Elegant combination of Uttam Kumar with Ajoy Kar and Agradoot.
In the 1950s major films of Uttam Kumar created romantic appeal before the majority of audience of the country. His combination with Ajay Kar and Agradoot was very grand.
Ajay Kar did cast Uttam Kumar for the first time in the film Griha Prabesh. It was a social film where Uttam Kumar and Suchitra sen were launched and they acted opposite other established artists like Manju Dey, Bikash Roy and others.
In Shyamali in 1956, Ajay Kar utilized Uttam Kumar’s acting potential. It was a film relating to deaf and dumb character played by Kaberi Bose. Uttam Kumar played a very compassionate role and his experience of acting in stage opposite Sabitri Chatterjee in the play Shaymali helped him a lot. In 1957, Uttam Kumar’s film Harano Sir ended up being the biggest blockbuster of the decade. Suchitra Sen played the role of wife of Uttam Kumar. Uttam Kumar met with an accident and for his previous history. Suchitra Sen treated her and married her. But again Uttam Kumar met with an accident and forgot Suchitra Sen. The rest of the film was related to the struggle of Suchitra Sen in bringing back memories of Uttam Kumar of the past. Geeta Dutt’s song “tumi je amar” became bumper hit.
Ajay Kar’s Saptapadi stands out as one of the greatest classics of the golden period. Critics argue that Saptapadi released in 1961 stands out as the best film of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen in their entire career. Ajoy Kar probably made the best use of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen in the film Saptapadi. It was a story of Tarashankar Banerjee on affair between hindu Brahmin played by Uttam Kumar with a Christian girl played by Suchitra Sen. Uttam Kumar’s father Chabi Biswas did not accept the marriage. Uttam Kumar became a Christian and a doctor but could not marry Suchitra Sen. The film was made at the backdrop of Second World War. Hemanta Mukherjee’s music in the film was very impressive.
Ajay Kar reciprocated the magic in Uttam Kumar’s film Shono Boronari. The film was released in 1960. There Supriya Debi, the daughter of eminent barrister Udasin played by Chabi Biswas fell in love with a homeopathic doctor played by Uttam Kumar. As monetarily Uttam Kumar was no match to Chabi Biswas, a marriage was arranged with industrialist Dipak Mukherjee in the film. At the end of the film Supriya Debi left her house to accept Uttam Kumar. The music of Robin Chatterjee in the film was very impressive.
Ajoy Kar made other successful films with Uttam Kumar including Khelaghar opposite Mala Sinha, Bardidi with Sandharani, to name a few.
Agradoot included a group of directors were formed in 1946 by director Bibhuti Laha, sound recordist Jatin Dutta, Laboratory specialist Sailen Ghoshal, script writer Nitai Bhattacharya and producer Bimal Ghosh. With Uttam Kumar Agradoot made the film Sahajatri in 1951. Bharati Debi was the heroine of the film.
After that Agradoot directed one after the other hit films with Uttam Kumar. Agniparikkha in 1954 directed by Agradoot became super hit. Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen were established as leading stars of Bengal. Anupam Ghatak composed the music of the film. Sandhya Mukherjee sang landmark songs like “gaane more indradhanu”, “ke tumi amare dako”, to name a few. From that time Suchitra Sen, singer Sandhya Mukherjee, music director Robin Chatterjee, Anupam Ghatak stormed Bengali films.
Sabar Opore followed. Uttam Kumar played the role of lawyer in the film who re-opened a murder case where his father Chabi Biswas was proved guilty of murder. Again the combination with Suchitra Sen, Sandhya Mukherjee, Robin Chatterjee struck gold. The songs of Sandhya Mukherjee like “ghum ghum chand jhikimiki tara”, and Dhananjoy Bhattacharya like “kantaro aghate chino paye rakta jhare” became super hit.
The other super hit films of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen directed by Agradoot include Pathe Holo Deri, Bipasha, to name a few. Majority of Agradoot’s films were produced by MP Production and shot in MP Studio. One interesting statistics about Uttam Kumar Suchitra Sen pair is that from 1953 to 1959, both of them acted in 22 films. Majority of those films were directed by Agradoot and majority of them ended up being super hit films. Chabi Biswas was pivotal in playing the roles of fathers of Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar in majority of those films.
Agradoot continued with his experiment in other Uttam Kumar films like Kuhak in 1961, Kokhono Megh in 1968, Choddobeshi in 1971. It was a great experiment of Agradoot in casting Uttam Kumar in negative role for the first time in Kuhak. Sabitri Chatterjee was the heroin. He wanted to take away the stolen money from Tarun Kumar’s son but was ultimately killed by Premangshu Basu. In Kokhono Megh Uttam Kumar played the role of detective with Kali Banerjee the villain. Anjana Bhowmick acted opposite Uttam Kumar. Agradoot also directed Uttam Kumar in serio-comic film Choddobeshi. Madhabi Mukherjee, Bikash Roy, Anubha Gupta were the other artists in the film.
If the films of Ajoy Kumar and Agradoot were analyzed it will be seen while Uttam Kumar played the pivotal roles in all the films, the success of the films were dependent on outstanding music. The prominent music directors who contributed in the music of the films included Robin Chatterjee and Anupam Ghatak. The outstanding performances by character artists like Chabi Biswas took the films to a different horizon. Other male character artists performed beyond expectation including Kamal Mitra, Nitish Mukherjee, Bikash Roy, Pahari Sanyal, Kali Banerjee, Jahar Ganguly, to name a few. Also the female character artists like Malina Debi, Sunanda Debi, Chandrabati Debi, Chaya Debi, Padda Debi played landmark characters. The excellent literature of legendary writers like Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and contemporary writers like Samaresh Basu, Subodh Ghosh appealed to the masses.
If Uttam Kumar became mahanayak, the legendary superstar of Bengal, there was huge contribution of Ajay Kar and Agradoot in making him a superstar.
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