Veil lifts on grandma Suchitra I never said, I want to be alone. I only said, I want to be left alone.

There is a world of difference. Suchitra Sen? No, Greta Garbo. The screen goddess who was the most famous hermit of New York for years would often take long walks through the streets dressed in oversized clothes and wearing large sunglasses to avoid prying eyes. The screen goddess who has been the most famous hermit of Calcutta for three decades has confined herself to her Ballygunge Circular Road house, surrounding herself with a chosen few and immersing herself in a life of spirituality. Garbo wasnt a true recluse as she went out in public, said Rachel Dwyer, the British academic, author of a number of books

Then and now: Suchitra Sen. (Courtesy: Star Ananda) on Hindi cinema.

So, Suchitra has done a Garbo better than Garbo. The Mysterious Lady had been dragged back into the spotlight when semi-nude photos, taken with a long-range lens, were published in People in 1976. Trim and tranquil, the 71-year-old Garbo was enjoying a swim. The painted veil around Mrs Sen as she was known on the Tollywood floors was lifted briefly today when STAR Ananda beamed blurry images of her at home. In keeping with the best traditions of the Bangali thakuma GeneratioNext after all knows her as Raima-Riyas grandmother the 77-year-old was shown in a moment matronly and mundane. The first reaction was one of disbelief. But then one realised she looks just like what women our age do, said veteran actress Sabitri Chatterjee, 71. The howl from some devotees was how can Suchitra Sen be so old and so just like any other grandmother. So will a glimpse of todays Suchitra Sen shatter the three-decade-old enigma? Sanjay Mukhopadhyay, professor of film studies at Jadavpur University, thinks not. A myth was created around Greta Garbo when she went into oblivion. We too have created a myth around Suchitra Sen. Her aura is based on the photographic reality in our memory, it is built around her star status. It is huge and I dont think the real image on television can demystify her. Silver-haired and chubby, Suchitra seemed to have a kind of spiritual glow on her face, observed Sabitri. Sources in the Sen household said she does indeed spend her days surrounded by spiritual texts and is visited only by monks. Access is denied to all other outsiders by the core group of her daughter Moon Moon, son-in-law Bharat and her granddaughters. Her only link with filmdom is the work of Raima and Riya. Otherwise, she does not watch films and even makes it a point to turn off the TV or switch channels if an old movie of hers is showing, said a source. This can be explained by Dwyers analysis of the Garbo-Sen reclusion syndrome: Some stars, usually very beautiful, hate seeing themselves grow old. Some probably find it harder than the rest of us to deal with these changes. If Garbo had ruled the silver screen from 1920 to 1941 and then gone into shock retirement, Sen was the heartthrob of hundreds from 1953 to 1978 before slamming the doors shut on the world.

Its sad if people cant respect someone elses privacy. But no one can take away what my grandmother is and will always be, Riya said in the evening. She is right. Suchitra Sen is and will always be an enigma.
The Invisible Goddess Suchitra (Raima Sen)

