Skip to content

SILENT STEALS: THE ‘OTHER’ SOUMITRA BABU

Soumitra Chatterjee has been like that father figure whom you don’t miss till the time he is no more. He is much like that cornerstone of your being that you have taken for granted.

So when I heard, sometime around Durga Pooja last year, that he was severely unwell and hospitalized, it came as a jolt. He was 85, true, but it never felt like that.

It wasn’t long back that I was chatting with Anik Dutta for a blog post on Barunbabur Bondhu. All my happy memories around him came rushing back and I started mulling the possibilities of doing a blog around him.

It’s not that I have any private recollections of him – I have never seen Soumitra Chatterjee in person; but his rather malleable on-screen persona and nuanced performances have continued to remind me of people I have come across. I have always been fascinated with the veracity of his understanding of human nature and expressions. The sheer variety of characters he had brought to life remains astounding – to say the least.

I am sure of what you are thinking – that’s nothing unique. Every Bong, at least for a couple of generations, harbors a feeling like that when it comes to Soumitra Chatterjee – or something similar. I have no choice but to agree with you on that.

it’s difficult to compartmentalize Soumitra Babu, but the romance of Apu will always define him.

Anyways, so when I heard he was unwell, I started reading about him a bit – and that invariably introduced me to the efforts of Amitava Nag, poet, author and film-writer. Here’s someone who has been really close to Soumitra Babu for the past 10 odd years, wrote a book on his favourite film roles, and someone on whom the legendary creative artist had enough confidence to allow him to translate his collection of poetry.

I asked Amitava if he would like to help me create a blog around his experiences with Soumitra Chatterjee bringing out some relatively unknown aspects of his personality; he responded quickly, and the process begun. I was supposed to send him the questions.

But, in the meanwhile, Soumitra Babu died.

All of a sudden, the print and online and all other middle-spaces were loaded with obituaries, memoirs, old interviews and what not. I felt lost. Much like the unwanted third kid of the mother goat – I felt embarrassed. With so much of love around, my feelings about him suddenly felt belittled and made no sense – If you know what I mean.

But yes, when I heard that Amitava is coming up with a book in which he would share his own private memories with Soumitra Babu with whom he has spent hundreds of hours, a book where he might not discuss cinema at all but about all his other aspects as a cultural emblem of our times, underlining his intimate thoughts – I felt elated again.

I too write, for whatever its worth. So I thought it would really be nice to know more about how another writer embarked on the task of writing a complete book about someone who never believed in biographies per say. His journey might help mine.  

So that’s where this blog-post comes from.

A rather long origin story – but it was needed. This is not a tribute to Soumitra Babu; I have no qualifications to attempt anything like that. It’s just a high-five to a fellow writer, who has done the right thing, persistently.   

I asked Amitava to recollect for my viewers where and how he first met Soumitra Chatterjee – and what were his impressions and afterthoughts about that meeting?

Basically, how did he make Amitava feel?

“HE NEVER CARRIED AIRS AROUND HIM”

I grew up in Jadavpur, South Calcutta. Golf Green, where Soumitra Chatterjee lived, was the adjacent neighborhood.

He never carried airs around him and would be available in the public space at many times. So, I saw him in flesh and blood quite a few times when I was young. But I never found any reason to go up to him and speak to him just like that.

Since the early 90s I used to follow his theater quite avidly and also some of his recitation programmes. I was and am an introvert person in general. I remember I had an autograph of him in my autograph diary. But I didn’t have the courage to acquire it myself as well; I had it via an acquaintance.

I remember once when I was working in Pune in 2000, I wrote him a letter but didn’t get a reply.

From 2001, back in Calcutta (not Kolkata yet), a few friends and I formed Silhouette – a film society with a magazine having the same name. We were a passionate batch of cine-buffs and the magazine was soon noted for being semi-academic and serious. It was then that I came in touch with Atanu Ghosh, a filmmaker who was still making telefilms.

Atanu Da’s telefilms were pretty extraordinary for their diverse content, a quality he could sustain in most of his films as well, with success. I remember ‘Asamapta’ and ‘Ankush’ – two quite exceptional telefilms of his; both had Soumitra Chatterjee in the lead role.

It was Atanu Da, whom I approached for speaking to Soumitra babu for an interview slot for Silhouette. He wanted me to call him to fix the appointment time.

He allotted half an hour for the interview and I remember I overshot it by 5 minutes.

He was very professional about the dealing, precise and concise in his answers. He just requested that I have to show him the transcript once which I should have done anyway.

