‘Bumba, now you will have to fight your battles alone because the man who was there by our side, like a sturdy oak tree in whose shade you would have blossomed, is gone.’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar. Photograph: Kind courtesy Prosenjit Chatterjee/Facebook
Key Points
- ‘Uttam Kumar — the undisputed superstar of Bengali cinema — was always my Uttamjethu, revered as he was by Daddy as an elder brother.’
- ‘When I was around 16, Uttamjethu called my mother and asked her to send me to the studio where he was filming Dui Prithibi (1980). I was casually informed that I would be playing the young Mrinal.’
- ‘I was around 17 years old when Uttamjethu passed.’
On Uttam Kumar’s birth centenary on September 3, Rediff raises a toast to the Mahanayak, with an exclusive excerpt from the book, Beyond the Spotlight: Unforgettable Stories from between Takes, authored by Prosenjit Chatterjee and Roshmila Bhattacharya, and published by Rupa Publications India.
‘Uttamjethu was at my annaprashan serving food to the guests’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar and Supriya Choudhury in Mon Niye.
Uttam Kumar — the undisputed superstar of Bengali cinema — was always my Uttamjethu, revered as he was by Daddy as an elder brother.
He himself would say that they were four brothers, Arun (which was his real name, Uttam being a nickname given by his maternal grandmother), Barun, Tarun and Bishu (as my father Biswajit Chatterjee was fondly called in the film fraternity).
There’s a photograph of him at my annaprashan (rice-eating ceremony) with Chhabijethu (actor Chhabi Biswas), Bhanujethu (actor Bhanu Bandopadhyay) and Soumitrakaku (actor Soumitra Chatterjee), all wearing ganjis (vests) and gamcha (a red-checked towel), serving food to the guests.
When my sister Maku (actress Pallavi Chatterjee) and I were young, whenever Daddy — a busy star back then, shuttling between Bombay, Calcutta and Madras — was home, we would visit Uttamjethu and Benu-aunty (actress Supriya Choudhury) on Saturday evening.
The two of us would play with Benu aunty’s daughter Shomadi, leaving the parents to their adda.
When we were tired, we would be fed and put to bed, and when Daddy and Maa were ready to leave, the chauffeur would carry us to the car.
‘He had been the special guest at my parents’ wedding’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar, Anjana Bhowmick and Biswajit in Chowringhee.
Every year, my parents performed Lakshmi puja at home.
It was a joyous three-day celebration we looked forward to.
Since Uttamjethu also hosted a puja at his ancestral home in Bhowanipore, almost the entire film industry would flock there first.
But a couple of days later, all the bigwigs would congregate at our place, with Uttamjethu, Benu-aunty, Subhendhukaku (actor Subhendu Chattopadhyay) and my father singing for the guests.
My boy gang orchestra, Toofan Melody, would provide music for them with me as the designated drummer.
I learnt later that Uttamjethu had been the special guest at my parents’ wedding.
When informed that the bride was his die-hard fan, he had laughingly declared that Maa was forsaking him for her husband. She, however, continued to hero-worship him and he became the de facto head of our family after my parents separated.
I have embraced his family as well, and if I am in Kolkata on Lakshmi puja, I always make it a point to visit his home around midnight.
His son, Goutamda (Goutam Chatterjee), loves me like a brother, and I love his grandson (Gourab Chatterjee), a talented actor from whom I take body-building tips.
I was present when Gourab married Devlina (actress Devlina Kumar) in 2020, attending to the guests the same way Uttamjethu had once welcomed people on my annaprashan.
He used to jokingly call Maa ‘Motu’ and tell her that she would have to cook mutton curry for over 100 guests as an entry fee to his annual Holi party.
Today, I call Devlina ‘Bouma’ and shower the same affection on her.
‘I was instructed to only speak only when he rapped the table’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar and Prosenjit Chatterjee in a scene from Dui Prithibi.
One day, when I was around 16, Uttamjethu called my mother and asked her to send me to the studio where he was filming Dui Prithibi (1980).
Produced by his own foundation, Shilpi Sangshad, it had him as Mrinal, the eldest son and sole earning member of his family.
I was casually informed that I would be playing the young Mrinal.
I was taken aback, not having acted in a film after Chotto Jigyasa (1968), but what Uttamjethu wanted, I did unquestioningly.
His decision triggered a good-natured fight with Benu aunty who pointed out that since he had got a good-looking boy to play his younger self, she would also have to find a beautiful girl to step in for her in the film’s early portions to ensure that she was not eclipsed.