We brought in my grandmother Suchitra Sen's 81st birthday on April 6 without much fanfare. We gathered at our Ballygunge home and ordered Chinese for lunch from Red Hot Chilli Pepper and a Mughlai dinner from Chote Nawab. She has been away from the public gaze for nearly two decades now. But people ask us all the time about my legendary grandmother and why she has chosen to live like a recluse. It requires tremendous willpower to be able to totally give up a life of stardom and we have always respected her privacy. Surprisingly, we have never once felt the need to discover the reason behind her decision. For me, she is just my Amma, someone I love to be around when I am home. As children, my sister Riya and I would stay over at her place on weekends or even go out with her after school. We would sometimes go to AC Market in Kolkata to buy little things such as pencil boxes and erasers and she would always wear sunglasses that would cover three-fourths of her face. She wore saris or salwar suits and a dupatta over her head. In spite of that, people would recognise her and chase her for autographs. When we were younger, we were surrounded by many beautiful women. Besides my superstar grandmother, of course, we had my mother (Moonmoon Sen), Gayatri Devi (my paternal grand aunt) and all the lovely ladies from the royal families of Cooch Behar and Jaipur. My father ensured that we had a normal upbringing and were not at all affected or awestruck. Seeing our mother dressing up for film shoots, our choice of profession was almost a given: We were seduced by the glamour of the job. Years later, after I had stepped into the world of films, I sat down to watch her films and was amazed by the dignity she exuded in each of her films. Her characters are so strongly imprinted in people's minds that I would never attempt to do something close to that. Just the fact that she came from a regular middle-class family and achieved so much is definitely a great source of inspiration. Among my grandmother's films that I like most are Harano Sur (Bengali, 1957), Saat Paake Bandha (Bengali, 1963), Aandhi (Hindi, 1975), and Datta (Bengali, 1976). She looks stunning in every frame, and manages to get maximum attention for her histrionics. Her bold yet restrained performances in each of them have been great acting lessons. Aarti Devi's character in Aandhi is my absolute favourite; the sophistication and elegance that she portrayed on screen is difficult to match. She had not seen any of our films until last year when she happened to catch Anuranan (Bengali, 2006) on television. Later she told me she had liked me so much in the film that she saw it four times and that I should work more often with Tony (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, director of Anuranan). When she expressed her desire to watch more of my films, I showed her Rituparno Ghosh's Noukadubi (Bengali, 2011), which she also liked very much. In fact, it

was my grandmother who read out to me both the texts of Noukadubi and Chokher Bali (Bengali, 2003) and helped me understand the characters well. When I was preparing for Kadambari's role in the yet-untitled documentary on Tagore (being directed by Rituparno Ghosh), she explained the character to me and how it is different from that of Hemnalini (of Noukadubi). Recently, I showed her some photographs of a shoot and she commented on how I should not have my hands so prominently in the frame because they take attention away from my face. She gives acting tips once in a while and shares innumerable anecdotes from her past, including those from her films with Uttam Kumar like Sare Chuattar (Bengali, 1953), Sagarika (Bengali, 1956), Pathey Holo Deri (Bengali, 1957), Chaowa Paowa (Bengali, 1959) and Saptapadi (Bengali, 1961). They would always try to upstage each other while delivering dialogues but it was all in jest. In those days, acting required a lot of struggle as well as determination and it was after her success that a showbiz career began to be respected. Nobody was allowed on her film sets; people were petrified of her, I guess. A few years ago, she refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award because she was not willing to step out to receive the award. Sometimes we tell her she should come along with us to Mumbai and although she says she will, we know that's never going to happen. She never really liked Mumbai and although she talks occasionally of Sanjeev Kumar, her co-star in Aandhi, as one of the greatest actors she has known, she could never make Mumbai her own. She has always loved Kolkata dearly. Now that she lives next door to us, we have our meals together whenever we are in Kolkata. I complain to her that I put on weight whenever I visit her because she stuffs me with so much food every time. She does not offer advice about diets but points out that I must go to the gym regularly. She does not meet anyone except her doctor and a few relatives, but she is extremely sharp and clued in to all that's happening around us. She reads voraciously, mostly Bengali literature, and spends a lot of time praying. Amma often comments about how I look so much like her. As for me, I am just happy to be her little doll.
Priyas Suchitra Coup

hat Union information & broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi has proposed, fellow Bengali Mrinal Sen seems set to dispose. Das Munshi wants the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award to go to the iconic actress Suchitra Sen this year, but Mrinal Sen has refused to play ball. Strictly, as he puts it, on grounds of principle. For it is he and other panel members who'll consider names and make a final recommendation to the ministry. "We haven't discussed Suchitra Sen's name at all. In fact, we're Sources yet to discuss names," an angry Sen told Outlook earlier this say I&B week. minister Das But that wasn't all; he threatened to resign from the Phalke award Munshi is trying committee if the minister or the ministry were to suggest Suchitra for a PR coup Sen's name now. "I will resign and so will the other three with the Phalke members of this panel (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, A. Nageshwar award for the Rao and Yash Chopra). What's the use of having us if the minister reclusive actress. decides the awardees? If they want us to consider someone for the award, they should let us know in private instead of making

