Supriya Choudhury

Saddened by the news of the demise of Supriya Choudhury this morning… She was one of those rare beauties to have ever graced the Bengali screen. Of her performances, probably MEGHE DHAKA TARA was her best. I also liked her in KOMAL GANDHAR as a theatre artiste caught between two men, and the climatic sequence in the film with the chant ‘Dohai Ali, dohai ali..’ in the background where she walks up the stairs towards her ‘chosen one’ remains embedded in memory. Her pairing with Uttam Kumar resulted in several hits but I can’t recall these movies now. Her role of the call girl in CHOWRINGHEE parallels her character Nita in MEGHE DHAKA TARA.

The last film that I remember of hers – ATHIYASAJAN by Raja Sen, which dealt with the subject of euthanasia, and had the veteran actor Soumitro Chatterjee playing her husband, which captured effectively the plight of the elderly and the older generation, to cope with shifting societal standards… My Ma told me today that in an interview of hers, she mentioned that she outlived her eleven siblings and joked that ‘Jomer dut o amar khetre phire chole jai’ (Yama returns without me every single time). Well, today he didn’t…RIP Benudi..

 

 

 

ATMIYO SWAJAN (1999)

ATMIYOSWAJAN marks a high in the career of director Raja Sen. The film deals with the inability of idealistic parents (Soumitro Chattopadhyay & Supriya Choudhury) to cope with shifting values of the next generation seen through the unfolding of events in the lives of their children. Except for the idealistic eldest son (Dipankar Dey) the other two sons (youngest played by Sabyasachi Chakraborty) & two daughters (Rituparna Sengupta and Shakuntala Barua) with their spouses (Chaiti Ghoshal, Tapas Pal) have been the elderly duo’s (parents) reason to worry about.
The various chain of events build up the angst to such a level that they contemplate undergoing ‘Euthanesia’ (Soumitro tells his friend that in 1983 the well-known writer Arthur Koestler underwent Euthanesia ) and thereafter suicide by consuming an overdose of sleeping pills.
The director (or is it the writer?) opines that women are better at handling stress in the face of crisis, and barring a tragedy the film ends on a positive note ….
Like Ray’s SHAKHA PROSAKHA the film focuses on corruption and an all round decay. The strong cast delivers terrific performances. Especially Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the hard-drinking son (Ami kono din bhabi ni je ei bhabe tomar ghar e dukhbo – he tells his father upon entering his room in an inebriated state) is brilliant.
Rating: 3.9 out of 5

Chowringhee (1968)

 

Directed by Pinaki Mukherjee based on a novella by eminent writer Sankar. The film revolves around characters who are employees and visitor of a hotel – hotel Shahjahan.
A rich socialite lady and social worker Mrs. Pakrashi (Dipti Roy) working for emancipation of women can’t face the fact that her son Anindya Pakrashi (Biswajit) loves a call girl Karobi (Supriya Devi) who was in the oldest profession of the world because of several dependent family members. What is interesting is that the lady Mrs. Pakrashi too has skeletons in her closet. As the manager of the hotel Seta Bose (SB, played with aplomb by Uttam Kumar) tells his co-worker Sankar (Subhendu Chaterji) “Mrs Pakrashi is a regular visitor in our hotel. She is a social worker during daylight and sort of a cougar at night. Once she lodged herself with a French toy boy in one of our private suites.”
The role of Supriya Devi in the film parallels her character Nita in Ghatal’s MEGHE DHAKA TARA. Bhanu Bandopadhyay in a cameo as the caretaker of the laundary of Shahjahan hotel is unforgettable. The workaholic SB takes a leave for the first time in twelve years to spend a romantic day out with his fiancee (Anjana Bhowmick). Will SB quit his job @ Shahjahan to marry lady love? ….. Utpal Dutt as the Anglo Indian hotelier is superb as usual. So is Subhendu Chaterjee enacting the central protagonist which is widely believed to have autobiographical elements of the author.
Rating: 4 out of 5

Komal Gandhar (1961)

The film centers around a mobile theatre group and the bickerings and hardship entailed in successfully running theatre in Bengal. It is replete in metaphors and an elegy for partition (the shot with the background chant ‘Dohai Ali, Dohai Ali…’ culminating in a dead-end railway track and a black-out onscreen for a few seconds signifying the deep loss between the two Bengals), and coupled with an interesting interplay of light and sound (as in Meghe Dhaka Tara) epitomizes the Ritwik Ghatak brand of filmmaking.

However, the film is rather melodramatic in its treatment and also weaves in a love story or two against the backdrop of theatre and its politics. Musically the film is rich with its use of Rabindrasangeet (Aaj Josna Raate…, Akash Bhora Ra…) and strains of folk music used recurringly throughout the film. Supriya Chaudhury delivers another soulful performance in the film. The supporting cast includes Anil Chaterjee, Jnanesh Mukherjee and others.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

 

Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960)

Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud Capped Star, 1960) is a cult film among serious film buffs, and some film lovers and critics praise it so highly so as to put it among the ‘top 10 films in World Cinema.’ Do I agree? At the outset let me state that I think I haven’t ever seen a film as bleak as this. Based on a story by Shaktipada Rajguru, the film traces the post-partition plight on a family and the exploitation of Nita, an earning woman with a large number of dependent family members. Her sacrifices eventually lead to a tragic ending. I am eschewing a detailed storyline which can be found in several reviews on the film.

Technically, the film is rich and uses interesting interplay of light and shadow, innovative sound (especially ‘when Nita descends the staircase’ sequence), symbolism (the last shot where a girl similar to Nita fixes her broken slippers and walks away, the recurring motif of a passing train signifying the division between the two Bengals), inventive shots (Nita’s face appearing in a latticed window, Nita viewing through the window when her lover comes to their house etc.) and quite a few others.  There is plentiful of music as well, Rabindrasangeet and Indian Classical music, used to good effect.

I have some issues with the storyline as well. How come Nita’s elder brother Sankar (Anil Chaterji), penniless when he left the house, suddenly become financially stable, so as to be able to sponsor a trip to the hill station for both of them. The time span appeared to be short between the two events. We have heard countless stories of how hard it is to make one successful in a big, mean city like Mumbai from where Sankar returns.

The actors perform credibly. Supriya Choudhury as Nita gives a soul stirring performance. Anil Chaterji as Sankar is terrific. Others in the cast viz., Niranjan Roy, Gita Dey, Bijon Bhattacharyya, Gyanesh Mukherjee and others are competent. The film does exhibit flashes of a genius at work, but for his pessimism and overt melodrama, Ghatak never figured in my favorite’s list.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5