With Uttamjethu overseeing my scenes, shooting went off smoothly.
However, dubbing unnerved me since I had no formal training and it was a long, laborious process.
Today, you can digitally rectify a word if it is not in sync, but back then, you had to repeat the whole scene with your co-stars if you stumbled.
I was blessed to find two dubbing coaches in Sushil Majumdar — who played Mrinal’s father in the film — and Uttamjethu himself, who went over every line of dialogue with me, often correcting my pronunciations.
I was instructed to only speak only when he rapped the table.
A quick learner, I soon picked up the rhythm and today, I am told, I’m one of the fastest actors when it comes to dubbing.
That is only because I learnt from the best in the business.
‘He wanted to cast me as his son in Kalankini Kankabati‘
IMAGE: Supriya Devi, Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore and Mithun Chakraborty in a scene from Kalankini Kankabati.
I didn’t get to shoot with Uttamjethu in Dui Prithibi, but a year later, I shared the screen with him in Pratishodh (1981), directed by Sukhen Das, who played his son in the revenge drama.
I was cast as the son of his scheming younger brother, played by Soumitrakaku.
I am perhaps the only actor in my generation who got to work in a film with these two legends and was surrounded by stalwarts like Sabitri aunty (Chatterjee), Bhanujethu, Rabijethu (Ghosh) and Subhendukaku.
If I was not awed by their starry presence, it was only because they were my uncles and aunties while I was Bishu’s son Bumba for them.
Pratishodh was a blockbuster.
Uttamjethu then wanted to cast me as his son in Kalankini Kankabati (1981), which he co-directed with Piyush Bose.
He played a zamindar (Raj Shekhar Rai) in the Bengali-language crime drama, and Benu aunty was his wife (Sureshwari).
The zamindar becomes obsessed with a dancing girl (Aparna Bai) and brings her home only for her to fall in love with one of his henchmen and die after giving birth to their daughter, Kankabati.
Raj Shekhar abducts Kankabati as revenge for her mother’s betrayal, only for his son Shashanka to lose his heart to her.
Uttamjethu thought that I looked like a prince and would be perfect for the role of Shashanka.
However, after Sharmila aunty (actress Sharmila Tagore) was signed on to play both mother and daughter, the unit felt we would be miscast and cast the much-older Mithunda (Mithun Chakraborty) opposite her instead.
‘He would listen to my father read his lines while he shaved’
IMAGE: Sumitra Devi and Uttam Kumar in a scene from Saheb Bibi Golam.
My father also owes his career to Uttamjethu.
He had landed the plum role of ‘Bhootnath’ in a stage adaptation of the Bimal Mitra’s seminal novel, Saheb Bibi Golam, where he was to act alongside big name actors like Saroja Devi, Jahar Ray and Satya Bandhopadhyay.
Intimidated by the prospect, Daddy turned to his best friend Burojethu‘s (actor Tarun Kumar) elder brother for help since Uttamjethu had played Bhootnath in the 1956 screen adaptation of the book.
He was really busy those days, shooting late into the night, and Daddy was asked to drop by his home early in the morning.
Uttamjethu would listen to my father read his lines while he shaved, guiding him through pauses and voice inflections, and even advising him on how to articulate emotions.
Daddy played Bhootnath on stage five days a week for 250 nights to packed houses.
One Saturday — having finished work early — Uttamjethu drove down to Rangmahal Theatre and stood quietly in the wings, watching him perform, slipping away before the curtains came down to avoid being mobbed.
A few days later, when my father dropped by, he congratulated Daddy and prophesised that he would go far as an actor.
‘Uttamjethu played a role in my father bagging his first romantic lead’
IMAGE: Supriya Devi and Uttam Kumar in a scene from Basu Poribar.
Uttamjethu also played a role in my father bagging his first romantic lead.
Daddy had appeared as a party guest in another Rangmahal play called Maya Mriga.
For over 300 nights, he had diligently delivered a single line of dialogue, ‘Jayee gorer mathe hawa kheye aashi (Let me go to the maidan for a breath of fresh air),’ and made his exit.
The play was a huge success and Bimal Ghosh — who resurrected Uttamjethu‘s career with Basu Poribar (1952), after he had delivered a series of flops — bought the screen rights to the Nihar Ranjan Gupta story.
Naturally, he wanted to cast his protégé as Mahim, the boy caught between two sisters — his biological mother and the woman who raised him.