suggestions through the media. We've taken strong exception to this," Sen added. But even without Mrinal Sen, Das Munshi's wish could be difficult to fulfil. For it is unlikely that Suchitra Sen would interrupt her nearly three-decade-long Garboesque disappearance from the public eye to come out and accept the award. Still, sources in Das Munshi's camp say he has already spoken to Suchitra's daughter Moon Moon and asked her to persuade the mother to accept the award in person. Now the question is, why is Das Munshi so set on getting the reclusive Suchitra Sen to accept the award in person? Many say the minister is trying for a public relations coupgetting the legendary star to reappear in publicthat would endear him to nostalgic Bengalis. At the least, it would allow him to bask in reflected glory for a long time to come. For Suchitra Sen is still a phenomenon that defies description. She may be 76, but countless Bengalis, right from contemporaries to GenNext teens, swoon at the very mention of her name. For them, Suchitra is what she was in, say, Saptapadia woman of hypnotic beauty, with chiselled features and a dramatic flair, a beguiling mixture of strength and vulnerability, innocence and wisdom; and the epitome of romantic appeal, especially paired with Uttam Kumar, that eternal hero of Bengali cinema. Her expressive eyes and luminous smile have cast a permanent spell on all Bengalis. "You look a bit like Suchitra," is still the best compliment you can pay a Bengali woman. And as she sang in that famous movie, "Ei path jodi na shesh hoi (What if this journey doesn't end?)," the Bengalis' affair with her seems set to go on forever. Says Gopal Krishna Ray, once a close companion of the actress, "She's truly the Greta Garbo of India. She stepped off the stage when her fame and beauty was at its peak because she wanted people to remember her as she was then. And she has succeeded in doing so. That's the reason behind the awe and esteem people hold her in today." Ray, incidentally, has written three books on Suchitra. Veteran journalist Amitabha Chaudhuri, a close friend till he wrote a book on her, recalls that Suchitra was always enigmatic, careful to keep a distance from most people. "She was temperamental and moody. At the same time, she could be very affectionate and caring. She was also an intensely religious person. She had some odd habits, like keeping all her shoes and sandals in her car. She would step out of the house in her bathroom slippers and then slip into one of these when she got out of the car," he recalls. Garbo too had such eccentricities. In fact, there are other eerie resemblances between the two. Garbo's father was a latrine-cleaner, Suchitra's father was a sanitary inspector. Both stars had disastrous marriages, both their husbands supported them in the early stages of their film careers, and both husbands died in foreign lands. Men played an important role in Suchitra Sen's life, both on and off screen. Little more can be said about the legendary Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen on-screen pairing. They made 30 films together and as film director Buddhadeb Dasgupta puts it, "The synergy between the two made them a pair that remains unparalleled in Indian cinema. They were just perfect for each other".

A wandering monk had awakened her spiritual interests when she was a child. Later, in the early 1970s, she got close to a senior Ramakrishna Mission monk, Bharat Maharaj. Many believe it was Bharat (who, incidentally, was also close to the Nehru-Gandhi family) who influenced her decision to retire from the tinsel world in 1978. Her husband, Dibanath Sen, was a marine engineer from an illustrious landed family, but given to drinking and gambling. He was the one who initially helped her get film roles, although her father-in-law Adinath Sen was also a source of encouragement. Still, it seems no one could ever get really close to her. "She would be warm and bubbly one moment, and suddenly turn cold and aloof the next," recalls Ray. Born Rama Devi, in 1930 at Pabna (now in Bangladesh), Suchitra acted in a dozen-odd Bengali films before her first first Hindi film, Devdas in 1955, with Bimal Roy (who was also related to her in-laws). She acted in 60 films (53 of them Bengali, though she never worked with Satyajit Ray or Ritwik Ghatak). Her seven Hindi films also include memorable roles in Bambai ka Babu, Mamta and the phenomenal Gulzar film, Aandhi, in which her character was closely modelled on Indira Gandhi. Her last film, Pranay Pasha (with Soumitra Chatterjee in 1978) was a flop, and she went into retirement immediately after that. In contrast to her on-screen sophistication and elan, in real life she is said to be a person with very spartan habits (a la Garbo)she eats frugal meals, sleeps on a narrow bed with a hard mattress, wears simple cotton sarees and spends her time reading, listening to music and in religious pursuits. Daughter Moon Moon's family stays in the next apartment, but no one, not even her granddaughters, the glamorous Riya and Raima, have unrestricted access to her. She seldom also steps out of her apartment. The Suchitra Sen mystique will remain intact, unless Priyaranjan Das Munshi has his way.

