FAREWELL, FELUDA…(JANUARY 19, 1935 — NOVEMBER 15, 2020)

THESPIAN SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE PASSED AWAY RECENTLY. DEVESH SHARMA OFFERS A SHORT PROFILE OF THE LEGENDARY ACTOR’S LIFE AND CAREER

- DEVESH SHARMA

Soumitra Chatterjee was born in Sealdah, West Bengal on January 19, 1935. His grandfather and father both were associated with theatre. Soumitra too joined theatre while still in school and started getting accolades for his work from a very early age. Soumitra graduated from the City College, Kolkata with honours in Bengali literature and later did his post-graduation in the same subject from the University of Calcutta. He joined the famous theatre personality, Ahindra Choudhury, while still a student. The doyen of Bengali drama, Sisir Bhaduri, was also one of his mentors. After college, he briefly worked as an insurance agent and then joined All India Radio as an announcer and also started looking for work in films. After two decades in films, he returned to theatre, his first love, in 1978, with his production Naam Jiban. His other noted plays include Rajkumar (1982), Phera (1987), Nilkantha (1988), Ghatak Biday (1990), Tiktiki (1995), an adaptation of Sleuth, Nyaymurti (1996), and Homa Pakhi (2006). Besides acting, he also wrote and directed plays and was an avid translator as well. He also took to performance poetry in his later years. His swan song in the theatre was Raja Lear directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay, a play based on King Lear by William Shakespeare.