In the passing of Soumitra Chatterjee, Bengal has lost one more, perhaps the last, representative of its Renaissance generation. Chatterjee’s work as an actor was primarily limited to Bangla cinema and theatre as he was never really interested in venturing forth to Bombay, but his acclaim was universal. This was largely due to his association with Satyajit Ray, which gave his work international exposure. Chatterjee had studied Bengali literature in college and had been an announcer in All India Radio but his life changed when Ray cast him in Apur Sansar.
The Master and Apu
Despite the difference in their ages (Ray was born in 1921, Chatterjee in 1935), they shared a cultural and intellectual connection; they were both Renaissance men with varied interests. Whenever Ray cast Chatterjee, he was confident that the latter would be familiar with the literary background of the story, and that he would understand the larger cultural and sociopolitical context of the film. Their relationship was not just of a filmmaker and an actor. As Chatterjee always said, it was much more than that — Ray was Chatterjee’s intellectual mentor. There was a deep cultural affinity which led to a close working relationship over many films spanning many years.
Soumitra Chatterjee | The tree’s gone, the shade remains
Ray had primarily two ways of working with actors. One involved directing them even when the shot was on, down to the last detail: looks, gestures, dialogue delivery and so on. The other method involved letting the actor go the way he or she wanted to shape the role based on the initial reading of the script, including changing the dialogue slightly if required. This invariably happened with Chatterjee, who got great latitude from not only Ray but also other good directors with whom he worked. He was always honest and dedicated to his craft, and well prepared before he came to the set.
During the shooting of Ganashatru, a film in which I worked with Chatterjee in 1990, the long association that he shared with Ray allowed him to internalise the character. He would merge his personality and body language with that of the role innately. Ganashatru anticipated the unfortunate turn of events in India since the 1990s. Ray, after suffering for a long time with personal illness, was perturbed by the rise in irrationality and intolerance during the period and that was one of the reasons why he made the film, which was an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play, ‘An Enemy of the People’. Chatterjee played the character of a doctor who is branded a “public enemy” by local administrators for trying to temporarily close a famous temple which distributes holy water and for correctly identifying it as the source of a bacterial epidemic in the small town where the story is situated.
A public intellectual
The character shared the same beliefs on tolerance and rationality as Chatterjee himself. He was as much a public intellectual who took strong political positions as he was an accomplished actor, exemplified fairly recently in his forthright views during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act/National Register of Citizens protests last year. He was unequivocally a man of the Left like a lot of people of his generation (the post-Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Ritwik Ghatak generation). He had a clear social and political conscience and he never fought shy of expressing his political beliefs even if he was not an out-and-out activist.
Being a well-known actor was just one part of his persona. Just as Ray would have been known as an accomplished calligrapher, illustrator, writer and musician if he had not made films, Chatterjee would have been known as a playwright, poet, and writer, among other things, if he had not been an actor. Despite his versatility and intellectual depth, his feet were always on the ground and he was a level-headed person without any airs or frills.
Chatterjee’s death has come at a time when there is a crisis of conscience almost everywhere, with the rise of intolerance, communalism and aggressive nationalism. But these are ebbs and flows which are always a part of social dialectics. Chatterjee unfailingly gave his wholehearted support to building a progressive consciousness. It is for the younger generation to take this spirit forward.
Also read | Soumitra Chatterjee, the man who becomes Everyman
There is a Society that does valuable work to preserve Ray’s legacy by collecting, protecting and disseminating his work. It would be worthwhile to do something similar in Chatterjee’s memory, so that his films, plays and other work find a permanent home, for future generations to cherish and learn from.
That would be the best tribute to the man who will forever be etched in our memory as the protagonist of Apur Sansar.
Dhritiman Chaterji is an actor