THE STUPID STING

There is something unacceptable in being unduly curious. On Saturday evening, a private TV channel in Bengali did what Mahabharata used to do in the late Eighties; it cleared the roads for people to scurry home to be glued to the telly. Why? Because the channel was airing an exclusive on Suchitra Sen, who had not been seen in public for more than three decades, zealously guarding her privacy. Now, let's face it: Bengal has still not got over its fascination with the Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen duo, 29 years after the man has died and when the old lady is pushing 80. Also, let us not forget here that Suchitra declined the Dadasaheb Phalke this year because she did not want to appear in public. So important is her privacy to her and her immediate family, led by the redoubtable daughter Moon Moon Sen who is as careful about not letting a fly inside her mother's apartment as the old lady herself.

But, somehow, and by whatever means the TV channel had procured some hazy, sting-like footage of a few seconds on Suchitra Sen, the Madam of Bengali cinema for now close to 55 years. The city was slightly disappointed; for one, the legendary beauty is no more though the dignity and grace is still apparent, her hair has turned all white and her face puffed up. She was the Bardot of Bngali cinema and if you see an old Bardot unable to even move her hands properly, you do not rejoice. Remember the collective sighs when the body of Marilyn Monroe was brought out for view with her face puffed up and pain apparent in her dead, suicidal face? And that is precisely what happened. As I said, sometimes there is something unacceptable in being unduly curious. It invariably kills the cat. The next morning, that is, Sunday, the biggest newspaper in Eastern India carried the same photograph of Suchitra. I had missed the previous evening's dampener but as I saw the huge five column picture on the front page, my hands immediately reached for my phone and I texted Moon Moon. What was happening? How had she allowed this after so many years of guarding her mom? Moon Moon was furious; she was out of town and said that she would talk after she returned to Kolkata in the evening. And no, she had no idea what was being aired but did have a clue that something nasty was going to happen. "What do I do? I had requested them not to air it," she texted helplessly. Now, I think I know Moon Moon a shade better than many journalists in Bengal. When she is angry, she is horrid, having myself faced several such occasions when she hasn't spoken to me for days only to pick up the phone and invite me for a drink later. She was the glamour doll of our younger years and that fascination, dream-like quality about her had remained. Like Moon Moon, I was equally indignant. As I watched the repeat telecast in the afternoon, I saw Suchitra Sen and like all Bengalis, I was curious too. But it didn't kill the cat because I knew the whole purpose behind the episode was to come one up on other channels and bolster the TRP rating. Nothing wrong in that; we do it in magazines, websites, newspapers so why not TV? The point here is different. Here is a lady who is legend with a capital L and here is a family which wants her to stay away from the glare of the public eye. The reason is simple: the lady just wants to be left alone. Now if it had been a politician accepting money to crossvote in Parliament, I would have had no objections. If it had been a screen villain being exposed to real life villainy about the casting couch, I would have rejoiced. But why tamper with legends and for no cause? Suchitra is not corrupt, neither does she give statements to the press every now and again challenging them to expose her. Then, why her? Just to show an old lady with white hair moving her hands for a few seconds and then disappearing only for that same footage to be repeated a hundred times over the next two hours? What sort of a sting was this? A small aside here. The same channel had got her when she was admitted late last year to the Belle Vue Clinic, arguably the best nursing home in town. Then the channel had budged, then TRP ratings were forgotten. Why? Because the Belle Vue administration had warned of serious consequences impinging on the nursing home's security considerations. The channel shied away. Why couldn't they show how healthy Suchitra was at that time? I say this because Saturday's programme was ironically called, "How is Suchitra now?" Wouldn't the footage of a healthy Suchitra Sen in Belle Vue been more compelling, more relevant? Of course not, at least for the TV channel, because then they would have faced unhappy times. Belle Vue is owned by the Birlas, by the way.

