Mahanaikya: Roma to Suchitra Sen

My mother, Rokeya Begum was in her early teens and studying in a high school in the mid-50s. She did not miss any Bangla black & white cinemas which had the romantic pair the Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar. There was no smartphones, laptops and internet. The biggest challenge was how to keep pace with upcoming Suchitra movies, film reviews, film gossips, etc.  She used to subscribe a popular cinema magazine Ultoroth, published from Kolkata.

Another challenge was social taboo for a middle-class Muslim family going to a cinema hall to watch movies. She and her younger sister Rabeya Khatoon used to regularly slip into a cinema hall in their neighborhood, which was fortunately owned by her paternal uncle Momenul Haquein Burdwan city, West Bengal, who also edited a weekly newspaper Burdwan Bani.

Her father, Khan Bahadhur Naziruddin Ahmed, a member of parliament (MP), when India's first prime minister was Jawahar Lal Nehru. He was a member of Indian constitution drafting committee, chaired by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Fortunately, her father, an ace criminal lawyer, or Rokeya's family was not conservative. She was born in secular, liberal, and a bookworm family.

She never missed any movie of Suchitra, since 1953 when she was shot into stardom in her maiden movies Sath Nombor Koiyedi, Sharey Chuwattoor, Bagwan Sr Krishna Chaitanya and Kajari all released in packed cinema halls in 1952.

After her marriage to a conservative Sunni Muslim in 1952, going to movies for Rokeyafell flat, her husband believed cinema was not for Muslim, especially women. Her last secret adventure to watch movies of Suchitra was 'Haspatal' (1960) in Picture Palace in Khulna, before the couple moved to Dhaka.

One after another, from a cultural activist in Pabna in mid 40s, she became a heart throb in Kolkata filmdom. The most-sought out movie star in Kolkata cinema production was Suchitra Sen. She acted in 60 movies until 1978, 53 were in Bangla movies produced in Tollygunge and seven are produced in Hindi in Bollywood.

Suchitra literally dominated Bangla movies from mid-50 to 70s. Producers did not dare to introduce a fresh female actor in Bangla movies. No other directors felt comfortable with a new actress to compete with Suchitra.

Pabna Home of Suchitra
Alighted from the Dhaka-Pabna bus, battery-run rickshaw puller Ikram Ali do not the home of Suchitra Sen. Infact most of the rickshaw drivers have not heard of Suchitra Sen. Finding no alternative, we called a journalist of Pabna Press Club on phone, he advised to go to 'puran technical college' (Formerly Illiot-Bonomali Technical School). The home is opposite to the old technical college on Dhaka-Pabna road.

The front of the house is occupied by unauthorized shops. The facade of magnificent house, which does not have a formal name is hidden behind the shops. The entrance of the museum is from a brick laid by-lane. The only means to recognize the place is from a large banner at the entrance of the lance and a sign at the gate with a window for selling tickets.

Nuruzzaman, who joined as caretaker from April 16, said he sold eight tickets in the morning till noon. He said average 20-30 visitors come to the Suchitra Sen's Memorial Home everyday. He was working as temporary staff in Pabna District Commissioner's office and was transferred to a new assignment at a silent. It's boring job, he said, but he enjoys as visitors take pride and some surprised to know that legendary figure was born in Pabna.

The five rooms, single storied home with wide verandah in front and rear with several wooden windows with grills in all the rooms. Presently the museum has tin roofs with bamboo thatched ceilings. The high ceiling rooms had roofs protected by thick wooden bars, but the previous lease, a madrasah manage by an Islamist group were routed after a High Court order in 2011 had demolished the ceiling.

The madrassah was ejected from the birthplace of Suchitra Sen, a cultural heritage by agitating local civil society, cultural activists and of course the left leaning political groups with support from civil administration of Pabna. The demolition of the ceilings of the house was made after the lease got written permission from Pabna DC office. The Deputy Commissioner of Pabna, a smart cadre service officer Rekha Rani Balo was excited to speak about Suchitra Sen.

Soon after she joined as DC Pabna, she has given special focus on development and celebration in memory of Suchitra. She dreams that her home could be the hub of studies, research and training on film media. Pabna observed Suchitra's birthday on April 6 with cake cutting and open-air festive events of music soiree, drama and film shows at Bir MuktijuddhaRafiqul Islam Bokul Town Hall.

Rekha said Pabna and the 17 districts in northern region of Bangladesh, had immensely contributed to culture, music and drama development. Because of communication facility by train and completion of Hardinge Bridge over Padma, most of those born in Pabna and elsewhere in this region made their debut in Kolkata. Most of those who practiced music, drama and dance in Pabna have curved their places in Kolkata and even in Mumbai, including Fulrani Kanjilal, renowned choreographer Manjushree Sarkar and of course Suchitra Sen.

