilip Kumar and Vaijayantimala who ruled bollywood industry in the 50s. The film Bipasha should be restored for its aesthetic value.

Suchitra Sen and Bikash Roy were unparallel in Surjotoron.

Suchitra Sen and Bikash Roy were unparallel in Surjotoron.

Director Agradoot gave hit romantic films one after the other in the mid-50s. Very significantly most of those films involved the eternal pair of Bengali celluloid namely Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and that too during the early phase of their career. All the films, Agniparikkha, Sabar Upare, Pathe Holo Deri, Sagarika did great business in the mid-50s.

Surjotoron was written by eminent lyricist Gouri Prasanna Mojumdar. Surjotoron was related to the story of a young architect engineer played by Uttam Kumar who dreamt about creating a huge building named Surjotoron for the slum-dwellers. The idea was that of Suchitra Sen who was an eminent writer in the film and daughter of huge builder Kamal Mitra.

Uttam Kumar learned architecture from an old engineer played by Kali Banerjee. But Kamal Mitra, an eminent builder gave a number of projects to Asitboron, who was also an architect engineer, but very incompetent in work. He destroyed the goodwill of Kamal Mitra in the market, and Bikash Roy bought all the shares of Kamal Mitra in the real estate sector.

At the end of the film, Uttam Kumar did build Surjo Toron. Bikash Roy committed suicide to allow Uttam Kumar to marry Suchitra Sen. He left his voice recorded in a record player which expressed the reasons for his death. He was evicted from his slum during infancy, by the eminent builders. He spend his teenage in prison. He became a big builder later on and wanted to marry Suchitra Sen. With the work of Uttam Kumar in building Surjotoron, a huge flat complex, build to accommodate the slum-dwellers, his dream was fulfilled. He never wanted to survive any more.

Although Uttam Kumar was the hero of the film, the performance of Bikash Roy and Suchitra Sen did outcast him. Bikash Roy’s mellifluous voice left the viewers spellbound. Suchitra Sen gave able lips in Sandhya Mukherjee’s brilliant songs “amar jibone nei alo, ache aleyar hatchani”, and “e aral aar sohite parina ogo akaron”, which had fantastic orchestration relating to piano.

The film should be restored for the uncommon story and powerful performance of Bikash Roy and Suchitra Sen.

Uttam Kumar and Anil Chatterji complimented each other in Agnisangskar.

Uttam Kumar and Anil Chatterji complimented each other in Agisangskar.

Director Agradoot played a pivotal role in the early success of Uttam Kumar in films like Agniparikkha, Sabar Opore in the mid-50s. From that time onwards the main director of Agradoot Bibhuti Laha tried to make realistic films with Uttam Kumar.

In Agnisangskar, Uttam Kumar was the Chief Engineer of the industrial firm owned by Anil Chatterji. Just because Anil Chatterji had partial amount of insanity, his mother Chaya Debi ran the firm with the responsible officers. As the manager Bikash Roy ill-treated the workers, she made Uttam Kumar, the manager. She also asked Supriya Debi to go to the industry and check the working regularly, as she herself was ill. Supriya Debi admired the working of Uttam Kumar and fell in love with him.

Supriya Debi had no relationship with Chaya Debi, but was brought by her with the aim of making her daughter-in-law. In the meantime Uttam Kumar was given the responsibility of bringing back Anil Chatterji from Kolkata, as never liked the native place. Anil Chatterji came back and got involved with Supriya Debi. But she was not interested to marry Anil Chatterji, she asked Uttam Kumar to leave the job. After Uttam Kumar got settled elsewhere Supriya Debi got entangled marriage according to hindu rites.

At that time Anil Chatterji called Uttam Kumar in his native place and after communication left him. He committed suicide and implicated Uttam Kumar for his death. All the evidence went against Uttam Kumar and he was awarded death penalty. At that time the diary of Anil Chatterji was recovered and due to insistence other Board Members of the company like Chabi Biswas, the Judge stopped the sentence and Uttam Kumar was released.
While Uttam Kumar was effortless in his romantic performance, Anil Chatterji showed his range in playing the mentally deranged character. Anil Chatterji already gathered fame by playing brilliant characters in Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara, Tapan Sinha’s Nirjan Saikate, Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar. In this film he balanced the romantic appeal of Uttam Kumar with his aggressive acting. The film became successful and attracted the attention of educated viewers. Hemant Kumar’s music was impressive with Sandhya Mukherjee’s song “tomar duarkhani” becoming hit. The film should be preserved

Review of Uttam Kumar's Kuhak.

Review of Uttam Kumar’s Kuhak.

Uttam Kumar was considered to be the greatest romantic actor to have been born in Indian soil in the golden age, that is 40s, 50s, and 60s. But after giving legendary romantic films with Suchitra Sen (both of them acted in 30 films), Uttam Kumar tried to change his image in some of the films.

In Goli Theke Rajpoth he was involved in unlawful activities, in Abak Prithibi, he was a thief who was reformed by a small child, and in Kuhak he was a thief again. He broke his image in Kuhak directed by Agradoot.

In Kuhak, the film opened with a scene in the jail where Uttam Kumar met Tarun Kumar. Uttam Kumar spoke about his activities relating to theft. Tarun Kumar disclosed about his capabilities relating to opening any lock in any almirah or cupboard and he was imprisoned for those activities.

Uttam Kumar after being released from jail came to the same village where Tarun Kumar lived with his two sons and sister played by Sabitri Chatterji. Uttam Kumar was a singer and with the team of Premangshu Bose used to perform in the role of Chaitanyadev in village plays (jatras).

Most of the villagers started thinking that Uttam Kumar was actual Chaitanyadeb. Tarn Kumar told Uttam Kumar that he stole Rs 30000 from a locker in a nearby house, but when he tried to escape from the police, he was fired by the police and died. He showed the place where he kept the money to his son. Both Uttam Kumar and Premangshu Bose stayed back in the village to take that money that was kept by Tarun Kumar.

Uttam Kumar fell sorry for Sabitri Chatterjee, the sister of Tarun Kumar and fell in love with her. The last part of the film showed the fight between Uttam Kumar and Premangshu Bose in extracting the stolen money.

The music of the film was impressive, with Uttam Kumar giving brilliant lips in Hemant Kumar’s song “bishnupriya go”. There were many other songs sung by Hemant Kumar for Uttam Kumar and the character of Uttam Kumar being a singer was bolstered with the music.

The film should be restored for the young generation to show them that director Agradoot had the skills of making crime thrillers with the background of stories based on village life of Bengal.

G