When I talked to Moon Moon in the evening, she was still livid but I could sense the desperation and frustration in her voice; she knew she could do nothing to that huge newspaper-TV conglomerate. "But why did they do this?" she asked me. I told her of the TRP ratings and she continued with her guesses as to who could have done it. She mentioned a few suspects but that is outside the purview of this blog posts. "I will find out," she signed off. Again, my point is different. This is not a detective story which concerns finding out. The question is one of morals which all of us journalists should be aware of and stick to. A few days ago, I myself published a transcript of my internet chat with writer Taslima Nasrin spread over a couple of hours though she hated me for that. But I had a point; knowing Taslima's mind is important for all of India Today's readers because she carried a baggage of politics. What baggage does Suchitra Sen carry except her shock of white hair? What quotes did she give when the footage was a silent collage of a few second with a streamer EXCLUSIVE running across the face every time the footage was shown? A dire attempt to conceal what had already been exhibited? A point of legalese, was it? Why the hell can't we let sleeping beauties lie?

After Pronoy Pasha (1978) with Soumitra Chatterjee flopped, Suchitra Sen disappeared from public space. No one knows what she looks like now. She does not attend telephone calls nor does she answer the door. She does not give interviews and has nothing to do with the rest of the world. Did the commercial flop of Pronoy Pasha trigger the withdrawal from public life? Or was it a step towards a life of spirituality, as one discovers through her sole outdoor sojourns to Ramakrishna Paramhamsas abode every now and then? Or did she become a social recluse because she wished to cut off completely from a glittering past so that her fans would remember her as the star she was rather than a woman who would mellow with age? Though she made her debut in Shesh Kothai (1952), the film was never released and the Bengali audience saw her for the first time in Saarey Chuattar (1953) in her first pairing with Uttam Kumar. Directed by Debaki Kumr Bose, Bhagaban Sri Krishna Chaitanya can easily be bracketed within the genre of musical film with strong biographical references to the life of the patron saint it depicted and was made both in Hindi and Bengali. One can see a very young and beautiful Suchitra Sen play the young wife of Shri Krishna Chaitanya portrayed by Basanta Choudhury. The film has very good musical score and wonderful songs. Deep Jele Jai belongs to a phase in Suchitra Sens career where she made her powerful presence felt without her constant screen companion Uttam Kumar to share screen space with. The film was a box-office hit without a romantic hero, though in a manner of speaking this is a tender love story set against the strange backdrop of a psychiatric nursing home. It is perhaps one major film that featured a female protagonist that in no way offered feminist slant on the film, story or character. Hospital, Uttar Phalguni, Saat Pake Bandha etc are films that projected her as an actress who could carry a film entirely on her shoulders with a strong, author-backed story and a good director. Indrani was the only film in the retrospective which paired Uttam Kumar with her. Saat Paake Bandha is the

first ever film in which a Bengali actress won an international award at Moscow. In Suchitrar Katha, Gopal Krishna Dey creates an image of the recluse actress who refused to collaborate or give interviews during his writing of the book. The book unfolds the story of a social recluse who has left stardom behind her to lead a life of spiritual loneliness relieved occasionally with her interactions with her daughter and two granddaughters. It is the strange story of a beautiful young girl who somewhat reluctantly stepped into films, became a star, but had to go through a broken marriage while trying to play the delicate balancing act between stardom and single motherhood.