I went back in a few days and then we discussed for a longer period and that increased the original interview. He then told me to come back again after finding him over the phone if he was busy or not.

But I didn’t, again because I was convinced that he said that out of courtesy only. And I was convinced that there shouldn’t be any reason for me to engage in an ‘adda’ of sorts with him, and I will end up disturbing him rather than discussing interesting subjects with him.

Which reminds me of my own self-incited predicament as of  now; I too am attempting to write a book on someone I respect a lot, one of India’s key cultural cine-icons – but have not followed it up properly, neither gave it the attention it deserved. That was for various reasons, including some personal ones. Now, it does feel like that the project might get stalled. I hope it doesn’t. 

For Amitava as well, it must have been a formidable challenge. Soumitra Babu was never too keen on the concept of biographies – which must have added to the challenge.

Beyond Apu, his first book on the ionic actor (and the only English book on Soumitra Chatterjee till that time) has an interesting format – it’s about his most favourite film roles. I thought it would be nice to know what prompted him to think about this unusual format.  

How was it written – there are snippets of Soumitra babu’s recollections about these roles in his book – so did he specially interview him to pick his mind, and for how long? Basically, I asked Amitava to elaborate on the story of writing that captivating book.

“HEY THERE, YOU JUST VANISHED…”

There is a lengthy precursor to how the book idea came, albeit much later – after I interviewed Soumitra Babu for the first time.

I was in Paris and Brussels in 2001 when I met Bo van der Werf courtesy my well-wisher, director Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Bo had been in Kolkata earlier to shoot a brilliant documentary ‘Ray Negatives’ on Nemai Ghosh, Satyajit Ray’s photographer.

One night after dinner, in Bo’s cozy home I watched ‘Gaach‘, the documentary on Soumitra babu by Catherine Berge. That documentary was shot in 1997 and released a year later. I loved it from the word go due to its very different style and approach though it was mainly limited to Soumitra babu’s association with Satyajit Ray in cinema. But what I liked most was the fact that Catherine also emphasized the contribution of Soumitra babu in theatre.

Bo didn’t have Catherine’s contacts and the fool I am, I didn’t get a copy of ‘Gaach’ for me.

Almost 10 years hence, and after the Silhouette interview, Soumitra babu once called me suddenly and just asked rudimentary pleasantries. Probably he was rummaging his phone list and found mine. It was then that I felt that I needed to be a bit serious about this man for whom I had the utmost respect as a supreme creative person.

And by then the social media scene had evolved significantly as compared to 2001. I was friends with Selvaggia Velo who is the Director, River to River, Florence Indian Film Festival. I remember mailing Selvaggia on 11 July 2011 if she knew Catherine’s contacts and voila, she mailed me the same next day. I instantaneously sent Catherine a long one with my exuberance about the documentary and my love for the film. Catherine was travelling in the countryside and responded on 21 July 2011.

I wanted to interview her and do a review of ‘Gaach’ which I did much later though

Things moved on fast from there and she asked a friend of her in London to courier a DVD of ‘Gaach’ to me. We became fond of each other and have been close friends since then.

We kept on exchanging messages and ideas and Catherine came down to Kolkata the very next year to shoot a part of a documentary where Soumitra babu was to recite a Tagore poem in Jorasanko. Catherine asked me to be present in the shooting and when I went there the first thing Soumitra babu told me was ‘এই যে, তুমি তো আসবে বলে পুরো বেপাত্তা হয়ে গেলে’ (‘Hey there, you just vanished after promising to visit me.’)

Needless to say it embarrassed me a lot.

After the shooting was over, we went to Flury’s at Park Street. It was there that Catherine suddenly told me ‘Amitava, why don’t you write a book on Soumitra, in English.’ I was not sure how to react and also was not convinced if he would like the idea or not. But it seemed he was not adverse to the idea if not overtly willing either.

It was then that I looked up a few publishers and was grateful that Ajitha of Harper Collins India liked the idea and connected me to Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri who is one of the finest editors of the country now.

I was very sure that I was not interested in a typical, ‘authentic’ biography as such. I have read quite a few such and thought that rather, a book on his favourite roles would be quite unique. I feel Soumitra babu liked the novelty in this approach. He agreed to provide interviews at length for all the roles and also in general.

I think I kept 2-3 theatre roles in the favourite 20. But Shantanu was of the opinion that since those theatrical performances were not digitized so they remained largely unseen outside of Bengal. The book was meant for a pan Indian readership and international market as well and hence we dropped the idea of theater roles within the favourite ones as well.

But I managed to squeeze out one entire chapter on theater and another for the other artistic endeavors of the legend.

