Actor Soumitra Chatterjee, known for his career-spanning collaborations with celebrated director Satyajit Ray who cast him in 14 of his films, passed away at a city hospital on Sunday afternoon after a prolonged illness aggravated by a bout of Covid-19. He was 85.
ABP Ananda, quoting Belle Vue Clinic sources, said the end came at 12.25pm. "We declare with heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12-15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul," an official statement read, reported ndtv.com.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who reached the hospital after the news broke, said the actor would be accorded a state funeral at the Keoratala Mahasashan in the evening. Before that, his mortal remains would be taken to his house at Golf Green at 2pm and then to the Technicians’ Studio in Tollygunge where he spent most of his five-decade-long career shooting.Chatterjee’s body will be kept at Rabindra Sadan in the afternoon to enable his fans and admirers to pay their last respects. The funeral cortege will then leave for the burning ghat in a procession. Chief minister Banerjee said the procession would proceed amid strict adherence to Covid-19 safety measures.
The actor, who was admitted at Belle Vue here for over a month ago, remained in a “very, very critical” condition for the last 48 hours, a hospital update issued at on Saturday night said.
His physiological system is not responding” despite all efforts, the hospital said. “He is still on different life supports and holding on. But it is almost a point of no return… from where he can come back and survive,” Arindam Kar, one of the doctors treating Chatterjee, said.
Chatterjee, 85, was admitted to Belle Vue on October 6 after he tested positive for Covid-19. He recovered from Covid-19 but could not overcome Covid encephalopathy, a post-Covid complication that can trigger coma, drowsiness, disorientation and multiple other complications, and lead to multi-organ failure.
“We have done everything possible in the past 40 days, but it is the encephalopathy that has undone every effort of ours,” said Kar, who is among a huge team of neurologists, nephrologists, cardiologists, critical care specialists, and infectious diseases specialists from both private and government hospitals that had been put together for Chatterjee’s treatment.
Sharmila Tagore, who debuted in films along with Soumitra in 1958 in Apur Sansar, describes him as a treasured friend. In the foreword to The Master and I, the actor’s memoirs about his time with Ray, she talks of how like Ray, Soumitra wasn’t propelled by commerce. “Eternally childlike and hopelessly romantic at heart, like Ray, he is also a multifaceted talent,” she writes.
Chatterjee and Ray enjoyed a partnership of over three decades, leaving the world of cinema with timeless gems _ Apur Sansar, Devi, Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri and Ghare Baire have all been, and continue to be, admired and rediscovered by generations.
“We were, to a great extent, Apus of our time,” Soumitra once said, about his joining the cast of Apur Sansar after Ray found him to be “too old” to play the role in Aparajito. Many critics rate his performance as Amal in Charulata as one of his best in the 14 films by Ray he appears in. The scene where he is lip-syncing to “Ogo Bideshini”, sung by Kishore Kumar, while playing the piano is one of cinema’s most cherished moments.
Soumitra immortalized the role of Feluda, Ray’s famous detective, who like Sherlock Homes had a Watson too _ in the form of his young nephew Topshe, whom children growing up in the Calcutta of the ’60s and ’70s identified with. Ray started writing these Feluda novels circa 1965, and long before Sonar Kella was conceived of as a film, the look and demeanor of this tall, strapping handsome man was revealed to readers in the form of illustrations that many said were modelled on Soumitra.
While discussing Gantokey Gondogol (Trouble in Gangtok) with Ray, the actor had pointed out how the illustrations in the book resembled the filmmaker. But a smiling Ray replied. “Really? Several people have told me that I’ve drawn him with you in mind.” Later, Soumitra talked about it with many others all of whom agreed that the line drawings looked more like him! Yet, personally, Soumitra writes in The Master and I, that he always felt the resemblance was closer to Ray.
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