Suchitra Sen is a living legend. She is the greatest star to have graced the Bengali screen. None of Bengali cinemas super stars, ranging from Supriya Devi to Madhabi Mukherjee through Aparna Sen to Rituparna Sengupta, has been able to reach anywhere near her charisma, glamour and audience pull. She queened over the world of Bengali cinema for more than 25 years. A major segment belongs to the magic chemistry of screen romance with Uttam Kumar. After Pronoy Pasha (1978) with Soumitra Chatterjee flopped, Suchitra Sen disappeared from public space. No one knows what she looks like now. She does not attend telephone calls, nor does she answer the door. She does not give interviews and has nothing to do with the rest of the world. Did the commercial flop of Pronoy Pasha trigger the withdrawal from public life? Or, was it a step towards a life of spirituality, as one discovers through her sole outdoor sojourns to Ramakrishna Paramhamsas abode every now and then? Or, did she become a social recluse because she wished to cut off completely from a glittering past so that her fans would remember her as the star she was, rather than a woman who would mellow with age?

Suchitra Sen in Devdas

She has shut herself out of the world that lies beyond the four walls of her spacious apartment, earlier a beautiful bungalow with a pretty garden of its own, where the famous Ritwik Ghatak once resided as tenant. She gave it away to real estate dealers and accepted four large apartments in a multi-storied estate. She lives in one of them. The rest she has willed away to Moonmoon, Raima and Ria. The four apartments are joined, but the one Suchitra Sen lives in is taboo for visitors. One has almost lost count of the number of biographies written by journalists and authors. Editorial compilations use her name and photograph on the cover to attract sales. A few years ago, a house in the southern extremes of Calcutta built exclusively for shooting films is named Suchitra Sen House. Satabdi Roy, a contemporary actress made her directorial debut with Abhinetri. The story bears a marked resemblance to Suchitra Sens life. It opens with a top Bengali star who had sequestered herself from the public for 25 years. Such is the charisma she still generates among her fans. There is nothing that can draw her out of her Ballygunge Circular Road apartment, not the top award for her contribution to cinema, not daughter Moonmoon Sen, nor her two granddaughters, Raima and Ria. In Suchitrar Katha, Gopal Krishna Dey creates an image of the recluse actress who refused to collaborate or give interviews during his writing of the book. The book unfolds the story of a social recluse who has left stardom behind her to lead a life of spiritual loneliness relieved occasionally with her interactions with her daughter and two grand-daughters. It is the strange story of a beautiful young girl who somewhat reluctantly stepped into films, became a star, but had to go through a broken marriage while trying to play the delicate balancing act between stardom and single motherhood.

Suchitra Sen in Aandhi Suchitra Sen was an era, writes journalist Ranjan Bandopadhyay in Suchitra Sen Ebong Ananya, (Deep Prakashan, Calcutta, 2001). It is a term never been used before or after to define any film persona in the country, not even Uttam Kumar or Amitabh Bachchan. Yet, Suchitra Sen never won a National Award. Her work was never targeted at awards. The Moscow International Film Festival could not ignore her unforgettable performance in Saat Paake Bandha as a woman deeply in love with her husband but forced into a life of separation and loneliness brought on by her ever-interfering and affluent mother. Her debut was in Shesh Kothai (1952). She was paired with Uttam Kumar for the first time in Saarey Chuattar (1953), an effervescent comedy marking a breakthrough in director

Nirmal Deys career. The two turned into overnight icons of Bengali romantic melodrama, sustaining the on-screen chemistry for more than twenty years. It created a distinct genre unto itself. They starred in 30 films, beating the Spencer Tracy-Audrey Hepburn pair hollow. When the young and beautiful Suchitra Sen emotes a love scene with Uttam Kumar in Chaoa-Paoa, Pathey Holo Deri, Alo Amar Alo, Shaaede Chuattar, Kamallata, the electrically charged feelings between them come across so tangibly that one can stretch ones hand to touch them. Their films were famous for soft-focus close ups, particularly Sens, and lavishly mounted scenes of romance against windswept expanses and richly decorated interiors with fluttering curtains and such mnemonic objects such as bunches of tuberoses etc. Some popular films of the pair include Shap Mochan (1955), Sagarika (1956), Harano Sur (1957), Saptapadi (1961), Bipasha (1962) and Grihadah (1967). T

