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A long innings

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, in a freewheeling chat, speaks of playing Apu to Satyajit Ray and why there’s no rulebook for acting

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee

By Shoma A. Chatterji

In this rat-race called Indian cinema, to survive for more than two decades is nothing short of a miracle. Yet, here is one Bengali actor of international renown who has completed 55 years in films and is still running strong. Soumitra Chatterjee is proud to have worked under the directorial baton of Satyajit Ray. At 79, age and serious health issues have made him slightly edgy but not his answers packed with anecdotes both funny and sometimes, not so funny, it’s time well-spent.

After 55 long years, film lovers would like to know your interpretation of the word ‘acting’.

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Acting is perhaps the only form of creative or artistic expression that does not follow any rules and does not have any fixed formula. Music is based on sargam that one can, of course, toy around with, explore and experiment. Dance has abhinaya and rhythm. Magic too has certain rules. But acting is something the actor has to create temporarily at that given point of time in the play or the film which only a good director is able to extract. Actors can benefit only under some directors.

When did you first find yourself drawn to films?

I was practically brought up in films since I was a boy. I watched Thief of Baghdad, Saboo and P.C. Barua’s films. I would bunk school to watch films. When my parents shifted to Calcutta from Howrah, I got to watch some great films. Serious interest in cinema started with Calcutta’s first film festival. I watched Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan and Fall of Berlin which changed my entire perspective about cinema. Even my friends were as passionate about cinema. We saw Renoir’s River, which was shot entirely in India.

What made you decide on acting as a career?

Festive offer

Natasamrat Sisir Kumar Bhaduri’s theatre inspired me deeply. His way of walking about on stage, creating a character, his unique style, was instrumental in making me decide to become an actor. I had seen plays of the IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association). I saw Bohuroopi plays also. I have not been consciously influenced by any single school but have imbibed different things from each. My fundamentals in acting are from Bhaduri’s plays. I consider him my guru. His Chandragupta will remain the best stage performance I have ever seen. He taught me to read Bertolt Brecht.

How did you land the role of Apu in Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar?

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 Pather Panchali created great curiosity while it was being made. It changed my perspective on how a Bengali film can be made well within a budget on a literary classic. A crew member from Manikda’s (Ray) team spotted me outside the Coffee House one day. They were scouting for someone to play Apu in Aparajita, the second in the Apu trilogy. Ray took one look at me and decided I was too tall for Apu. He had earmarked me for Apur Sansar. Later, he made me go through a camera test and a voice test to free me of camera consciousness. One day, when I dropped in on the sets of Jalsaghar, Manikda introduced me to Chhabi Biswas, the protagonist in the film, as ‘my Apu for the third part of the trilogy.’ I was speechless. That is how I learnt that I was to play Apu in Apur Sansar.

Among the 400-odd films, which, according to you, has been the most challenging?

Tapan Sinha’s Wheel Chair is perhaps the most challenging. I practiced moving about on a wheel-chair because the physical details of how a man does minor things while seated on a wheel-chair were important. But when the film finally went on the floors, I could not practice all over again. I love the challenge of learning something for a specific role. For Kshudita Pashan, I had to learn horse riding. I discovered that riding a horse or moving about on a wheel-chair helps form an insight into a given character. The man’s world-view changes. This differs from the world-view of a person who moves
normally at ground level. This change influences his behaviour, vision, philosophy. These get reflected in his performance. The physical approach to a character is very important. Once this is achieved, then a trip inside the character’s mind becomes seamless.

You rejected the Special Jury Best Actor Award for Gautam Ghose’s Dekha but you accepted the Best Actor Award for Padakkhep and then the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Can you explain this contradiction?

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At the time of Dekha, I was convinced that awards often went to people who did not deserve them and other better and more powerful performances were ignored. When I got the National Award for Padakkhep, I was already 50 years into films. The citation moved me. The director was new and a stranger to cinema. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award made me truly happy because my faith in the public that has sustained me for so many years stood vindicated.

Other than Ray’s films, which do you think you would love to mention as your favourites?

My favourites are Tarun Majumdar’s Sansar Seemantey, Saroj De’s Kony and Raja Mitra’s Ekti Jibon. Among mainstream films, my memorable ones are Agradaani, Baghini, Babumoshai, Chhutir Phandey, Jodi Jaantem and Sudur Niharika in which I did three different roles. Mrinal Sen’s Akash Kusum, Ajay Kar’s Malyadaan Babumoshai, Khunje Berai and Stree and Tarun Majumdar’s Ganadevata. I also like Padakhhep, Angshumaner Chhobi and Dwando.

First uploaded on: 19-09-2014 at 01:00 IST
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