Uttam Kumar blazed like a meteor and vanished like one.
Bengal's classiest filmstar was shrouded in mysteries. I never met him but heard countless stories about the person and his acting prowess. And his temperament.
A new book has hit the stands. It is on bars and the Kolkata Maidan, the huge green cover that is home to some iconic football clubs, the Eden Gardens cricket stadium, and the majestic Victoria Memorial.
It talks about various places in Maidan where top writers, filmmakers, and thinkers would go to drink, some even carrying small bottles of whisky in their pockets. The author, Rahul Purakayastha, refers to Bimal Deb's poem, Uttamkumarer morning walk which translates into Uttam Kumar's morning walk, and writes that the actor saw Calcutta policemen shooting three people at point-blank range in the maidan. Those killed - it was nothing but an act that later came to be known as encounter killing - were Naxalites. Among those shot dead was seasoned Naxalite leader Saroj Dutta.
Uttam Kumar, probably threatened by the Calcutta Police brass, quietly left Calcutta and shifted to Mumbai. Apparently, Uttam had narrated the incident to some of his confidants who, in turn, alerted the cops. Once the dust settled down, he returned to Calcutta and started shooting for a host of films he had signed.
Yet, you will not find a single person in Kolkata who will say the star was a coward and did not raise the issue of the early morning killings in Maidan with the state government.
Uttam Kumar was the darling of the masses in Bengal, who had christened him Mahanayak - superstar. No male actor in Bengal could reach the status Uttam Kumar had reached in a span of three decades. He acted in over 200 films.
He was a man of varying moods. He once got up from the dining table and started walking in the main road because his second wife, Supriya Chowdhury, did not prepare a particular dish the star had requested. Crowds started gathering in hundreds, then thousands, seeing their top star walking in the streets all by himself. A distraught Supriya started following her husband, she forgot to wear her shoes. Soon, the tar-laced hot streets of Calcutta were making things difficult for her. Supriya, reportedly, was weeping profusely and asking her husband to pardon her for the lapse.
Eventually, cops from the Park Street police station rushed to the scene and senior officers told Uttam Kumar that he needs to get into the police jeep, or else there could be a major stampede. It is rumoured that Uttam Kumar did not speak to his wife for over a week after this incident.
There are countless stories revolving around this handsome star. I heard from some senior actors in Kolkata how Uttam Kumar would not get a bypass surgery done to control his heart ailments. He told his friends how can a doctor cut up the chest of a star, and take a look at his heart. Won't the star look horrible after the operation, asked Uttam Kumar. The doctors felt silent.
I have been researching for a book on Uttam Kumar and have been told some interesting stories about the actor. One revolved around his failed attempt to make a mark in Bollywood with Choti Si Mulaqat featuring Vaijayantimala Bali. The movie was released in a few theatres in Bombay and elsewhere in India. There were rumours that the all-powerful Kapoor family messed up the show, ostensibly because Uttam Kumar had refused a role Raj Kapoor had offered him in Sangam. The role, eventually, went to Rajendra Kumar but Raj Kapoor remembered the rejection. This was the second rejection, Uttam Kumar had rejected an earlier offer to act in the lead role of Jagte Raho. Uttam Kumar could never make any mark in Bombay (now Mumbai).
Now it's strange how Uttam Kumar failed in Mumbai where stars like Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan were big fans of Uttam Kumar's style of acting. I read somewhere Uttam Kumar was also included in the cast of Ajnabi which was directed by Shakti Samanta. But when the movie eventually hit the theatres, Uttam Kumar was not among the stars.