Describing her proposed dream to the government, she fervently believes that the home of Suchitra could be center of learning film studies. In her message in a publication in observance of Suchitra Sen Film Festival held in 2016, Rekha has appealed to the government for establishment of a Film Institute at her ancestral home in Pabna. One of the architect of the movement for restoration of Suchitra Sen Memorial is Dr Ram Dulal Baumik, recently retired from the government Family Planning office in Pabna.

The movement began in 2009, steered by Suchitra Sen Shanrakhan Parishad in cooperation with Zila Parishad to evict the Islamist from the parental home of Suchitra. The first film festival was held at Pabna Town Hall jointly with Ministry of Culture, Zila Parishad and Suchitra Sen ShanrakhanParishad in 2009.

Earlier several groups, mostly left-leaning political groups and youths have often paraded the streets of Pabna and submitted petition to evict the madrasah from the premise. The District Administration cancelled the lease. But the madrasah authority challenged the cancellation in the High Court. Apparently, the court verdict upheld the cancellation of the lease and asked the district authority to vacate the premise and preserve it as a cultural heritage.

One of the left-leaning activists, who spearheaded the movement was Comrade Zakir Hossain of Workers Party. In 2009 the event was attended by glamorous media stars Subash Dutta, Kobori, Amjad Hossain, Prabir Mitra, Rozina, Farooque, Razzak and many others who bedecked the stage at Town Hall.

A year earlier, a book fair was organized to commemorate Suchitra Sen's birthday. Former Speaker Abdul Hamid, now President of Republic of Bangladesh attended as chief guest. Instead of claiming his share in movement was not only to oust the madrassah from the cultural heritage, but also against communalism and terrorism by Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islamist groups who have dared to raise their fangs of hatred to secularism.

Comrade Zakir, gives credit to the unflinching movement against the Islamists by the journalists of Pabna, cultural groups, the left leaning political parties and their youth organizations. He also dreams for the establishment of a Film Institute, where besides film studies, drama courses, acting and direction would be taught. Presently, Comrade Zakir seems frustrated and has withdrawn from all activities.

Suchitra Sen Memorial
The Ministry of Culture has placed eight projects worth Taka 3.40 crore for restoration cultural heritage into a full-fledged museum, construction of an auditorium, rooms for holding film appreciation course and acquire lands attached to the original property of Suchitra's home.

The original proposal of Taka 7 crore has been having revised and the approved project proposal is under the scrutiny of the Planning Commission for approval for budget allocation. It is expected that the budget allocation would be made available from next fiscal year 2017-2018, an official of the Cultural Ministry said.

Brief Bio
Born on April 6, 1931 in Pabna town, her father Karunamoy Dasgupta, mother Indira Debi. The couple had three sons and five daughters. Roma (later Suchitra Sen), was the most beautiful among the sisters. Her father was a Sanitary Inspector of Pabna Municipality. He constructed a one storied building with five rooms and a bamboo-thatched kitchen behind. The building has two wide verandahs.

In her childhood, she went to school in Mahakali Patshala (now Town Girls High School) and passed Class V. Later, she briefly moved to Patna and stayed with her maternal-uncle. Her uncle used to call her Krishna. She moved back to Pabna, she was admitted in Pabna Girls School. Her father in the school admission form wrote her name as Roma Dasgupta.

The Pabna Girls School dress was sari. Roma used to wear sari attractively, and with her long hair well combed, she used to look gorgeous. Young men, used to stare at her from the corner of their eyes, but she enjoyed a smile and often a laugh with her classmates.

In the school cultural events, Roma excelled in both dance and songs. She was a heartthrob of school students, teachers and neighbors for her cultural performances. The introvert Roma, when in class seven, her was hobbies were watching movies in Arora (now Bani Cinema) Hall, listening to gramophone records. One day in the school, sitting on the desk during off-period, she told her class mates that one day she will leave behind her legendary history.

When in Patna, her uncle took her to a Sanashi. He predicted that one day she will become famous, rich and influential. Truly, she earned reputation, fame and economically solvent.

Marriage
The winds of India-Pakistan partition hype have touched everybody in Bengal. Her father decided to find a suitable bridegroom for Roma. The family members were visiting Puri. On their return home in Pabna, they briefly halted at a relative's home in Monohorpukur Road, Kolkata. There they got a proposal from an aristocrat family Adinath Sen, living in 32 Balygunge.

After Adinath Sen had seen Roma at Monohorpukur Road, his son Dibanath Sen also visited the home of her relative, suited and booted. He told his family, that he will only marry this woman, and nobody else. In 1947 they were married and Roma began her second phase of her life as house-wife. After couple of years, her in-laws were broke and in deep financial problem.