What followed was a very enlightening journey for me as I had extensive interviews on several weeks of a month. Mostly Sunday mornings and he eased and opened up slowly over time. When my entire interview was over after nearly a year or so, I felt like going back again and redoing it with better knowledge and smoother interaction.

The film that started it all over again. It’s a nice watch.

Catherine’s film reminded me, almost a decade back, I was involved in a pitch – a TV documentary series called ‘The Actor Prepares’ featuring Soumitra babu in the pilot.

That never happened. Anyways, with reference to that context I asked Amitava – in his numerous discussions and adda sessions with the veteran actor, did he mention how he approached a new role? Any anecdotes that he can share with my readers?

PICKED THINGS FROM HIS SURROUNDINGS” 

I think a few are mentioned in my book ‘Beyond Apu: 20 Favourite Film Roles of Soumitra Chatterjee’. He was a very well-read, well-versed man with an open mind and a sensitive eye for details. He picked up things from his surroundings. He never limited himself to a cocoon so that he would be forced to repeat his own mannerisms all the time.

He changed his handwriting forever for ‘Charulata’ because Ray wanted to have a different one as the story was set in the pre-Tagore time.

He would practice with a wheelchair for months for Tapan Sinha’s ‘Wheel Chair’. He would read volumes about the underworld before playing the thief Aghor in Tarun Majumdar’s ‘Sansar Seemante’ and would visit a number of swimming clubs in North Kolkata to pick up mannerisms and character traits of trainers for Saroj Dey’s ‘Kony’.

Needless to say, his performances in all these films, and quite a few more, had been exemplary and peerless.

My mistake. Yes, Amitava did mention quite a few of such anecdotes in his book ‘Beyond Apu’- I checked them out again.

It’s just that they are scattered under separate film heads – so they never become on your face. That’s good, it’s smooth reading, and there’s enough in that book for young actors to pick up, not limited just to his fourteen films with Satyajit Ray.

In fact, in my humble personal opinion, with probably the notable exception of ‘Ashani Sanket’ and ‘Abhijan’, the roles that defined and underlined his range of acting were beyond the Satyajit Ray films. I won’t elaborate on that, and leave it on you to form your own opinion – but do watch at least ‘Jhinder Bandi’ (Tapan Sinha), ‘Akash Kusum’ (Mrinal sen) and ‘Teen Bhuboner Paarey’(Ashutosh Bandopahyay) before you reach any conclusions.

For audiences that do not connect to Bengali cinema, many of these roles don’t ring a bell; but they are available to watch, and worth every frame of it for any student of cinema, anywhere.

His exemplary performances in non-Ray films are relatively less known beyond Bengal.

For now, let’s shift our focus to his multi-pronged personality as a complete artist – most notably, his poetry. That probably opens up the windows to his personal space like nothing else can, not even his sizable forays into theater.

Amitava translated his Bengali poetry into English, in a book called ‘Walking Through the Mist’. Being a poet himself, that must have been a journey fraught with confusing crossroads – of various types. I wanted to know.     

“HIS POEMS ARE UNIVERSAL IN APPEAL.”

I had a ready made anthology of poems ‘Forever Meera’ and was looking for publishers. Manu Dash of Dhauli Books was gracious enough to agree to the task. It was then that he discovered that I was quite close to Soumitra babu. Manu ji had always wanted to be a publisher of Soumitra babu’s poems but probably he was unsure how to approach Soumitra babu and with what project. It was then that Manu ji asked me if I could speak to Soumitra babu for a translation of his poems.

The translator was not decided at that time but Manu ji might have been thinking of a few names that do translations from Bengali to English.

I was quite frequent at the Chatterjees’ then and on my next visit I broached the idea to Soumitra babu. He had read my Bengali poems earlier and gave me some tips as well. He insisted that I should consider me as the translator as well and that he had faith in my work etc.

I was apprehensive because I had never done translations before and also, I have this immense self-doubt in me whether I am adept enough in both the languages to do justice to this work. Anyway, things rolled from there.

I initially was undecided if a literal translation would be better or a more philosophical one that tries to express the same sentiments and emotions. We finally agreed that a literal translation will work better. But I did discuss a few words which may have multiple meanings in Bengali itself depending on the connotation to understand which translated English word would fit the best.

As a poet myself I think most creations are personal. But somehow if a poet can’t transcend from the personal to a broader common spectrum then the creation and/or creator has essentially failed to communicate. I think many of Soumitra Babu’s poems are personal in their tone but they become universal in their appeal.