The Bombay misadventure messed up Uttam Kumar. The actor faced huge financial losses and had to sell off some of his properties to clear the dues. And it was then he suffered his first heart attack. What was worse, those who messed up his life in Bombay were none other than his Bengali friends from Calcutta. A month after, Uttam Kumar, during a shoot, told his cameramen friends to shoot him behind a large, artificial spider web. After the shoot was over and the prints hit the newspapers, Uttam Kumar told Supriya that this was his life's story. "Everyone wants to put a web around me," he told Supriya. He was also upset because Soumitra Chatterjee, his junior and a rival, often told people that the top Bengali actress should have been paired with him and not with Uttam Kumar. But directors thought otherwise.
I had met with Supriya a year before she died. She sat down and narrated some wonderful stories about her life and times with the legendary superstar. Those were the black-and-white trailblazer days of Bengali cinema, there was no WhatsApp, no Insta, yet his movies did brilliantly well.
Supriya laughed when she said how difficult it was for her to keep Uttam Kumar away from women who would crowd his shooting studios. "What was funny was that everyone wanted to marry him almost instantly."
Supriya was under severe medication while she spoke to us. Every five minutes she would take a break, drink some water, and say she normally doesn't give interviews without cash. She was doing it only because it was all about Uttam Kumar. I didn't know how much I should have paid her. I realised I had not carried the customary sweets during my visit.
But the veteran actress poured her heart out. She narrated some 25 small stories that I plan to carry in my book before each chapter. One revolved around Uttam Kumar's worshipping of Lakshmi, the Indian goddess of wealth, with loads of fanfare at his home. He - claimed Supriya - had a vision of the goddess on his terrace. And then, the superstar was encouraged to see a white owl that visited his home every evening for a week before the puja. The white owl is considered auspicious in India because it is the carrier of the goddess.
Another, interestingly, was how Uttam Kumar never wanted her to wear a nightgown in bed. He insisted she wear a saree, not necessarily a new one, before hitting the bed. I thought it a little bizarre; how can you handle a saree in bed? But then, that's what stars are made of. Their style, whims, and fancies are totally different from the rest.
Uttam Kumar, said Supriya, was indeed handsome. His title role in Satyajit Ray'sNayak, which translates to The Star, was one of his finest. I was told Elizabeth Taylor was impressed seeing him on screen and wanted to meet him. It never happened. Worse, in Calcutta, Soumitra Chatterjee - a favourite of Ray - asked his friends how Ray could pick Uttam Kumar and not him for the movie. He probably did not have the courage to ask Ray.
The legendary director has himself recounted the premiere of Nayak and how Uttam looked super smart in a new suit and Supriya looked ravishing in a beautiful saree. Expectedly, the crowds went berserk after the movie, and Ray lost control. The fans tore off a portion of the star's suit and the cops had to rescue him and take him to Oberoi Grand. Ray said in one of his interviews that he finally realised why Uttam was considered the biggest star of Bengal, the first one to get a national award after it was instituted.
It is a pity he died so young; he was in his early fifties. Liquor and an erratic lifestyle had messed up his life, he was no longer handsome. Uttam Kumar realised his time was almost up, he suffered a severe heart attack on the sets of Ogo Bodhu Sundori.
Two incidents that happened just before he died will stay with me forever. One, his favourite makeup room was offered to a top Bollywood star, and Uttam Kumar was made to wait. He didn't like it at all and said if there is a door to enter life, there is a door to exit. And that he knew the exit. The second one revolved around Punu Sen, who worked very closely with Ray. Uttam Kumar had asked Sen if Ray had some roles for him and that he didn't like the roles offered to him.
Two days after his conversation with Sen, Uttam Kumar breathed his last amidst some serious rumours that a lifesaving drug was not offered to him when he was hovering between life and death.
Why? No one has the answer.
Only Supriya told me before winding up the interview: "Remember one thing, someone who is stretched between multiple women can never live a peaceful life. He will always be tormented."
Supriya should know, she was a big slice in the life and times of Bengal's biggest movie star.
Shantanu Guha Ray's book, Uttam Kumar: The Star, will hit the stands in March 2024. It will have 25 exclusive stories about the star, narrated by Supriya Chowdhury.
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.
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