Happy birthday to Moushumi Chatterji.

Happy birthday to Moushumi Chatterji.

The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to actress Moushumi Chatterji on 26th April, 2010. She started her career in films by playing an important character in Bengali film Parineeta. With her she attracted the attention of leading producers and directors of Bengali films including Ajoy Kar and Tarun Majumdar. She acted in a number of Bengali films and then went to Bombay.

In bollywood she played notable roles during the period when the directors like Basu Chatterji, Basu Bhattacharya were involved in making realistic films. Her film Manzil Manzil opposite Big B, became successful, as the film was based on the realistic story titled Akash Kusum which was the Bengali film directed by Mrinal Sen. Her performance in the film Benam, opposite Big B was also outstanding. It was a suspense thriller where Big B’s son was kidnapped and Moushumi expressed the anxiety very well in the film.

In the 70s, Moushumi’s performance in the film Anuraag, opposite Vinod Mehra was worth mentioning. She played the role of a blind girl and did very well in the role. The music in the film composed by SD Burman was also very successful including Rafi’s song “who kya hai”. Mushumi did well also in the action films of that period including the film Goutam Govinda, where Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughun Sinha were brothers and helped the villagers against the oppression of Premnath in the film.

In the early 80s, Moushumi’s performance in superstar Uttam Kumar’s film Ogo Bodhu Sundari gave a special place for her in Bengali films. The film was the last film of Uttam Kumar as he died on 24th July, 1980. The story was based on the epic literature of George Bernard Shaw titled Pygmalion. Uttam Kumat brought Moushumi in his house to teach her. She was totally uneducated and learned culture, education and living style in a modern society from Uttam Kumar. The music of Bappi Lahiri in the film was equally successful.

In the 90s, Moushumi did extremely well in character roles. She was sublime in Sunny Deol’s film Ghayal, where she played the role of the sister- in-law of Sunny. A scandal was publicized against her and she committed suicide in the film.

She also contested MP elections from Kolkata from the Congress (I) ticket in 2004. Viewers agree that there is lot of acting left in Moushumi and they want her to continue the brilliant work both in bollywood films and Bengali films.

Anup Kumar and bengali films.

Anup Kumar and Bengali films.

Anup Kumar is considered to be a gifted actor who contributed a lot in Bengali films of the 50s and 60s. Most of his notable performances were made in the films of Tarun Majumdar. He did a great job in the role of a bohemian character in the film Palatak.

Palatak was a story of a Bengali whose mind never stuck in one place. He travelled from one village to another and gathered experiences. Anup Kumar was sublime in Tarun Majumdar’s other film Nimantran. He had done his best in the comedy film Dadar Kirti.

In the film Dadar Kirti, Tapas Pal, a failure in academic career came to his relative’s house in rural Bengal. Anup Kumar played the character of Bhombolda and exploited the innocent character Tapas Pal. He asked him to run in the hot fields and also swim in the cold water at night, to develop his learning capacity.

While Tapas Pal stayed in the village, Mahua Roy Choudhury, one the neighbours developed a soft corner for Tapas Pal. When her marriage was fixed with another person, Anup Kumar made efforts to get rid of the groom so that the marriage could be arranged with Tapas Pal. In fact helped him after realizing the damage he had done in the beginning of the film.

Anup Kumar had acted in more than 50 films with Uttam Kumar, the greatest superstar of Bengali cinema, including Pathe Holo Deri, Sagarika, Agniparikkha, Rajodrohi, to name a few. Anup Kumar’s performance was well appreciated as comedian.

He did well in many serious films as well like Thagini with Sandha Roy, Rajen Tarapdar’s Jeeban Kahini. In Jeeban Kahini, he gave word to Bikash Roy, the father of Sandhya Roy, that he would commit suicide to help him get money out of insurance. But matters ended up in such a manner that none of them had to die and the film had a happy ending.

Even Sandeep Roy used Anup Kumar to play the role of Lalmohan Ganguly, the character played by Santosh Dutta in Satyajit Ray’ s Sonar Kella.

Anup Kumar’s films should be restored to see his performance in Bengali films over 50s, as his earlier performances include the film Chandrasekhar, in the late 40s, where Ashok Kumar and Chabi Biswas played leading roles.