For Soumitra Chatterjee, hockey remained the first love

KOLKATA: While most youngsters in his age group loved football, Soumitra Chatterjee demonstrated a penchant for hockey as a student of City College. A student of the Bengali department, Pulu (Chatterjee’s pet name) was more interested in hockey and other games, but wasn’t quite keen on football.
“We heard that he was a good sportsman who played several sports and was particularly good in hockey,” said Siddhartha Majumdar, a teacher of the college, adding, “None of Chatterjee’s teachers are around, but our institution is proud of him.”
Majumdar said that during the institution’s 125th anniversary celebration, footballer P K Banerjee — another illustrious alumnus of the college — had mentioned Chatterjee’s interest in sports.“In the college publication, Banerjee fondly recollected their time, saying Chatterjee would be a regular at the football practice sessions, but only to watch from a distance,” said Majumdar.
The actor’s classmate, Nityapriya Ghosh, a former PR executive, recalled the time they spent together during the recesses and between classes at Calcutta University. “He studied in the Bengali department while I was a student of English. Yet, we would frequently have long adda sessions where Pulu was the focus of our attention. He had tons of witty jokes to share, which were popular in his hometown in Krishnagore. But before he could earn his master’s degree, Pulu was forced to discontinue studies due to other responsibilities,” Ghosh said.
He added that though both the actor and Anil Chatterjee were shortlisted by the All India Radio as broadcasters, Pulu finally got the job after Anil Chatterjee left to pursue his career in cinema. “Soumitra didn’t have to wait long either. Soon, he also left his job to join the movies when the shooting for ‘Apur Sansar’ began,” Ghosh said.
Sandhya Majumder, a friend of the actor in Nadia’s Krishnagore — where he grew up — said he loved sour curd at the end of his meal.
“But he never liked chicken or spicy food. I would cook for him whenever he visited Krishnagore. Once, he visited with his wife and the three of us enjoyed a long conversation while sipping tea in the late afternoon. Pulu visited me 15 years ago, but he called me two months ago to know how I was doing and asked if I needed anything.”
Chatterjee’s home in Krishnagore was known as ‘Sudha Nilay’. According to some neighbours, Mac Arther, principal of Krishananagar CMS School, was Chatterjee’s first acting teacher. Chatterjee studied at the school till Class V before shifting to Howrah where he enrolled at the Howrah Zilla School.
“He had appeared in the matriculation examination from the school in 1952. He was a meritorious student and a good athlete, interested in long jump and high jump. He would also regularly participate in acting and recitation programmes in school,” said principal Amol Kumar Sil.
(Inputs from Ashis Poddar in Krishnagore & Rupak Banerjee in Howrah)