Soumitra Chatterjee happy to win Dadasaheb Phalke award

The phone will not let him rest. It's the day's end, the thespian is worn down with the heat and light of shooting for Goutam Ghose's film, every single person is saying the same thing. Still, Soumitra Chatterjee is visibly happy. The voices in so many euphoric pitches are all congratulating the latest in the long line of Dadasaheb Phalke winners.
So what's new for the actor who has under his belt the National Award for Best Actor (2007); the Special Jury Award (2001); the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, the Padma Bhushan (2004), a Lifetime Achievement award from Italy, the Officer des Arts et Metiers by the French Government? "It's truly an honour," says Chatterjee, the subject of a documentary by the French Katherine Berger, about the 'crowning glory' for anyone who's spent his life in cinema. We take this as a cue for reviewing 'Apu's views on awards, roles, theatre, acting, cinema, society...Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay (Bengali: সৌমিত্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় Shoumitro Chôṭṭopaddhae; born 19 January 1935) is an iconic Bengali actor from India, known among other things for his frequent collaborations with the great Bengali film director Satyajit Ray and his constant comparison with the Bengali screen idol Uttam Kumar.

Background

Soumitra was born in Krishnanagar in West Bengal, 100 Kms from Calcutta, in 1935. Soumitra and his family moved to Howrah and Calcutta during his early years. Soumitra graduated from the University of Calcutta with honours in Bengali literature. He has lived for a number of years in Calcutta in Satyajit Ray's old apartment. He studied for his M.A. examination in Bengali from the University of Calcutta. He worked in All India Radio before pursuing a career in films. Work with Satyajit Ray
Soumitra's film debut came in 1959 in Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar. As noted on the official website for Ray, "At that time, Soumitra Chatterjee was a radio announcer and had only played a small role in a Bengali stage production."[1] Soumitra would eventually collaborate with Ray on fourteen films. His centrality to Ray's work is akin to other key collaborations in the history of cinema — Mifune and Kurosawa, Mastroianni and Fellini, De Niro and Scorsese, DiCaprio and Scorsese, Max von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman, Jerzy Stuhr and Kieślowski. He also worked with Sharmila Tagore in a number of Ray films.
Chatterjee was cast in diverse roles by Ray and some of the stories and screenplays that Ray wrote were said to be written with him in mind. Soumitra featured as Feluda/Pradosh Chandra Mitter, the famous private investigator from Calcutta in Ray's Feluda series of books, in two films in the 1970s Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath. Ghare Baire, an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name and one of Ray's major ventures of the 1980s, featured Chatterjee in a leading role in the character of a radical revolutionary in a love triangle with his friend's wife. These roles showcased Chatterjee's versatility in playing diverse characters, especially in an urban setting. In Shakha Proshakha, Chatterjee turns out a moving performance in the role of a mentally handicapped son of an aging patriarch on his deathbed and the only source of his father's solace, as his siblings squabble.

 Other work

Besides working with Ray, Soumitra excelled in collaborations with other well-known Bengali directors such as Mrinal Sen and Tapan Sinha. He earned critical acclaim for his role of an impostor in Mrinal Sen's Akash Kusum. He was equally confident in playing the swashbuckling horse-riding villain in Sinha's Jhinder Bandi giving the legendary Uttam Kumar a tough challenge. In Teen Bhubaner Pare, he again shared the screen with the beautiful Tanuja, and his flamboyant and peppy way of teasing and wooing Tanuja in the very first song-sequence ('Ke Tumi Nadini') overnight earned him the 'star' tag along with Uttam Kumar. He acted with great aplomb with the iconic Suchitra Sen in Saat Pake Bandha. He did couple of movies with Uttam Kumar such as Stri, Devdas, Protisodh. His comic timing was brilliant and highly appreciated in Mantramughdha, Basanto Bilap, Chhutir Fande and Baksho Badal. The last one was a fine example of witty comedy written by Satyajit Ray.
In the later years of his film career, he kept wowing his audience with memorable performances in films such as Koni, Atanko, etc. Soumitra is known for his experimentation with roles. He played the role of Shekhar in the 1969 Ajoy Kar version of Parineeta. Soumitra has been active in Bengali theatre as an actor, playwright and director. He is a well-known poetry reciter, and has acted on TV and in indigenous folk drama (jatra).