Suchitra Sen in Devdas Bengali Film Pathey Holo Deri (1982) was re-released almost 20 years after its first release. It celebrated a silver jubilee run! To generate this magic chemistry, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen did not need even a single lip-to-lip kiss. Suchitra would almost always be draped in a sari with a sleeved blouse. She did not need to show skin, or flash a thigh or reveal a cleavage to exude sex appeal. It was all there in her beautiful face, said Uttam Kumar once. She is so beautiful that thousands come to the theatres just to look at her face. Where can you get a photogenic face like that? Roma is the most beautiful, the most glamorous among all my leading ladies, he said in an interview, adding, I have been lucky to have had the exclusive right to be cast as the man she fell in love with, typically placing all the credit at the door of his heroine. Every film starring the pair ended with the two going into a tight clinch. For the audience, it was happily ever after. That was all the physical intimacy they needed to send their fans into a tizzy. So, in her later days, when she crooned as a cabaret artist in some old film, the outcome was pathetic.

Suchitra Sen Solo Three Suchitra Sens childhood is shrouded in mystery. Some say she studied in Santi Niketan. She grew up in distant Pabna, miles away from Bolpur in Birbhum district in West Bengal. Her maternal uncle B.N.Sen lived in Bolpur with his family. She would often come to stay with them. For some time during her early childhood, she lived with her maternal uncles family in Patna. She was born in Pabna, originally in the northern parts of undivided Bengal and now in Bangladesh, on April 6. She was the fifth among three brothers and five sisters. Her fathers name was Karunamoy Dasgupta and her mothers name was Indira. Her nickname was Krishna. When she was admitted to Pabna Girls High School, her father entered Roma as her name in the admission form. She was noted for her beauty since she was a child. In 1947, her beauty heralded an early marriage to Dibanath Sen, son of judge who lived in Calcutta. Suchitra is perhaps the first Indian actress in Bengal to have made her debut after marriage and motherhood. The year of her birth is somewhat clouded because some sources trace it back to 1931. Other sources quote 1934 as the year. Nitish Roy, assistant director in one of her earliest films, christened her Suchitra in 1952.

Suchitra Sen Solo-Tribute Suchitra Sens was a beautiful, oval face, with large, almond-shaped eyes, a beautiful mouth, a long, graceful neck and lustrous black hair falling all the way down to her waist. She

