Thursday, July 24, 2008

Uttam Kumar and 24th July.

Uttam Kumar and 24th July.

24th July, every year brings a very sad memory in the minds of bengalies across the world, as it is the same day when the Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar died in 1980. No other actors in the Bengali screen had replaced him and Bengal had not given birth to a more charishmatic hero in the last 50 years who could match Uttam Kumar.

He played the role of village singer in Shapmochon, an industrialist in Harano Sur, who lost his memory in an accident and married Suchitra Sen and again lost that memory in another accident. He played the role of Sarat Chandra Chatterji in the films Rajlakshi Srikanto and Kamallata. He was sublime in the role of a singer who disguised himself as a driver of Tanuja in the film Deya Neya.

The same Uttam Kumar played the role of an investigator in the film Thana Theke Aschi. He played the role of an affluent industrialist in the film Shankhobela and also played the role of Nayak directed by the legendary director Satyajit Ray. He acted opposite almost all the leading actresses of the 50s, 60s, 70s, including Suchitra Sen, Arundhuti Debi, Sabitri Chatterji, Supriya Debi, Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore, Anjana Bhowmick, Tanuja, Madhabi Mukherjee and also bollywood actresses like Vaijayantimala, Vidya Sinha, etc.

He acted in films of legendary directors like Ajoy Kar, Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, Agradut, Agragami, Arobindo Mukherjee and bollywood directors like Gulzar, Shakti Shamanta. He had given lips in the songs sung by Hemant Kumar, Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra, Manobendra Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar, Rafi, Bhupinder Singh and other singers.

Legendary composers of Bengal and bollywood films had composed music for his films including Robin Chatterji, Sudhin Dasgupta, Salil Chowdhury, Nochiketa Ghosh and alos in the All India arena composers like Shankar Jaikishan, Jaidev, RD Burman composed music for his films.

Any type of dress matched him. Whenever bengalies recollect memories of legendary films like Sanyasi Raja, Stree, Nishi Padda, the golden memories of Uttam Kumar comes in their mind. His films should be preserved to recollect his invaluable contribution to Bengali and Indian films.

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