Reclusive diva of Indian cinema (1931 – 2014)
Suchitra Sen is no more. The greatest staractress of Bengali cinema who ruled the industry for 26 years passed away from complications of respiratory problems in a Kolkata nursing home on 17 January 2014.
Born in Pabna, currently in Bangladesh, on 6 April 1931, she chanced upon films as a career after marriage and motherhood brought her to Calcutta. Her husband, Dibanath Sen took her to audition for a playback for a film but instead of a career in singing, she landed the lead role in a film Shesh Kothai (1952), which interestingly was never released. The Bengali audience saw her for the first time in Saarey Chuattar (1953) in her first pairing with Uttam Kumar. Directed by Debaki Kumar Bose, Bhagaban Sri Krishna Chaitanya can be bracketed within the musical film with strong biographical references to the life of the patron saint it depicted and was made both in Hindi and Bengali. One sees a very young and beautiful Suchitra Sen play the young wife of Shri Krishna Chaitanya.
She remained the uncrowned queen of Bengali cinema for 26 years. Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar became icons of Bengali romantic melodramas for more than 20 years creating a distinct genre unto themselves. Their films were famous for the soft focus close ups of the stars particularly Sen and lavishly mounted scenes of romance against windswept expanses and richly decorated interiors with fluttering curtains. Some popular films of the pair include Shap Mochan (1955), Sagarika (1956), Harano Sur (1957), Saptapadi (1961), Bipasha (1962) and Grihadah (1967). They starred in 30 films beating the Spencer Tracy-Audrey Hepburn pair hollow.
Nitish Roy, assistant director in one of her earliest films, christened her ‘Suchitra’ in 1952. She became a nationally renowned actress with a few meaningful Hindi films like Sarhad, Bambai Ka Babu, Mamta and Aandhi, the last two turning out two to be one of her best performances.
Soon after the release of her last film opposite Soumitra Chatterjee in Pronoy Pasha in 1978, Suchitra voluntarily withdrew not only from the silver screen, but also from the public domain forever.
The only time she was photographed was when, around a decade back, she stepped out to get herself photographed for her voter’s identity card. The Calcutta paparazzi was quick to catch on and the very next morning, one leading Bengali daily splashed the photographs of the ageing star on its front page. The issue was sold out within an hour – such is the charisma she generated among her fans.
“Suchitra Sen was an era,” writes journalist Ranjan Bandopadhyay in Suchitra Sen Ebong Ananya, (Deep Prakashan, Calcutta, 2001). It is a term that has never been used to define any film persona in the country. Yet, Suchitra Sen never won a National Award. But the Moscow International Film Festival could not ignore her unforgettable performance in Saat Paake Bandha as a woman deeply in love with her husband, but forced into a life of separation and loneliness brought on by her ever-interfering and affluent mother. The National Awards committee had reportedly decided to bestow her with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award which, however, went to someone else because she refused to come out of seclusion in public space which is mandatory for any Dadasaheb Phalke awardee.
She leaves behind the legacy of her performance in more than 100 films for generations to remember her by.