But Burojethu argued that since his brother had played similar roles in many films, a younger actor should be given a chance.
Uttamjethu himself called the producer (Sunil Basu Mullick) and told him that while he would make a guest appearance — so the film could be sold on his name — he should cast Bishu as Mahim.
Bimal Mitra, who was a supervisor on the project, agreed immediately, having been impressed with Daddy’s performance as Krishna in the mythological drama Kangsa (1958).
Maya Mriga turned out to be a blockbuster.
‘He announced that he would be launching Supriya Devi’s daughter and Biswajit’s son’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar in a scene from Bon Palashir Padabali.
A decade later, when Uttamjethu was approached by Sushil Mukhopadhyay to play Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah in the Bengali historical drama Ami Sirajer Begum (1973), he pointed out that he was a little too old for this character and recommended my father instead.
He even called Daddy himself, urging him to do the film.
It remains one of my father’s most memorable performances.
Perhaps he saw a spark in me too because after Pratishodh, he announced that he would be launching Supriya Devi’s daughter and Biswajit’s son as the lead pair in a film he would direct.
Soumitrakaku would play a double role in the romantic thriller.
Nemai Ghosh (Satyajit Ray’s still photographer for over two decades) even did a photo-session with Shomadi and me.
Uttamjethu had directed three films before that — the romantic comedy Shudhu Ekti Bachhar (1966), the romance drama Bon Palashir Padabali (1973) and the aforementioned Kalankini Kankabati (1981) — and they had all done extremely well.
So, there was huge buzz around our project too. He was still working on the script and I was patiently waiting for Uttamjethu to share more details with us, when something unforeseen and tragic happened!
‘I was around 17 when Uttamjethu passed’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar along with Moushumi Chatterjee, Sumitra Mukherjee in a scene from Ogo Bodhu Sundari.
I was a struggling actor back then, singing at concerts to raise money for a minor surgery my mother had to undergo.
She was still incapacitated — her knee in a plaster — when someone called her with the news that brought Bengal to a standstill.
Maa immediately informed me, and even after all these years, her words still echo in my ears: ‘Bumba, now you will have to fight your battles alone because the man who was there by our side, like a sturdy oak tree in whose shade you would have blossomed, is gone.’
I was around 17 years old when Uttamjethu passed.
In a daze, I drove to Uttamjethu‘s house in Bhowanipore and found a huge crowd milling outside.
All the top stars of Bengal were inside.
Moushumidi (actress Moushumi Chatterjee) arrived, crying, at the same time, and I escorted her into a room which was packed to capacity.
I jostled my way through the crowd to the man lying at the centre and touched his feet reverentially as I had done so many times before.
But this time he didn’t sit up and smile at me like he usually did.
He just lay there, still and lifeless.
His family insisted I get on the open truck which had been converted into a flower-decked hearse.
As the funeral procession wended through the city towards the Keoratala crematorium, I stood beside Uttamjethu‘s body.
Clothed in pristine white, he seemed to be peacefully asleep as a sea of fans bade him a tearful goodbye.
The city had officially shut down so that it could give its ‘Mahanayak‘ a farewell fit for a king.
This has happened just thrice in West Bengal as far as I remember — when Uttam Kumar passed away on July 24, 1980; a decade later, after the demise of Satyajit Ray on April 23, 1992; and when Suchitra Sen bid the world adieu on January 17, 2014.
‘Everyone assumed that the worst was over’
IMAGE: Uttam Kumar along with Sumitra Mukherjee in a scene from Ogo Bodhu Sundari.
I remember every little detail even though I want to remember none of it.
The previous day — while shooting for Ogo Bodhu Sundari (1981) — he had stumbled when coming down the stairs.
No one was unduly concerned, but later that evening, at a party, he started feeling unwell and suspecting an impending heart attack, drove to the Belle Vue clinic and got himself admitted.
The next day, he was feeling much better and everyone assumed that the worst was over.
But suddenly, around 9.35 pm, he collapsed.
He was only 53.
Next morning, the headline of Anandabazar Patrika (Bengal’s leading daily) read, Chalochitre Indrapatan (Cinema Loses Its Titan).
40 years later, his fans still remember Uttam Kumar every year on both his birthday (September 3) and on his death anniversary (July 24).
One is celebrated while the other remains a day of mourning.
Excerpted from Beyond the Spotlight: Unforgettable Stories from between Takes, authored by Prosenjit Chatterjee and Roshmila Bhattacharya, with the kind permission of the publishers Rupa Publications India.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
