Soumitra Chatterjee: A disciple of Sisir Bhaduri, he remained a student of theatre all through his life

When Suman Mukhopadhyay began directing Soumitra Chatterjee for his adaptation of King Lear, he realized that the veteran actor had “a childlike innocence” and “a curiosity about everything”. Every time they rehearsed for ‘Raja Lear’, he behaved like “a student of theatre”. According to Mukhopadhyay, this attitude is what made him a “true artist”.
Owing to the cultural milieu of his childhood, theatre became Chatterjee’s first love. Sisir Bhaduri was his role model. He had also acted with Bhaduri in ‘Prafulla’. It was Bhaduri who had once told him: “you have a powerful voice, but you don’t know that you have one – you must know this – you must know where the strength of your voice lie.”

As a student of Calcutta University, he did ‘Mukhosh’ – an adaptation of WW Jacobs’s ‘The Monkey’s Paw’. His next play was ‘Bidehi’, adapted from Ibsen’s ‘Ghost’. Year 1973 was crucial in his career when he acted in eight films – ‘Notun Diner Alo’, ‘Basanta Bilap’, ‘Nishikannya’, ‘Ashoni Sanket’, ‘Bilet Pherot’, ‘Sesh Prishtyae Dekhun’, ‘Agnibhromor’ and ‘Epar Opar’. Alongside, he directed ‘Rajkumar’ as well as acted in Utpal Dutt-directed ‘Krushbiddha Cuba’ and Jnanesh Mukherjee’s ‘Bishe June’. In 1978, he did ‘Naamjiban’, a play which he would himself say had changed the face of professional theatre. More recognition on stage followed with landmark productions like ‘Neelkantha’, ‘Tiktiki’, ‘Ghatak Biday’, ‘Prantapasya’, ‘Atmakatha’ and ‘Tritiyo Onko, Otoyeb’.

As a director, he was meticulous. According to actress Madhabi Mukherjee, who acted under his direction in ‘Phera’, he needed everything to be planned and didn’t want any disturbance during a performance. “That’s why I never took my baby daughter along when I went to watch his plays. During a performance of ‘Phera’, he had got the news of his grandson’s birth and was thrilled. Maa was equally thrilled but had quipped that this baby might also want to watch his play one day. How would he react then? However, when I did a theatre at the Academy, it was Soumitrakaku who came to watch even when my parents couldn’t make it,” said Mukherjee’s daughter, Mimi Bhattacharya.

Debshankar Halder, who has acted with him in various plays, said, “Enlightenment, reflective mind, intelligence and restraint were some of his enviable qualities as an actor.” He noticed an “interest”, “fondness” and a “childlike emotion” towards theatre in him. These traits were only magnified when Halder interviewed him this September for a docu-series titled “Aami Soumitra”. “In fact, there was a slogan we tried to create saying let’s start again. The idea was to come together and do a play again,” he said.Incidentally, Halder holds the rare distinction of performing alongside him in a role that was originally essayed by Chatterjee. That had happened first in case of “Phera”. Just before lockdown, Halder did this again in ‘Andha Yug’.
According to Halder, film actor Soumitra Chatterjee was miles ahead of his other identities simply because he had to do so many films in his career. “That was his primary identity. Despite that, his contribution as an actor, director, translator and organizer in the space of professional theatre is remarkable. I would highlight the work he did in translating foreign language plays, which had a message beyond just being entertainment, and localizing them in the Bengali context. He is a pioneer when it came to translating those kind of plays and taking them to the general audience.” Here, he refers to “Phera” the play adapted from Friedrich Durandmand’s “The Visit”.”

His daughter, theatre personality Poulami Bose, had maintained that it was the ability to communicate with a lot of people directly that her father loved when he was doing theatre. The fact that he was surrounded by many youngsters helped him feel young and vibrant when he was on the stage. He could “connect” with a lot of people and was “excited” every time he was supposed to perform live on stage. Even as an octogenarian, he would perform on stage pretty often leading many to wonder how he was able to do some physically strenuous roles or remember the lines. “I can only say that Bapi had a god-gifted quality. While we often want to give up and say ‘ore aar parchhi na’, Bapi was always ready to take the plunge,” Bose said.