The Queen of Hearts

Suchitra Sen (1931-2014), An actress for 26 years, Born in Pabna, 59 Films: 7 Hindi, 52 Bangla, 30 with Uttam Kumar

Somewhere between the 1950s and the 1970s lie an era known as the Golden Age of Bangla Cinema. This isn't just a figment of imagination of nostalgic lovers of the cinema of yesteryears – that era saw a tremendous growth in the number of films released and brought never-seen-before numbers of people to cinemas. This was a time when the Bangla movies had a proud and bold character of their own, complete with their own stories and stars that were loved so dearly that they did not need to compete for a place amongst international films. If there is one icon which symbolizes that Golden Age, it is Suchitra Sen, the Queen of Hearts. Her roles in memorable films like 'Agnipariksha', 'Devdas' and 'Saat Paake Bandha' are used as examples in the industry even today. She was a personality like no other. Not only was she the first Bengali actress to demand a separate title card in the credits for herself, but more importantly she was the first Bengali actress who would garner and command a respect not only for her but for an entire breed of actresses along with her. She passed away on 17 January 2014 at the age of 82.

 

MOVIE MAGIC
Starting off in 1952 with Shesh Kothay which never got a release, Suchitra Sen came to the limelight the following year with two very different roles - as Bishnupriya, the wife of Sri Chaitanya deb in Bhagaban Srikrishna Chaitanya and as Romola in the hilarious and an evergreen box-office hit Saare Chuattor. Saare Chuattor is the film which launched the Suchitra Sen - Uttam Kumar pair even though they were not the main attraction of the film. The rest of the '50s saw history being made in the Bengali film industry with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen being the first superhit couple on screen. They left behind a legacy which no other stars till date can match. It is interesting to note that during this first decade itself it was Suchitra who ventured outside of Bengal to the Hindi film industry in Bombay - a phenomenon not prevalent among Bengal actors back then. Most notable amongst these is Sen's remarkable portrayal as Paro in Bimal Roy's legendary Devdas (1955) which immediately brought her into national limelight. Two years later Suchitra featured in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's debut Hindi film Musafir which was written by none other than Ritwik Ghatak. In 1960 Suchitra Sen paired opposite of Dev Anand in Bombai ka Babu and Sarhad making her an eminent presence in Indian cinema. Also amongst acclaimed works, including many others, are Harano Sur (1957) and Aandhi (1975); Suchitra plays the memorable role of Indira Gandhi in the latter.
 

THE MYSTERY OF HER CRAZE
People say fashions fade, but style is eternal. If that is so, then Suchitra was the most fashionable and glamorous leading lady ever to grace the screen of Bangla cinema. This is quite a mystery, really. Most critiques have said that Suchitra Sen's acting, was all about camera angles, often too stilted. She didn't have her most common costar, Uttam Kumar's easy charm. How did she do it? Her roles were not diversified – she played similar characters in movies and did not explore outward in newer roles. Bengal itself produced far greater actors than Suchitra. But only Suchitra had beauty so magnetic that you could not look away from her when she appeared on the big screen. “There are at least three versions of Devdas,” says historian Rani Shankardass. “But Suchitra Sen was the best. “ Shankardas' face softens at the memory. She says even her seclusion had its beauty. “There was grace in her bowing out. You have to know when to bow out.” And her perfection wasn't even close to perfect. She was slightly cock-eyed or what's fondly called “Laskhmi-tyera” in Bangla. Yet her imperfections somehow only added to her luminosity. “When Suchitra smiled, the way she curled that upper lip, it was just magical,” says Sanjoy Roy. How the craze of Suchitra Sen lived on for so long, even after becoming a recluse after 1978, will remain a rare mystery. Suchitra Sen might not be one of the best actresses of Bangla cinema but she will always be one of its brightest and most glamorous stars.
 

MRS. SEN'S RECLUSION FROM PUBLIC LIFE
After her film Pranay Pasha flopped in 1978, Suchitra Sen chose to leave the limelight with a ferocity that has become the stuff of legend. She could have played motherly senior roles. She could have been a judge at reality shows. She could have launched and inaugurated hundreds of art exhibitions and new brands. But she didn't. She chose to delete herself from the public view. In a world where celebrities thinks that ten minutes outside the limelight means out of mind of the audience, Suchitra became even more famous by becoming invisible, earning her the title of 'Greta Garbo of Bollywood.' Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Rachel Dwyer explains, "There may be two major reasons - one is that 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. However, others may want to escape their own beauty and the image of them created by publicity in the media or made by their studios and the public's concept of them created by the roles and the way they were presented in the films themselves." There have been umpteen attempts by the press to bring her out, to get a glimpse of her private life, to demystify the mystery. The extent of Suchitra Sen's reclusion becomes clear at her refusal to accept the Dada Shaheb Phalke award - the highest conferred by the Government of India in the field of cinema in 2005, only because she did not want to receive the award in person!
 

UTTAM-SUCHITRA'S CHEMISTRY
In the 1950s and 1960s, there seemed to be no other news that found the same buzz in Bengal except the breathtaking Suchitra Sen, particularly when she appeared on screen with her onscreen partner Uttam Kumar. Suchitra Sen was married. No one knew, not because it was a secret, but because no one cared: Suchitra and Uttam possessed chemistry which science could not explain. Her real life marriage seemed irrelevant. The question Suchitra has faced most from reporters and the media was about her real feelings towards Uttam Kumar, and in her life of 82 years, not a single person has gotten her to respond to that question. They have acted in 30 films together, roughly half of all films Suchitra has acted in, and trying to quote which film amongst those 30 was better than the other is a fool's errand. Once you watch a few and fall in love with the couple, you won't be judging which is better, you'll only want to the watch the next one and wait for them to fall in love on screen again, and again, and again. And perhaps the unverified rumour that Suchitra Sen asked to spend the final days of her life in the same hospital and in the same cabin in which Uttam Kumar passed away three decades ago on 24 July 1980 shouldn't come as a surprise.