Birth anniversary special! Subhendu Chatterjee and his 5 priceless reel moments

The black and white era still remains the golden era of Bengali cinema and Subhendu Chatterjee was one of the most cherished actors of the ’70s. When Subhendu Chatterjee who graduated with an MBBS degree in 1960 from Calcutta Medical College stepped into the cinematic universe in 1965 with ‘Akash Kusum’ and ‘Kanch Kata Hirey’, the silver screen was already ruled by two superstars of Bengal Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee. Yet, people noticed him. His calm innocence and tall dark looks earned a respectable female fan following.

At his peak, Subhendu used to be bracketed with both Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee. He shared screen space with Uttam in the cult classics like ‘Chowringhee’ and ‘Chaddobeshi’. Life as an actor came to a full circle for the handsome man when 33 years after he had starred in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’, he returned to reprise his role in Goutam Ghose’s ‘Abar Aranye’.

On his 83rd birth anniversary, we revisit five memorable performances from a career spanning almost four decades.

Perhaps the most star-studded film in the history of Bengali cinema, Pinaki Bhushan Mukherji’s ‘Chowringhee’ saw Subhendu Chatterjee as the narrator. He excelled playing a common man alongside the iconic Sata Bose (Uttam Kumar), the rich flamboyant Anindya Pakrashi (Biswajit) and the mesmerizing Karabi Guha (Supriya Devi). His chemistry with Karabi is still one of the best examples of a mature and sensitive friendship between two persons who can never be on the same boat, yet understand each other’s melancholy.

This was Subhendu Chatterjee’s second film with Satyajit Ray after ‘Chiriakhana’ (1967). ‘Aranyer Din’ also starred Soumitra Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh and Samit Bhanja in the lead. Subhendu played the character of Sanjoy effortlessly with his calm, composed demeanour. While Soumitra essayed the suave and a bit arrogant Ashim with ease, Rabi Ghosh epitomized the contrasting appearance of Shekhar and Samit Bhanja mastered the brash and wild Hari, Subhendu superbly balanced these dominating features with his reasonable avatar.

After ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’, Subhendu Chatterjee once again appears as Sanjoy in Goutam Ghose’s Abar Aranye, along with members of the next generation of Ray’s film characters. Sanjoy, an author by now, again looked the wisest among others with his farsightedness. He was also represented like a reservoir of knowledge in world politics at that time. His nervousness while recalling a thrilling encounter with Jaya (Kaberi Bose) in a significant moment in ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ looked hard-hitting and real.

The acting genius impersonates Anjan, a successful singer, in this Purnendu Roy Choudhury directed comedy. Although the Bengali film is remembered for Bhanu Bandopadhyay and Jahar Roy’s class act of comedy, Subhendu getting into an unavoidable situation when a young lady Nupur (Lily Chakravorty) escapes from her house in Delhi and takes shelter in his car is the most sweetest thing you would ever see in any romantic comedy film.

Its true Uttam Kumar ruled the screen in this iconic comedy directed by Agradoot but Subhendu Chatterjee effortlessly brought in a breath of fresh air with his brilliant act of romance and desperation in innocent comic moments. He plays Subimal, a physics professor and friend and colleague of Uttam Kumar's character, a botany professor Abanish. It’s so adorable to see Subhendu as Subimal not giving up on his romantic pursuit.