Her husband Dibanath Sen took Roma Sen to a studio in Park Street recording of a song. She was selected after an audition (test), but unfortunately, she did not become a singer. On the recording studio floor in Park Street, she was offered to be actress of proposed 'Sangket'. Unfortunately, she could not sign the contract with the director Pinaki Mukerjee, after her father-in-law Adinath Sen seriously objected to join the film world.

In 1952, the sun once again shone bright over her stardom. She acted as principal character in 'Shesh Katha' directed by Bireswar Basu after her father-in-law gave permission. However, Roma Sen's first movie, she acted as a heroine was 'Sath Nombor Koedi' released on February 7, 1953, but her director Sukumar Dasgupta assistant Nitish Rai suggested that her name should be Suchitra Sen. Since then she lost her original name Roma Dasgupta.

Her debut movie 'Sath Nombor Koedi' did not hit the box office. But she was shot into stardom, which brought her fame and money. Since then Suchitra Sen did not have to look back. Film historians argue, she is lucky that the two movies 'Sangket' and 'Shraban Sandha' were not her maiden movies, otherwise her name would not be Suchitra Sen today.

In her second black & white comedy movie 'Sharey Chuwattor', she paired with Uttam Kumar was released after 13 days of her first film. The movie was a major blockbuster. The Uttam-Suchitra pair together created 30 best movies in the golden era, which is till bracketed as classic movies. Suchitra acted in 60 movies, including six movies in Hindi in Bollywood, Mumbai. Her last movie 'Pronoy Pasha' released in 1978, was directed by Mangal Chakrabarti.

She also acted with film stalwarts Bikash Rai, Utpal Dutta, Bikash Rai, Soumitra Chatterjee, Deb Anand, Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Ashok Kumar, Sanjeeb Kumar and many others.

Home
Her favorite place in her Kolkata home for family interaction was her wide verandah, which was covered with bamboo curtains. Among few things she disliked, she hates to speak on the home phone. If nobody is around to pick a call, she used to change her voice and responded to the caller that Suchitra has gone outside or sleeping.

When she was asked why she hate to speak on the phone, she remarked "How much talking will I do, all day and night?" The phone keeps ringing continuously and if she answered all the hundred calls, spoke for a minute per call, then she will have to speak for a hundred minutes.

Awards
Suchitra(1955 - 2012) received countless numbers of awards and recognition at home and abroad. She was given the respected Film Fare Award for best actress in 'Debdas' (Hindi) in 1955. In 1963, she received the coveted Moscow International Film Festival for her best acting in 'Sath Pakey Badha'. Suchitra was the first Indian film actor/actress to receive the "Silver Prize For Best Actress" from Moscow Film Festival award in the foreign film category.

In 1972, the Indian government gave her the prestigious recognition 'Padmashree'. It was also known that in 2005, she was selected for Dada saheb Phalke Award, but unfortunately, by that time, she had decided not to appear in public, thus the award was never received. The last award, she physically appeared to receive was Film Fare Award for her outstanding performance in 'Ankhi' (Hindi) in 1976. Finally, the West Bengal government in 2012 bestowed her with a highest 'Bango Bhusan Special Award" for her contribution in film.

Migration
Months after Suchitra marriage in Kolkata in 1947, like millions of Hindus, with their pain in their hearts migrated from East Bengal (which became eastern province of Pakistan) to West Bengal in India. Her family finally moved to Bhubandanga near Rabindranath's abode Shantiniketon. The reason for moving to an unknown place, was for her aunt's husband who was living in Bhubandanga. It could not ascertain when Karunamoy Dasgupta, father of Suchitra left Pabna with bags and baggage. It is understood that it could be several months after the partition and Pakistan was already established. With his help, he got a job as Sanitary Inspector, in a newly established Bhubandanga Municipality.

For Roma, Bhubandanga became her second home and she visited several times before she christened as Suchitra Sen. At Bhubandanga, she acquired the skill on music from her relative Nilima Sen. Before her family moved to Bhubandanga, she only once visited Pabna after marriage in 1947.

Self Exile
Suchitra completely stayed away from public appearances from 1986 to 2014. Earlier she formally declared herself to retire from acting in movies since 1978, despite repeated appeals by doyen of film industry in Kolkata and Mumbai.
The death of legendary film actor Uttam Kumar in 1980 had shocked her so much that incident made her to further seclude her herself from public.

Never again she appeared in public events, family gatherings outside her home or even visiting any near and dear one'sat home or in hospitals. Suchitra Sen, the heartthrob of millions, died of lungs infection and acute respiratory problems on January 17, 2014. Millions of her admirers, well-wishers and fans cried in silence. Such actress, will never be reborn in Bengal, and never had born to replace the gigantic figure.