Soumitra Chatterjee : I was supposed to do Komal Gandhar

Birthdays are a time for looking ahead. And a time for looking back, too. With fondness, anger, regret, garnished with nostalgia. On Tuesday , when an 82-year 'young' Soumitra Chatterjee celebrated his birthday , it was time to hear the Ray prot��g�� talk about films beyond the oeuvre of Ray. Excerpts...
Though you've worked with so many directors, it is always the Ray films that define you as an actor.Do you think it limits your assessment as an actor?
I wouldn't say that the followers of Ray have been able to make a complete assessment of me as an actor.
Ray had mentioned about how you were an idol of girls of Presidency College. But your fan base for commercial cinema was flattering...
If only the girls of Presidency College were my admirers, I wouldn't have been able to continue in this industry for so long. I had to be successful even in the commercial Bengali film space. My very second film was Tapan Sinha's 'Khudito Pasan'. It was a superhit. The protagonist didn't have an intellectual image. Rather, he had a romantic image. For the general Bengali viewers, it's the other films of mine that have been very popular.It is a painful fact that they don't know that much about my Ray films. Every village I go to, I am asked about my Agradani films. I did three films with Asit Sen -'Swaralipi', 'Swayamvara' and finally , 'Agun'. There, I had to play the roles that every middle class Bengali viewer would like. Since I did films like that, my name is uttered in the same breath as Uttam Kumar. That's why Bengalis pit us against each other, like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. Had my admirers only been from Presidency College, this wouldn't have happened.
Ray's exact comment was: 'The intelligent section of the crowd, particularly the girls, the Presidency College girls, would prefer Soumitra to Uttam. But they were in a minority , I am afraid'.Did you contradict Ray in this regard?
They were certainly in a mino rity. But they didn't constitute my fan base. I never discussed it with Ray . I believed that I will be known for my work. He could think the way he felt like. But in his book that was published posthumously , his last comment was: `He went on to become one of the most sought after stars of Bengali cinema'. Bolte holo toh tahole... (Laughs)
Do you find anything similar between Ray and Ritwik Ghatak?
There were two similarities.From the beginning, both had a ve ry fine sense of shot division. Both made social films. Oder nijer nijer politics taa oder chhobi theke beriyechhe. Most of their films ended in optimism. Remember the ending of that brilliant film `Titas Ekti Nodir Naam'. The boy blowing into a `bhepu' while running away! That could have been an ending for a Satyajit Ray film, too.
Why didn't you work with Ghatak?
Once we were supposed to do a film on elephant-capture. It is called `Phasir Swikar'. Pramathesh Baruah's brother, Lalji, used to catch elephants using a lasso. I was offered a character that resembled Lalji a little.But it never materialised. I was also supposed to do `Sansar Simante' with him. I even got a producer for him. Ajit Lahiri and Paul Mahendra had come to me.They were trying to rehabilitate him. I got the producer but the first condition was that while shooting, he would not drink. He agreed. But on the day of the meeting, he didn't come on time. We waited for close to two to three hours. He was drunk when he finally reached.
Didn't you get angry?
Raag hoyechhilo. But we had nothing to do. He came so drunk that the producer left immediately after he entered the room. The producer had warned me saying you will not be able to manage him.There was another occasion when I was supposed to work with him.Remember the film he did on the IPTA and theatre movement (`Komol Gandhar'). We spoke but finally the role went to Abanish (Banerjee). In fact, we had had long discussions about the film. Keno paliye gelen ke jane (laughs)? He had told me that I would have to study a lot. I agreed. When he asked me to read a certain book, I said I have already read it. He then referred to a book on the theatre movement. I had read that as well. Surprised, he had said, ���The book has just hit the market���. My reply was that I had still managed to read it after it had been released in Kolkata. But finally , he cast Abanish instead of me. I never got to know why .