Suchitra Sen passes away
Veteran Indian actress Suchitra Sen died in the eastern city of Kolkata at the age of 82 today.
The condition of Sen, who was suffering from lung infection and related complications and was undergoing treatment at a super-specialty hospital in Kolkata, deteriorated late last night leading to a massive heart attack at 9:25am, her family sources said.
She was admitted to the hospital about two weeks ago, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Capturing the public's imagination for three decades through her ethereal beauty and intense celluloid performance, Sen symbolised the golden age of Bengali cinema with memorable films like 'Agnipariksha', 'Devdas' and 'Saat Paake Bandha'.
She was the biggest cultural icon for Bengalis after Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore and Uttam Kumar.
Often described as the Greta Garbo of Indian cinema, Sen had turned a recluse after bringing an end to her celluloid career in late 1970s.
No other heroine in Bengal since Kanan Devi had captured the hearts of Bengalis as Sen did. In an era of black and white movies, her intense performances catapulted her to stardom.
Beginning her career with Bengali film ‘Shesh Kothai’ in 1952, Sen went on to receive a national award for her performance in Bimal Roy’s 1955 Hindi classic ‘Devdas’, playing the defiant ‘Paro’ to Dilip Kumar’s ‘Devdas’.
She formed an unbeatable romantic pair with Uttam Kumar and the duo gave a string of memorable hits such as ‘Harano Sur’ (1957), ‘Agnipariksha’ (1954),’Saptapadi’ (1961), ‘Grihadaha’ (1967), ‘Indrani’ (1958), ‘Sagarika’ (1956), ‘Bipasha’ (1962), ‘Kamal Lata’ (1969), ‘Alo Amar Alo’ (1972), ‘Har Mana Har’ (1972) and ’Priyo Bandhabi’ (1975).
Together, they featured in 30 films between 1953 and 1975.
Sen acted in 52 Bengali and seven Hindi films. ’Champakali’, with Bharat Bhushan, ‘Sarhhaad’ and ‘Bommbai Ka Babu’ with Dev Anand and ‘Mamta’ were some of her other notable Hindi films.
However, her most famous Hindi film after ‘Devdas’ was 1974’s ‘Aandhi’ by Gulzar. She earned wide acclaim for her role opposite Sanjeev Kumar in the film which landed in controversy due to similarities between her character and Indira Gandhi.
After her 1978 movie ‘Pronoy Pasha’ with Soumitra Chatterjee flopped, Sen quietly left the arch light and even reportedly declined India’s highest film honour the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005 preferring not to make a public appearance.
A follower of the Ramakrishna Mission order, Sen spent her retired life in meditation and prayer. In 1989, when Bharat Maharaj of the mission passed away, she was seen publicly walking all the way to the crematorium from Belur Math near Kolkata.
In 1963, Sen became the first Indian actress to be honoured at an international film festival — best actress award for ‘Saat Paake Bandha’ at Moscow film festival.
Born as Rama Dasgupta in Pabna (Bangladesh) in 1931 to Karunamoy and Indira Dasgupta, Suchitra married Dibanath Sen from an aristocratic family in 1947 before launching a successful acting career. There were rumours that the marriage suffered due to her successful acting career.
Initially, Sen was more interested in singing than in acting. In 1951, she auditioned as a playback singer but was instead offered a role by director Sukumar Dasgupta whose assistant director Nitish Roy named her Suchitra by which name she went on to achieve celebrity status.
Her first film ‘Sesh Kothay’ (1952) remained unfinished and ‘Sat Number Kayedi’ with Samar Roy as the hero in 1953 was her first film to hit cinema houses. That year three other films of hers were also released — Niren Lahiri’s ‘Kajari’, ‘Bhagaban Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ and Nirmal Dey’s ‘Sade Chuattar’ opposite Uttam Kumar.
In 1954, ‘Agnipariksha’ played to packed houses for a record 15 weeks and the Suchitra and Uttam were on their way to success. The pair then had a string of runway successes due to their on-screen chemistry. But Suchitra’s talent ensured the success of her films even without Uttam as her co-star.
‘Uttar Phalguni’, ‘Sandhya Deeper Shikha’, ‘Deep Jeley Jai’, with Basanto Chowdhury and ‘Hospital’ with Ashok Kumar, were also hits.
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