[edit] Awards and recognitions

A living legend on his own terms, Soumitra has received the 'Officier des Arts et Metiers', the highest award for arts given by the French government, and a lifetime achievement award from Italy. He turned down the honorary Padma Shri award from the Indian government in the 1970s; in 2004, he accepted the prestigious Padma Bhushan award from the President of India. He has been the subject of a full-length documentary named Gaach by French director Catherine Berge.
In a gesture of protest against the National Film Awards committee's bias in awarding popular and mainstream cinema, he turned down the 2001 special jury award for best actor. However, on 9 June 2008, he was selected for the 2007 National Film Award for Best Actor by the Government of India. On 21 March 2012, he was selected by the Government of India for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

[edit] Select filmography

For detailed list, see Filmography of Soumitra Chatterjee

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1959	Apur Sansar	Apurba Kumar Ray	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1960	Devi	Umaprasad	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1960	Khudito Pashan		(dir. Tapan Sinha)
1961	Teen Kanya	Amulya	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1961	Jhinder Bondi	Mayurbahan	(dir. Tapan Sinha)
1961	Punascha		(dir. Mrinal Sen)
1961	Swaymbara		(dir. Asit Sen)
1961	Swralipi		(dir. Asit Sen)
1962	Abhijan	Narsingh	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1962	Agun		(dir. Asit Sen)
1962	Atal Jwaler Ahobhan		(dir. Ajay Kar)
1962	Benarasi		(dir. Arup Guhathakurta)
1962	Shaasti		(dir. Daya Bhai)
1963	Barnali		(dir. Ajay Kar)
1963	Saat Paake Badha		(dir. Ajay Kar)
1963	Sesh Prahar		(dir. Prantik)
1964	Charulata	Amal	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1964	Kinu Goalar Goli		(dir. O.C.Ganguly)
1964	Pratinidhi	Amal	(dir. Mrinal Sen)
1965	Kapurush	Amitabha Roy	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1965	Akash Kusum	Ajay Sarkar	(dir. Mrinal Sen)
1965	Bakso Badal		(dir. Nityananda Dutta)
1965	Ek i ange eto rup		(dir. Harisadhan Dasgupta)
1965	Ektuku Basa		(dir. Tarun Majumdar)
1966	Joradighir Chaudhuri Paribar		(dir. Ajit Lahiri)
1967	Prastar Saakkhar		(dir. Salil Dutta)
1968	Baghini		(dir. Bijoy Bose)
1969	Parineeta	Shekhar	(dir. Ajoy Kar)
1970	Aranyer Din Ratri	Ashim	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1972	Jiban Saikate		(dir. Swedesh Sarkar)
1973	Ashani Sanket	Gangacharan Chakravarti	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1974	Sonar Kella	Pradosh C. Mitter, a.k.a. Feluda	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1976	Datta	Noren Babu	(dir. Ajay Kar)
1978	Joi Baba Felunath	Pradosh C. Mitter, a.k.a. Feluda	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1979	Devdas	Debdas	(dir. Dilip Roy)
1979	Noukadubi	Ramesh	(dir. Ajoy Kar)
1979	Ganadevata	Pandit Debu Ghosh	(dir. Tarun Majumdar)
1980	Hirak Rajar Deshe	Professor Udayan	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1984	Ghare Baire	Sandip	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1986	Koni		(dir. Saroj Dey)
1986	Shyam Saheb		(dir. Salil Dutta)
1986	Atanka		(dir. Tapan Sinha)
1987	Sukumar Ray	voice and acted as ram in the play	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1988	The Bengali Night	Narendra Sen	(dir. Nicolas Klotz)
1989	Ganashatru	Dr. Ashoke Gupta	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1990	Shakha Proshakha	Proshanto, the 2nd son, a.k.a. "Mezda"	(dir. Satyajit Ray)
1991	Mahaprithivi	Husband	(dir. Mrinal Sen)
1994	The Broken Journey	Dr. Sengupta	(dir. Sandip Ray)
1999	Asukh		(dir.Rituparno Ghosh)
2004	Shadows of Time	Older Ravi	dir. Florian Gallenberger
2006	Padakshep	Sasanka Palit	dir. Suman Ghosh
2007	Ballyngunge Court		dir. Pinaki Chowdhury
2007	chander bari		dir. Tarun Majumdar
2008	10:10	Don Durgaprasad	dir. Arin Paul
2009	Angshumaner Chhobi	Prodyut	dir. Atanu Ghosh
2009	SugarBaby	Father Francis	dir. Trisha Ray
2010	Bodhisattva	Bodhisattva	dir. San Banarje
2012	The Nowhere Son	The Nowhere Son	dir. San Banarje