Entertainment News Desk!! Uttam Kumar (English: Uttam Kumar; Born- 3 September, 1926, Kolkata, Bengal; Died- 24 July, 1980, West Bengal) was a famous actor of English and Bengali films in Indian cinema. His original name was ‘Arun Kumar Chatterjee’. Uttam Kumar, who mainly worked in Bengali cinema, was an actor as well as a film director, producer, singer and musician. Just as the pair of Raj Kapoor and Nargis is remembered in English cinema, in the same way Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen had no competition in Bengali cinema. Uttam Kumar has been given the title of ‘Mahanayak’ in Bengali cinema.
Uttam Kumar, the superstar of Bengali films, was born in British India on 3 September 1926 in Bhawanipur, Calcutta (now Kolkata) in his ancestral house on Girish Mukherjee Road. He received his schooling from ‘South Suburban School (Main)’ in Kolkata. After this, he took admission in ‘Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration’ affiliated to ‘University of Kolkata’ for higher education. But Uttam Kumar could not complete his studies and got a job as a clerk in ‘Calcutta Port Trust’.
Actor Uttam Kumar’s first film as a hero was ‘Drishtidan’, which was directed by famous director Nitin Bose. His pairing with Suchitra Sen was well liked. His films with Suchitra like ‘Saptapadi’, ‘Pauthe Holo Deri’, ‘Harano Sur’, ‘Chava Pawa’, ‘Bipasha’, ‘Jeevan Trishna’ and ‘Sagarika’ were very popular. Along with Bengali, he also acted in many English films, such as-
Just like the pair of Raj Kapoor and Nargis is remembered in English cinema, similarly Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen were unmatched in Bengali cinema. They expressed love with such intensity in their acting that the audience was stunned. This was the reason why the audience never got bored of this pair. Both of them spread the colors of their acting in thirty films for two decades and most of these films were successful at the box office. Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen once again took the business of Bengali cinema upwards, because when they entered Bengali cinema, the condition of the film industry there was bad. In such a situation, the stardom of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen made a mark among the audience and Bengali films started becoming successful again.
The pairing of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen became successful with the film ‘Agnipariksha’. Both of them romanced so passionately in the film that many people started considering them husband and wife. Due to the way they used to romance on the silver screen, even today many people believe that Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen were in love. The audience liked to see both of them as a happy couple on screen. In the film ‘Shilpi’, Uttam Kumar’s character was shown dead at the end and due to this the film flopped. Suchitra and Uttam Kumar were excellent actors. When both of them worked together, their acting would shine even more. They played many different roles and made them memorable with their excellent acting. Both of them used to say a lot without saying anything and the screen used to start shining in their romantic scenes. The songs filmed on them were superhits.[1]
Uttam Kumar died on 24 July 1980 in West Bengal. In Kolkata, there is an ‘Uttam Theatre’ named after him in Hazra area and a huge statue of him has been installed on the road square in front of Tollygunge Tram Depot. In the year 2009, Tollygunge Metro Station has been named ‘Mahanayak Uttam Kumar’. Uttam Kumar’s only son Gautam Kumar Chatterjee (deceased) was a businessman. He was not interested in films, but Uttam’s grandson Gaurav acted in Bengali films. His wish was that he should die while acting and that is what happened. He died of a heart attack in 1980 during the shooting of ‘O Go Bodhu Sundari’.
