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Irresistible Suchitra Sen
Faruk Kader
 I grew up in a family which over indulged in going to movies for recreation. The old town of Dhaka (Previously called Decca) where I grew up had a large number of cinema halls at busy places and corners: Rupmahal, Star, Lions, Nagarmahal, Nishat, Tazmahal and many more. I am talking about the days before 1965, when Indian movies were regularly exhibited in cinema halls on commercial basis in erstwhile East Pakistan. My two college going elder sisters were an ardent follower of Indian movies, both Hindi and Bangla. They talked about Suchitra movies like Harano Sur, Shilpi, Pothe Holo Deri, Sagarika and Dilipkumar movies like Deedar, Daag and many more with consummate passion among themselves. Their animated faces while they talked and reconstructed a specific sequence would hold my deep attention. Uttam-Suchitra movies would occupy a major part of their pastime spent in recapitulating movie sequences. My fascination about celluloid was thus passed on to me by my sisters.
My first chance to watch a Suchitra movie materialised rather when I was a kid only. It was as well my first experience of movie in a cinema hall. At that time cinema was forbidden to the kids by the elders. My mother, my two elder sisters and we two brothers went to see Hospital starring Suchitra and Ashoke Kumar, the evergreen hero of Bolywood at that time, in Rupmahal in Sadarghat. We two kid brothers made it probably as there was nobody to look after us at our home. After so many years, I still could vividly remember the song sequence in Hospital showing Suchitra and Ashoke Kumar on a boat ride in a lake. Suchitra was singing to Ashoke Kumer, “Ai Sundar Swarnali Sandahai” exuding hypnotic charm in a highly charged romantic atmosphere. The haunting voice of late Geeta Dutt lent the sequence an aura of magic. Movies with Suchitra in lead romantic roles invariably had such unforgettable moments. Irrevocably, the other song sequence involving Suchitra and Geeta Dutta with such magical spell that comes to my mind is Tumi Je Amar from Haraono Sur. The song sequence of Suchitra and Ashoke Kumar from Hospital still captivates me. I saw a few more Suchitra movies after liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 that included Harano Sur, Deep Jele Jai, Sat Panke Bandha and Uttar Phalguni. I saw Uttar-Falguni last year in Toronto, Canada when I was visiting my brother and his family. We went to a local library to borrow few DVDs and invariably, this particular DVD got my attention.
After liberation, quite a number of Indian movies were exhibited on popular demand. The local film distributors who had their cans of imported Indian movies gathering dust in their stores were more than happy to lend the movies for public show. The shows drew large crowds for obvious reason and rekindled movie lovers’ expectation of rerun of Indian of movies as was during pre-liberation period.
Suchitra movies were always special for her deeply committed acting, exquisite beauty, hypnotic charm and romantic indolence. The popularity of Suchitra-Uttam movies no doubt was due to the duos romantic appeal, however, Suchitra in my opinion was superior when it came to acting. Uttam quite often was typecast as weak romantic lover of humble social background in the lookout for heroin’s empathy; he was quite happy to do that and never made serious attempt to break away from this pattern. However, Suchitra with her depth of acting talent played complex and diverse heroin’s roles like that of nurse Radha in Deep Jele Jai. Suchitra infused life into this character of a nurse in a mental hospital who roleplayed as the beloved to mental patients become insane by the betrayal of real beloveds. The tremendous appeal of this movie came from Suchitra’s hypnotic and consummate acting. Many cine goers like me were left in the end completely devastated by Radaha’s admission to the doctor, “Kaka Babu, Ami Obhinoy Janina, Ami Obhinoy Korte Parina”. The roleplay had been too much for her and she fiddled with her mind far too extreme. Now her inner-self turned against her leaving her shattered and life turned upside down.
Suchitra married Dibanath Sen at quite an young age. There was strong rumour that Uttam and Suchitra were in love. They were most probably in love and but hardly they courted or not at all. Both being married made their lives quite hard, I reckon. Perhaps, Uttam was desperate to get Suchitra in his life, but, Suchitra remained steadfast committed to her family. In the end, the unrequited love between these two did what was required by an enduring love story of mythical proportion. Suchitra maintained a strictly and closely guarded private life after retiring from her film career for reasons hardly understood by anyone.
I didn’t belong to the generation of Suchitra Sen, but, her irresisrable charm transcended generation. That’s why we see people of Pabna town taking a unwavering stand to preserve the relics of Suchitra (alias Roma Sen)’s childhood life, which an over-whelmingly many of them never witnessed, but, felt very close to their heart and identified as an inseparable part of their cultural identity and legacy. Truly, they believed that it’s a cause worth fighting for.
 Share on Facebook  Home Page Published on: 22-Jan-2014
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