Legend Named Suchitra Sen
Palash Biswas
(contact: Palash Biswas, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 033- 25659551(r).

Living legend named suchitra Sen is the eternal dreamgirl of Bengalies generation to generation.Whole Bengal was waiting with a glittering hope that she would appear once again in public after self baishment of full three decades as the speculation in media created the premature hype that she is going to get the highest award in Indian cinema, Falke Award for year 2005. At least two of the kolkata based TV channels flashed newsbreak saying she has got it. Now full two days left for the final decision, it is almost certain that she won`t come out. Not at all. Subrata Mukhopadhyay, the high profile EX Mayor of Kolkata is believed to be close to Moonmoon Sen, the daughter of the Tollywood Bollywood queen and her family. influencial quarters in Delhi and Kolkata sent feelers, but Subrata has publicly accepted that it is quite impossible to talk to Suchitra Sen. Subrata had been costar with Moonmoon in a TV serial years before. The active actress models of today Raima Sen and Riya Sen are the grand daughters of Suchitra Sen, but they may not provide any clue. Interestingly, Gulzar, who directed Sen in her most famous Hindi film, Aandhi, is also in contention. So is Sulochana, who isn’t quite in the same league as the other two, but is known to have great lobby-power. Journos would any day vote for Sen, hoping that it will open up the much-wanted interview- and photo-op?
She has gone into a sort of seclusion since her retirement in 1978. She is a devotee of the Ramakrishna Mission and spends the majority of her energy in meditation and prayer.

Bengali cinema has never known another like her. Suchitra Sen, alongwith, Uttam Kumar, formed one of the most enduring romantic screen pairs in the history of cinema. At their best, the pair made the likes of Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Spencer Tracy-Katerine Hepburn pale in comparison, such was the luminosity and chemistry between them onscreen. Together, the Uttam-Suchitra pair heralded the golden age of Bengali cinema. in Bengali , opposit word of Uttam happens to be Adham, but public got it as Suchitra.

Eminent Bengali film director Mrinal Sen happens to be in the elite panel to decide national awards and he contradicts the speculation whatsoever. Mind you, none of the Bengal`s great directors Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal sen and the modern directors could include the grand lady in their celebrated cast. Though, Ray created Nayak with Uttam kumar in lead. Ghatak used the talent of supriya Chowdhari in Meghe Dhaka Tara and Komal Gandhar. But even Aparna Sen could not convince Suchitra to work in her film. Such is the personality she possess that it may not be trespassed in anyway. It is good for Indian cinema that she happened to be in the lead role of Gulzar`s Aandhi.
After partition of Bengal with independence, the only positive thing seems to be her continuous presence since fifties. Bengalies have a divided history, geography, cuture, art and literature now. Five corore Bengalies have been termed illegalmigrants or Bangladeshi and they are deprived of citizenship, mother tongue and minimum huamn or civil rights. Those underprevileged underclasses destined of inherent ineqaulity and injustice also have suchitra sen as their dream girl.
We in Uttar Pradesh, in our childhood in sixties did not know Jyoti Basu or Tara shankar Bandopadhyay, not even Manik Bandopadhyaay, satyajit Ray , Rwitwik Ghatak or Mrinal Sen, but we knew Suchitra Sen. In those days all Up cities having some Bengali population used to screen black and white Bengali films on Sundays. I first saw Surya Toran in about 1969. More over Bengalies outside Bengal had the regaular viewing of their dreamgirl in Hindi films like Devdas and Mamta.
Suchitra Sen has delivered super hits like Aandhi, Devdas and Mamta in the past. In Bengali she has acted in superhits like Sharé Chuyattor, Pathé Holo Deri, Shaptapadi, Shaat-Paké BaNdha, Shapmochan etc.

Suchitra Sen went into shell after her retirement from the filmdom three decades ago. It is said that she visited Uttam kumar`s house late after midnight when the hero died. After that day no one has a glimpse. some years back, she turned out to get her photo identity card. Aleading daily published the photo on firs page next day. It annoyed her to much. Now that the ethereal beauty will be facilitated with the highest award of the Indian Cinema, it would have been interesting to see whether she made a public appearance to accept the award.A formal letter from the Government of India has already been sent to the actress’ Kolkata Alipore House.Her fans and media may excite about the fact that the reclusive like Greta Garbo, Suchitra Sen will end the mystery that has been shrouding her for years and accept the award from the President of India, but her granddaughter Raima Sen, also a Bollywood actress, does not hope her ‘dida’ will come out of seclusion to accept the award.

If the I&B minister, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, could line up a good array of soccer manoeuvres, perhaps it would have worked.It couldnot happen. If pulling this off sounds difficult, then there is an even more arduous task ahead, were she to be named — to get Bengal’s Greta Garbo out of her self-imposed exile and on to the stage to receive the award. Here too, Priyada left no stone unturned, but without any result till this date.
n the space of a few seconds a range of a dozen emotions could flicker across a silent close-up of Suchitra Sen's face. She was one of the great silently emotive actresses of cinema history. One Indian film critic said of her. "She is the face that launched umpteen hits. She was a rage, the kind that only Marilyn Monroe succeeded to be in Hollywood." The same article (zeenext.com) comments on her popular impact. "A generation of girls grew up copying her mannerisms - from her hairstyle to the way she walked and talked. "
The most popular Bengali actress. Suchitra Sen is the first Indian actress awarded in an international film festival. She received the Best Actress award for the movie saat paake bandha in 1963 Moscow film festival. Suchitra Sen and Uttamkumar combination created a series of popular Bengali hits. She made only about a dozen Hindi Bollywood films the first being Bimpal Roy's, " Devdas "(1955) in which she immortalized the character of Parvati or 'Paro'. For that role Suchitra Sen won the Filmfare Best Actress award.

