A sea green bath robe that he wore in Alo Amaar Alo, a grey check suit that he donned in Sagarika, a pair of shoes he slipped on in Saptapadi, a white embroidered kurta from Ogo Bodhu Sundari… All fusty and faded with time, displayed in a row at one of the stalls on the Science City grounds. It was the closest one could get to Uttam Kumar, amidst the medley hosted by Tollywood leading man Prosenjit (picture above by Aranya Sen) in memory of the Mahanayak.

The four-day extravaganza, Mahanayakke Nayaker Shraddhanjali, was kicked off at Star theatre on Thursday with the screening of Bon Palashir Padabali, Ogo Bodhu Sundari and Agnishwar. The exhibition revolving around the superstar and his works turned out to be a bigger draw on Friday and Saturday at Science City.

A row of stalls named after Uttam Kumar’s big hits engaged the visitors in contests and game shows that ranged from jigsaw puzzles to cooking up the star’s favourite food, like Mochar Chop, in a jiffy. The shows were anchored by a host of TV actors.

The other stretch of the open-air fair was devoted to showcasing Uttam memorabilia in order to “generate interest and disseminate information about him among Gen-X cine-goers,” said Prosenjit.

T-shirts embossed with Uttam pictures, and postcards and prints of some rare photos of the star were on sale. One of the shacks displayed several frames capturing him in rare moments — Uttam playing football in a slushy ground, being a doting father to his toddler son, or striding along with Satyajit Ray.

Rudrajit Mukherjee, a documentary film-maker who collects Bengali movie mementoes as a hobby, put up an impressive range of original posters of Uttam films. Also on display were booklets and lobby cards. The booklets, which used to be sold during film shows, contain songs, synopsis and detailed credit of the cast and crew, while lobby cards are film stills with the cast line-up that would be displayed at the halls. “I have a collection of 80 posters, 198 booklets and 60 lobby cards of Uttam Kumar films,” said Mukherjee, who has been collecting material on Mahanayak for the past two years.

On Friday afternoon, the swelling crowd at the fair jostled to get up close to Prosenjit as he ushered in chief guest mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya to the makeshift stage. “Uttam jethu introduced me to films. I was 14-15 years old when he wanted me to play the younger version of his character in Dui Prithibi, and that’s how I began my film journey,” said a nostalgic Prosenjit, reminiscing a hero who lives on in the Bengali mind even 25 years after his death.