A courageous attempt to immortalise the life and times of actor Uttam Kumar by author and academic Sayandeb Chowdhury has resulted in a nuanced, emotional and lucidly written book, Uttam Kumar: A Life in Cinema (Bloomsbury; Rs 1,299). An assistant professor at Ambedkar University New Delhi, Chowdhury grew up on a steady diet of the hero’s films, as is natural in every Bengali household.
Commenting on the use of a simple, breath-taking writing style, he said, “He (Uttam Kumar) was a popular star and I couldn’t have foreclosed the gates at the very beginning by using a language that is too academic in its nature. However, the content of the book is deeply researched to cater to a more informed audience as well.”
The book opens cinematically with a telephonic exchange between Satyajit Ray and Uttam Kumar after the release of Nayak, and the subsequent stampede-like crowd outside the cinema hall when the public gets the news of the latter’s imminent arrival at the theatre. Such was the stardom that people were known to travel miles to see the man!
Anecdotes and trivia aside, here is a book that looks at Uttam Kumar, the man who rose to fame, faltered, picked himself up again, and just kept moving along with the sedate grace of a poised actor whose natural talents on screen would put stalwarts to shame. Delving deep into his inability to make a breakthrough in Bollywood and his moments of vulnerability, this book is a complete thirst-quencher for all cinema and nostalgia lovers alike.
We spoke to author Sayandeb Chowdhury on his evolving relationship with the late actor and the choices he had to make while writing this book. Excerpts.
All ’80s and ’90s kids have a very unique relationship with Uttam Kumar, some more deep than others. How did you arrive at the idea of writing this book?
Those who are born in the mid-’70s and early ’80s saw on television a different diet of films. What I retained from those films was a certain kind of amazement and surprise at the kind of effortlessness that Uttam Kumar would bring to the screen. I was too young to be getting into the nitty-gritty of acting, but he was normal, a stark difference from what was happening in Bengali commercial cinema at that point. That appeal stayed with me well into my university days, when I started getting interested in cinema. With every watch of his films, remembrance was turned into a sense of being intrigued. I never had plans to write a book because it felt like too mammoth a task. Where do you begin and where do you end?
The book was in me somewhere. I also feared that someone else might eventually write the book I felt I could write and it wouldn’t do justice to my thoughts and I would have to live with it! Except for a few slim volumes, no one had written (much). In 2015, I started researching and writing and, by 2017, I was completely into it.
Primarily, I did not want the book to be interviews because there is already plenty of them available in archives. I was looking to delve into his screen popularity, his humane side and him as an enigma. This was something that could not be done justice through interviews. That is when I leaned into his cinema –– a more cultural history.
...And has your relationship with Uttam Kumar changed or evolved along the course of your writing process?
That’s a very interesting question. A relationship does change with the subject of a book when you spend a couple of years researching and then writing it. I am, of course, fond of him in some way as if I know him personally. But my relationship with him has gone from being one-dimensional, where I only had admiration for him, to a more multi-dimensional approach after having written the book. I was also angry at the way he had allowed his name to be used in the last seven-eight years of his life. He just let things go awry, the strings to loosen. But my idea of what he brought to the screen hasn’t changed.
If you could tell us a little about the kind of research that you did, both document-based as well as, you know, talking to people.
The first thing I decided to do very meticulously was look at all of his films. In fact, 98 per cent of them –– some of his late films are impossible to see! I hoped they never existed. Except that, I watched everything, especially a few which do not exist in memory. For instance, Chirakumar Sabha, Kanna or Daktar Babu have
completely vanished from cinema memory. Strangely enough, these things completely vanish, but I couldn’t have written a book without having access to these. I even located a booklet from the British Library, looked through old reviews, and the objective soon became to unearth films which are less discussed.
The next thing was to look extensively to read everything that is available. The more you read old interviews, the less you get to see the real man. They are too flowery and ‘worshipping’ would be too mild a word. I read books that were written in his lifetime because these books treated him like a peer, a colleague. The books written after his death treat him like a giant, larger-than-life person.
I also didn’t want the book to be a cinema analysis and alienate the reader. So I watched the films almost chronologically, not to analyse but to discover the trajectory of his stardom to be able to identify the arc.
A lot has been spoken on the relationship between Ray and Uttam Kumar. Is there any particular reason why you chose to begin your book with reference to that very relationship?
Oh, that’s a good question. Contrary to some of the things that are circulated, I can say with complete confidence that Ray had immense respect for Uttam Kumar. I can also say that this respect was the same, if not more than what he had for Soumitra Chatterjee. Soumitra fans will be livid when I say that.
Ray has said that there are two kinds of actors and that the audience can understand the difference between the actor who is natural and the actor who is extolled by the film director. He said that Uttam will always be the first kind. And this came from Ray, who is infamously alleged to have complete control over his complete set.
This was not the case in reality, but at the same time Ray would never work with an actor who is completely roped to his image as an actor. However, Ray has, again and again, said that Uttam was a natural. Uttam Kumar also had immense respect for him, which is obvious.
I have also ended with a scene from Nayak and the book is bookended by two scenes from Nayak. If you look at it, Nayak is Satyajit Ray looking at Uttam Kumar. There is a poster that even says “Satyajit-er nayak darshan” (Satyajit’s view of the hero). So, it made complete sense to begin and end the book with Nayak. Who can better Satyajit Ray?
After having watched all of Uttam Kumar’s films (literally!), what are some of his most powerful performances according to you?
Nayak will of course be very high on the list. I would count two-three more like Bicharak. He is also extraordinary in Baghbandi Khela and Nagardarpan. Chiriyakhana and Jodubangsha would also make this list!