presented the typical Bengali girl stereotype with her sari draped around her slender frame to reveal the contours of a soft feminine body that appeared more sensuous because it was concealed, a loose lock of hair that fell over her forehead and which she moved away with the back of her hand. There was instant audience identification with the Suchitra-Uttam pairing. That is why it was such a big hit. She was quick to silence people who felt she would fail to pull a film without Uttam Kumar. She came out with diverse and layered performances in films that did not pair her with the matinee idol. Among these are: Hospital opposite Ashok Kumar, Deep Jwele Jai with Basant Choudhury, Smriti Tuku Thaak (double role) with Asit Baran, Utttar Phalguni (double role) with Bikash Roy and Dilip Mukherjee, Sandhya Deeper Shikha (Dilip Mukherjee) and Saat Paake Bandha with Soumitra Chatterjee. Contemporary filmmaker Ashoke Viswanathan says, The comparison with Greta Garbo comes uppermost in mind whenever one is asked about why and how Suchitra Sen withdrew from the big screen more than 20 years ago. But the similarity between the two ends there. Suchitra Sen was not an actress with pre-eminent abilities. She had many mannerisms and unlike her screen partner Uttam Kumar, who kept on improving himself and innovating constantly, Suchitra failed to grow. She got caught in her own matrix of fiction. She had already transcended her peak because her last film, Pronoy Pasha was a complete washout. In Datta, at 50-plus she was portraying a girl of 17 and was not able to carry that aura of a teenager at all. She was more conscious about her beautiful image than anything else. I do not think she would have contributed in any way to the cinema of today. She acquired starry hang-ups. She never permitted anyone to address her by her first name. Everyone called her either Madame or Mrs. Sen. Uttam Kumar is perhaps the only person within the industry who sometimes called her Roma. A story goes that when a very senior and respected character actor, by virtue of his seniority and his position in the industry called her by her first name, she raised her index finger at him and asked him point-blank: who gave you the right to call me by my first name? leaving the shooting floor speechless with shock. Asked to comment on her voluntary withdrawal from films, noted director Tarun Majumdar says: Looking back, I feel that her decision to withdraw so completely from the screen was a very private one. It was a bit premature, I think. However, looking back, in view of the state of mainstream Bengali cinema today, it appears to have been a wise decision. Had she been active in films now, she might have been forced to put in mediocre performances in mediocre films. We then would not have discussed her the way we now do, turning her into a living legend and talking about her as if she has passed on yonder. What does daughter Moonmoon have to say? I respect and take pride in my mother not only because she entered films when very little technical know-how was available to play tricks with her looks and with her performance, but also because long before the hoo-haa about womens liberation began, she stood for the triumphant woman who won over her male peers. She brought respectability to her profession at a time when there was little of it to pass around. I respect her because she has defined herself as a legend in her lifetime something even Uttam Kumar cannot boast of since he is no more. She was a woman who held herself with dignity through her long career. She has proved that she is a true sophisticate, in the manner in which she gave up her career when she did, proving her unwillingness to be greedy and thus keep the magic intact. She placed great importance to a good and solid education in

my upbringing and I am grateful to her for that. She insisted that I learn drawing and painting and I completed my masters too, thanks to my mother. Suchitra Sen became a nationally renowned actress with a few meaningful Hindi films. Two of them are Gulzars Aandhi, based on an original story by Kamleshwar and Mamta, directed by the late Asit Sen, where she portrayed the two diametrically opposite characters of the kothewalli mother of a sophisticated daughter who is a barrister. The film was the Hindi version of the original Bengali film Uttar Phalguni that turned out to be a box office hit. In Aandhi, one could see in the character she played, glimpses of the mannerisms and characteristics of Indira Gandhi. Released during the Emergency, the film created a storm within the prime ministerial office and was briefly banned briefl because Mrs. Gandhi who was then the PM, felt it would carry negative reflections of the PM. When this writer spoke to Kamleshwar about who his inspiration for the story really was, he had a good laugh and confessed that it was fashioned after Rani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur and Mrs. Gandhi was nowhere in his mind when he wrote it. Suchitra Sen insists that she did not fashion the character after Mrs. Gandhi. I do not believe in imitating. As an actress, I believe in creating and I created the character out of my own feelings and belief of what the character should look like, how she should walk, talk and so on, she summed up in response to a question from her school friend Phoolrani Kanjilal who has written a book on the actress as a schoolgirl.

After she retirement, she took deeksha from Swami Bireshwarananda, then-President of Ramkrishna Math and Ramkrishna Mission. She had a close bonding with Bharat Maharaj. She visited the Ramkrishna Math at Belur, a few kms away from Calcutta, and the Dakshineswar Temple in the northern extremes of Calcutta. She would also visit another branch of the Ramkrishna Mission at Anantapur in Hooghly district. She would sit at the feet of the sanyasis and listen to their chants and prayers. She would sit on the floor with them and partake of the prasad after the prayers and chanting were over. In all these years, she stepped into public domain only twice. One was in July 1980, when Uttam Kumar died. The second time was when Bharat Maharaj passed away His death seemed to shatter her completely. Some time after this, she stopped visiting these places too. Strange, yet true that all this has enhanced the mystique of Suchitra Sen, instead of making it fade away.

LEAVING THE SAME OLD IMAGE WONT Show them my OLD AGE! Avoiding things - Psychological