Sanjib Chattopadhyay had to wait for 60 years of his writing career to be finally bestowed with the Sahitya Akademi award on Wednesday. While many are insisting that the recognition has come too late, there are stories doing the rounds about how many legends have similarly been ignored for the longest time. While some have received consolation prizes in the form of posthumous awards, there are others who never received the national recognition.
A legend like Kishore Kumar hardly got his due in terms of government awards. Repeated petitions to the central government — the last being sent by former cricketer-politician Laxmi Ratan Shukla, also the convener of the Salkia Kishore Kumar Memorial Cultural Association — to bestow a posthumous Bharat Ratna to the singer have fallen on deaf ears. Legendary author Mani Shankar Mukherjee, who turned 85 on Friday, hasn’t received a Sahitya Akademi award yet. Vidushi Girija Devi — the Queen of Thumri — was 87 when she was conferred the Padma Bibhushan award in 2016. That was 25 years after she had received a Padma Bhushan award in 1989. This year, 88-year-old Pt Vijay Kichlu received his Padma Shri. “There is some recognition of the contribution that I have made. But it’s too little, too late. It’s taken the government more than 15 years post my retirement to recognise my contribution,” he had said after getting the news of the award. In 1961,
Uttam Kumar had received the certificate of merit for Second Best Feature Film when he produced Ajoy Kar’s Saptapadi.
Three years later, he bagged the President’s Silver Medal for Best Feature Film when he produced Asit Sen’s Uttar Falguni. However, acknowledgement as the Best Actor came in 1968 for his performance in Antony Firingee and Chiriyakhana. But the wait for Soumitra Chatterjee was much longer. Despite acting in 14 Ray films, none of them got Soumitra a National Film Award for Best Actor. All his performances since his 1959 Ray-film debut in Apur Sansar were overlooked by the National Awards jury. Utpal Dutt was luckier in comparison. His performance in Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome fetched him the Bharat Award (the National Film Award was then called by this name) in 1970.
In 1991, Soumitra was given a Special Jury award for his performance in Tapan Sinha’s Antardhan. That citation, for some strange reason, had mentioned ‘for his outstanding screen performances, especially in the films of Satyajit Ray’. In 2000, he again got a Special Jury award for Goutam Ghose’s Dekha. The citation read: ‘For his realistic portrayal of the scion of a fading aristocracy who has lost his eyesight. Soumitra with great subtlety takes us through myriad evoking situations of his life, past and present with great sensitivity’. In 2004, he had already been awarded the Padma Bhushan. However, it took another two years for the National Film Award jury to give him the Best Actor award for Suman Ghosh’s Podokkhep. This citation had read: ‘For etching the agonies and elations of an elderly person trying to keep peace with changing times’. He was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2011.
According to Suman, barring Soumitra, the National Film Award has been largely fair while acknowledging the performances of legendary actors. “Of course, I am happy that he got it for my movie but I definitely think he should have got it for many films including Apur Sansar, Charulata, Wheelchair, Dekha and Mayurakshi. In fact, I joke with Soumitra kaku saying since he got it for Podokkhep, it kick-started my career,” says Suman.
In his opinion, there have been some very bad misses. “Say for example, the year Soumitra kaku got a Special Jury award for Dekha, the Best Actor award had gone to Anil Kapoor for Pukar,” Suman points out.
However, the Podokkhep director also makes another very relevant point in this context. “In retrospect, those performances of Soumitra kaku would be considered landmark. But not just in his case, we often don’t see what other films were in competition during the same year. In purely economics terms, we often don’t do a cross-sectional analysis. When we talk about unfairness, it is important to also note which performances were in competition the years when they got the snub.”
For some strange reason, the National Film Awards didn’t acknowledge the directorial skill of a legend of
Ritwik Ghatak’s stature. His cult films including Subarnarekha, Komol Gandhar and
Meghe Dhaka Tara
never won a National Film Award. Even Ajantrik, which had got a special entry at the Venice Film Festival in 1959, had never got a National Film Award. In 1974, he had won a Rajat Kamal for Jukti Takko Aar Gappo. But that was for Best Story. The Best Direction award that year had gone to Ray for Sonar Kella. Curiously, even if he was not acknowledged for his directorial acumen, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1970.
According to academician Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay, it is a “crime of sorts” to have not bestowed any National Film Award on Ritwik for his directorial skills. “It is pathetic. I suppose, the unofficial reasons were that he was a counter-cultural icon. Even Barin Saha — the filmmaker who like Ritwik was also born in 1925 — never got a National Film Award for Tero Nodir Pare. That, in my opinion, is a landmark film,” Sanjay says.
Just before she went on to receive her “long-pending recognition”, Girija Devi had said, “If people are happy, I too feel the same way. It’s nice to be able to accept this award. Just that, the award has come in too late. The government must be asked that if it is giving me this award when I have reached the ripe age of 87, are they expecting me to live till 100 or 200 years to get other recognition? Was the government sleeping for all these years?”
Shankar, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Times Litfest 2018, is less aggressive at 85. “Even Gurudev never got it. Saradindu Bandopadhyay and Bimal Mitra didn’t get the Sahitya Akademi either. So, one is in good company if one hasn’t got it,” says Shankar. Bengali literature has many other such big misses. “Jibanananda Das — one of the greatest authors from Bengal — didn’t get a single award during his lifetime. He was given a posthumous Sahitya Akademi award for Shreshtha Kavita in 1955. Manik Bandopadhyay died without ever getting any government award. I guess, all their works were ahead of their times. Those in
the jury never understood them,” Sanjay reasons.
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