Suchitra was born in 1934 in Patna, Bihar. Another name is Rama. Studied at Shantiniketan. First film was in 1953 - saat number kayedi. Sang modern songs. Acted in Hindi films too. Her role in Aandhi was acclaimed. Stopped acting and disconnected herself from cinema world since 1978. She was born Roma Sen in Patna, Bihar. Her debut was in the unreleased Shesh Kothai made in 1952. The following year saw her act opposite Uttam Kumar for the first time in Sharey Chuattar. The film, an effervescent comedy was also the breakthrough film of director Nirmal Dey and was a huge hit at the box-office. However it is remembered more for launching the pair of Kumar and Sen. They went on to become icons of Bengali romantic melodramas for more than twenty years becoming almost a genre into 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 and such mnemonic objects as bunches of tube roses etc. Some popular films of the pair include Shap Mochan (1955), Sagarika (1956), Harano Sur (1957), Saptapadi (1961), Bipasha (1962) and Grihadah (1967).
I
One final Hollywood reference has been pinned to Suchitra Sen as she has been called the 'Garbo' of Indian film. Suchitra Sen was easily the most popular actress that Bengali Cinema has ever seen. Her ethereal beauty coupled with her phenomenon acting talent and immense box office popularity, particularly her on-screen pairing with the late Uttam Kumar, gave her a legendary cult status in Bengal. She in fact created a new image in Bengali Cinema of the articulate if tragic heroine carving out an independence space outside that of family and tradition.

One of Suchitra's best known performances was in Deep Jweley Jai (1959). She played Radha, a hospital nurse employed by a progressive psychiatrist, Pahadi Sanyal and 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 -the inevitable consequence for men denied a nurturing woman. He orders Radha to play the role though she is hesitant as earlier 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 yet again. In the end even as she brings about his cure, she suffers a nervous breakdown. The film is full of beautiful often partly lit close ups of Sen which set the tone of the film and is aided by a mesmerizing performance by her. Asit Sen remade the film in Hindi as Khamoshi with Waheeda Rehman in the Suchitra Sen role.
The next major feather in Suchitra Sen's cap was 'Uttar Phalguni' (1966), where she carried the film in a double role as the prostitute mother and the lawyer daughter. This film was remade in Hindi as 'Mamta' with Suchitra herself. But perhaps Suchitra's biggest histrionic triumph was Saat Pake Bandha (1963). She played Archana who tries to overcome her domineering and snobbish mother (powerfully played by veteran Chhaya Devi) by marrying Sukhendu a serious University Lecturer played by Soumitra Chatterjee. However the mother continues to interfere reminding her son-in-law of his poverty. Suffering from divided loyalties, Archana's problems are aggravated when Sukhendu insists she sever all ties with her parents. Archana separates from Sukhendu and stays independently completing her studies. When she finally accepts her wifely duties and returns home it is too late as Sukhendu has resigned and gone abroad. Suchitra Sens's sensitively etched and finely nuanced performance won her the Best Actress Award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1963 and the film itself was the basis for Kora Kaagaz (1974) starring Jaya Bhadhuri in the Suchitra Sen role.
While her supremacy in Bengal was unquestioned, Suchitra's forays into Hindi Cinema were far too infrequent and comparatively less successful. It is hard to fathom the reason for this. While her screen presence in her Hindi films was as stunning as ever, perhaps because of language problems her performances look a trifle stilted and reined in. Her first Hindi film was Bimal Roy's Devdas (1955) where she played Parvati to Dilip Kumar's Devdas. It was her finely honed performance that gave the film its necessary tone of lofty virtue, noble sacrifice and loyal devotion. Musafir (1957), Hrishikesh Mukherjee's episodic film of marriage, birth and death and Champakali (1957) failed to set the box-office alight and even her most uninhibited Hindi film performance in Bombay ka Babu (1960) opposite Dev Anand was plagued by troubles between her and the director, Raj Khosla. Mamta (1966) based on Uttar Falguni by the same director Asit Sen, saw her carry the film on her shoulder with a strong performance as both the mother, a courtesan and the daughter, a lawyer. She made a huge impact with Gulzar's Aandhi (1975) playing a powerful woman politician whose marriage had broken up since her husband, Sanjeev Kumar, opposed her having a career after marriage. Aandhi however ran into controversy due to her role which was based on Indira Gandhi and was even banned for a while.

She retired from the screen in 1978 and has since gone into almost Greta Garbo like seclusion. A devotee of Ramakrishna Mission, Suchitra now immerses herself in meditation and prayer. Her outdoor visits are confined to Belur Math, the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission. Her daughter Moon Moon Sen and grand daughters Riya and Raima are all actresses as well.