Life at ATTI gets boring, I begin to like Bengali movies

As the days passed, my life began to get boring. The routine became monotonous. Coming to the classes in the morning at Clive House and listening to the lectures on Aircraft Materials or Theory of Flight made it difficult to suppress the yawns. But then, as the saying goes, what can’t be cured must be endured. Therefore I began to explore newer avenues of keeping myself occupied.
One of these was going in for Bengali movies in the cinema halls in the Shyambazar-Hatibagan area. Till then my preference was for English movies because I had my basic schooling and college in English medium. Hence, I was more comfortable in that language. However, my Bengali friends in ATTI changed my outlook.
It was in 1963 that I began seeing Bengali movies and some of these were real masterpieces like Mahanagar of Satyajit Ray, Nirjan Saikate of Tapan Sinha and Uttar Falguni of Asit Sen in which Suchitra Sen played the dual role of mother and daughter. Other memorable movies were Palatak starring Anup Kumar and Deya Neya starring Uttam Kumar.
Then there were Saat Pakey Bandha – this was another of Suchitra Sen’s hit movie. This movie earned for her the Best Actress Award at the prestigious Moscow Film Festival 1963.
Another remarkable movie was Chhaya Surya – its heroine was Sharmila Tagore and she gave a really wonderful performance in the movie.
To cut it short, watching these movies, I realized that the mother tongue is important come what may and, mentally, I began to prepare myself mentally to prove that I was a Bengali. (to be continued …)

Growing up days – Bengali movies of the 1960s

The Bengali movies of the 1960s presented a special era in movie making because it brought to the forefront C, a black and white movie that revolutionized film making.
Later, in 1962, he presented the movie Kanchenjangha – the first Bengali movie in color. This was another mini revolution because Bengali movies in that period were more often than not in black and white. Suffice it to say that Satyajit Ray left a deep impression on Bengalis and their world of make believe.

As to actors and actresses, the choice in that period was limited to stalwarts like Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Sabitri Chatterjee, Supriya Debi, Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Aparna Sen, Bikash Roy, Kamal Mitra, Pahari Sanyal and their contemporaries. Some of them became typecast in fatherly roles like Kamal Mitra, Pahari Sanyal.
Then there were those who excelled in comic roles – names like Jahar Roy, Bhanu Bandopadhaya, Anup Kumar, Nripati Chatterji, and Robi Ghosh come to mind immediately. They ruled the roost for decades.
Incidentally, Suchitra Sen received international acclaim through the movie Saat Paake Bandha – she received Best Actress award in the 1963 Moscow Film Festival. (to be continued …)