CONTEMPORARY MAHANAYAK OF BENGALI CINEMA!
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| Bengali Cinema's Mahanayak..Uttam Kumar! |
Four decades over..Bengali Cinema's legendary actor best known as Mahanayak Uttam Kumar left this world!
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| Uttam Kumar & Sharmila Tagore in Ray's film 'Nayak' (1966). |
Uttam Kumar was different from the traditional Bengali babu image in which
actors like Soumitra Chatterjee & Anil Chatterjee were appeared as hero on
screen! He was always in urban attire..shirt-pant or mostly in suit and
tie! So that way, he was contemporary!
He made his debut in 1948 with film 'Drishtidan', but he got prominent
role in 'M P Studio's 'Basu Paribar'! Then in 1954 he became hero of
beautiful Suchitra Sen in film 'Agni Pariksha' which got big success.
And Uttam-Suchitra became the hit romantic pair of Bengali cinema. They
did more than 20 films together in which includes 'Shilpi', 'Pathe holo
deri', 'Harano sur', 'Jiban Trishna', 'Sabar 'Upare', 'Ekti raat',
'Bipasha' & 'Alo amar alo'.
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| Pretty Vyjayanthimala & Uttam Kumar in Hindi 'Chhoti si Mulaqat' (1967). |
But we still remember Uttam Kumar from renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray's 'Nayak' (1966) which film gave him international fame! In this he acted famous star (like himself) who reveals his success, insecurities & regrets in train journey with journalist acted by pretty Sharmila Tagore. After this Uttam Kumar also acted with Sharmila in Shakti Samanta's Hindi films 'Amanush' (1975) & 'Anand Ashram' (1977). But his roles were different from typical bollywood heros!
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| Sharmila Tagore & Uttam Kumar in 'Amanush' (1975) |
In 1980, while shooting Bengali film 'Ogo bodhu shundori'..Uttam Kumar had heart attack and died only at the age of 53! Bengali cinegoers were shocked by this and they gathered in large numbers for the last journey of their beloved actor!
Homage to this Mahanayak!!
- Manoj Kulkarni
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