That brings us to the subject of Amitava’s new book on Soumitra Babu. It’s been aptly named ‘Murmurs: Silent Steals with Soumitra Chatterjee’ – and it will be in public domain from 19 January onwards, the iconic actor’s birthday. 

The book gives a rare and personalized inside view of the mind-space of a cultural icon of our times. Amitava can bring us that, since he knows; he spent endless time with Soumitra Babu, and not just for writing books. He got personal, became a sponge of sorts, with whom Soumitra Babu felt comfortable talking and sharing anecdotes. End result, he can do what no reporter can; he can bring us the real Soumitra Babu, uncluttered.

I am thankful that he took that much of effort, and I am sure after a certain point of time, it became his personal compulsion rather than a journalistic mission. That was probably the only way we could ever know what went on inside the head of Soumitra Chatterjee – and what are the thoughts that shaped his cross-culture persona.

I asked Amitava for a small note on what is the idea behind his new book – about why it became necessary since there’s already so much of literature about him, more so after his demise. I wanted to understand what aspects of his personality and crafts and mythology he sought to underline through this recent endeavor.

Why this book – basically? 

“I SPOKE TO HIM ABOUT MANY ANXIETIES”

“There is no doubt that Soumitra Chatterjee is a product of our time, our culture for over half a century. Yet, he had known the secret to transcend time and culture in the most magical way. As I look at him, and his varied attempts at embracing life, exploring it and challenging himself in the process, I realize he approached it with openness and generosity. Precisely because of this he seemed transparent and yet arty. He could sport naturalism as his ego.

The idea of this book stems from the many discussions I had with him for over the last few years. This is not a biography. Nor a hagiography of a bright star of our collective mental sky. I spoke to him about many anxieties I have, questions, hazy perceptions, unresolved miseries.

In our discussions there had been some common themes – separation, return, fear, death. Then painting, poetry, reading. We didn’t discuss cinema anymore. Life was beyond.

The themes repeated and resurfaced in an organic, natural way. In his pensive worst he always mentioned that he was at the brink of life. This book is a journey of mine, and I tugged him along with me.

Probably, I wished to know beforehand what lies beyond the precipice.”

In all his excerpts from the book that I have read till now, I felt a deep sense of pathos – overbearing, and without any attempts to hide them.

That’s understandable; this is a labor of love and a chronicle of personal loss that we are dealing with here. Before making any further assumptions, I will wait for his book to arrive,

For those of you who want to know more what the book is all about, here’s a preview.

One last question, before I sign off.

Not many people from the world of media have been fortunate enough to be as close to Soumitra Babu as Amitava has been; from that premise I asked him, what features of his personality attracted him the most.

Was he a private man, with undisclosed layers? Or was he open and transparent with his thoughts?

“HE HAD THE ABILITY TO BE SURPRISED.”

I felt he was very open to people and unless very fatigued he would love to interact with people. Because he could mix freely with all that is why he was loved and revered by all who are of the age of his grandchildren even.

He had a child-like mind. And he had the ability to be surprised. Most of us have lost it and have taken most things for granted. This I find a trait that is extraordinary and justifies how he could nurture and protect a sensitive mind for so many decades.

As I looked at him, and even now, I can’t but think of only one adage -‘Renaissance of wonder’ = ‘Romanticism’.

He will continue to linger in my mind with that luminescence..

Soumitra Babu with another of Amitava;’s books.

Since Soumitra Chatterjee always remained a quintessential Bengali, with almost no footprints in what is often considered to be mainstream cinema in India – his works and attainments (beyond Ray) remains relatively unknown to cine-lovers across India, and the planet at large – leave alone the thoughts that underscored his personal space. That’s unfortunate for a genius of his stature. I am sure many would be interested.

More efforts like that of Amitava are needed, for sure.

Regional language cinema in India always had secret superstars who have silently but stubbornly worked for the cause of the medium, adding and enhancing elements that remains unknown beyond their immediate cycle of influence. That’s not the case in other global cinema cultures. It’s high time that we too wake up and explore such people, and bring out their extensive contributions in the public sphere, for a wider international audience. If nothing else, it will instill pride and enrich our own cinema.

Thanks Amitava, for ticking the right boxes.

Hope others will follow. I will, if I can.

In fact my target of starting therewillbetime has always been to dig out the contributions of such secret storytellers. Yes, sometimes, I do falter; but then, to err is human, as they say.

 

Please follow and like:
Published inINTERVIEWS

8 Comments

  1. Lopita Chakravarty Lopita Chakravarty

    Nice read. enjoyed the style __ wonderful blending of the narrative and the interviee

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow by Email
LinkedIn
Share
Instagram