The mythical Tarun Majumdar stood at the level. He had simply won the Filmfare Lifetime Success Award 2021. As we gave him a status ovation, my thoughts went again to that second in existence when a teenaged me used to be first offered to this humanist filmmaker thru his undying paintings, Shriman Prithviraj (1973), a Bengali bildungsroman. The hero, Rashik Lal, had instantly turn out to be my modify ego, and each and every woman one had a overwhelm on, one way or the other resembled the heroine, Amalabala! With the exception of the lead pair of Ayan Bandyopadhyay and Mahua Roychowdhury, the characters essayed by means of Sandhya Roy (who’d later marry Majumdar in actual existence), Utpal Dutt, Satya Bandyopadhyay, Rabi Ghosh, Santosh Dutta, and Chinmoy Roy have been etched in my thoughts and center, without end.
And, there at the level, the fast and frail, but one of the crucial tallest of all of them, Tarun Majumdar went on to mention that he used to be running on a brand new script. Such used to be his vivaciousness, his power. He mentioned that he used to be intrigued by means of human relationships and values, and {that a} guy’s everlasting quest used to be to turn out to be a greater human being. Proudly moored to middle-class roots, he understood their values and essence to this kind of delicate extent that his movies, whilst being aesthetically wealthy, resonated with tens of millions leading to super box-office successes.
A nonetheless from Shriman Prithviraj.
Majumdar made Bengal proud at the Indian map as smartly. He received 4 Nationwide Awards, seven BFJA Awards, 5 Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri. However then, he deserved extra. In a rustic the place the Holy Trinity of Satyajit Ray-Mrinal Sen-Ritwik Ghatak overshadowed someone and everybody, Majumdar held his personal together with fellow administrators Tapan Sinha, Ajoy Kar and Asit Sen.
A filmmaker is continuously evaluated at the foundation of what number of commendable new skills she or he may just introduce to the trade. Majumdar had introduced within the likes of Moushumi Chatterjee, Mahua Roychowdhury, Ayan Bandyopadhyay, Debashree Roy and Tapas Paul to the silver display. The Bengali target audience will without end stay thankful to him for this.
A nonetheless from Chaowa Paowa.
Peculiar it is going to appear despite the fact that, however Tarun babu’s first tryst with actors used to be no longer thru freshmen. He made his debut with Chaowa Paowa (1959) starring the ambitious Uttam-Suchitra pair below the banner of Yatrik, with two different administrators Sachin Mukherjee and Dilip Mukherjee. But even so Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, the opposite stalwarts Chhabi Biswas and Tulsi Chakraborty ensured that the movie used to be a runaway hit.
Tarun babu discovered his personal voice within the subsequent movie he directed together with his Yatrik staff — Kancher Swarga (1962). A tale about how cases first compel a person to surrender his clinical research and later places him within the sole place to save lots of a tender girl’s existence. Starring the who’s who of that technology: Anil Chatterjee, Pahari Sanyal, Manju Dey, Utpal Dutt, Bikash Roy, Chhaya Devi, and that includes Dilip Mukherjee himself because the protagonist, the movie fetched them the primary Nationwide Award in 1963.
Legend has it that for Yatrik’s subsequent movie Palatak (1963), Uttam Kumar sought after to play the lead, however Majumdar made up our minds in a different way. He went directly to solid Anup Kumar, an iconic comic of the time, because the hero. The nature used to be of Basanta, a bohemian who runs clear of relationships. It used to be unthinkable in the ones days to solid a comic as a hero, however Tarun babu caught to his conviction. He even controlled to influence V Shantaram to provide the movie.
A nonetheless from Palatak.
Tarun babu parted techniques with Yatrik and went solo. His first solo movies incorporated Alor Pipasa (1965) with Basanta Choudhury and Ek Tuku Basa (1965) with Soumitra Chattopadhyay, each movies starring Sandhya Roy as the feminine lead. Very quickly, he could be directing Balika Badhu (1967), introducing a teenaged Moushumi Chatterjee. The movie used to be a roaring box-office luck. The opposite movies that will fetch him the Nationwide Award could be Nimantran (1972), Ganadevata (1979), and Aranya Aamaar in 1984. Ganadevata used to be the primary Bengali movie to win the Nationwide Award within the “Perfect Standard Movie offering Healthy Leisure” class. Sansar Shimantey (1976) would win him the BFJA Award for Perfect Director.
In conjunction with essential acclaim, Tarun babu, not like the others, even the greats, controlled to create box-office successes. It’s, certainly, a unprecedented fulfillment — to bridge the space between excellent cinema and hit movies. Shriman Prithviraj, Fuleswari (1974), Ganadevata, Dadar Kirti (1980), Bhalobasa Bhalobasa (1985), Apan Amaar Apan (1990), and Aalo (2003) have been primary hits in their occasions, that had contributed to the coffers of the Bengali movie trade. I consider how I had accompanied my oldsters to a screening of Aalo on the Bijoli Cinema in south Kolkata. A night display, it used to be bought out.
A nonetheless from Dadar Kirti.
As I pen this obituary for one in every of Bengal’s prodigal sons, Tarun Majumdar is on his method to the sanatorium the place his mortal stays could be passed over for the needs of clinical analysis and schooling. In loss of life, his simplest partners are Tagore’s Gitanjali and the CPI(M) birthday celebration flag. No candlelight marches, no flower-bouquets, not anything. He used to be born a not unusual guy, he died a not unusual guy. And between his start and loss of life, he lived the lifetime of a believer in human values, celebrated the middle-class, and bestowed them with dignity on celluloid.
In Tagore’s phrases, “Tobu mone rekho… Be mindful me nonetheless, even though I’m going a long way away… If previous love will get buried below a more recent passion… If tears come on your eyes, if play involves an finish on a dreamy evening, Be mindful me nonetheless…” Good-bye, maestro.
Ranjan Ghosh is a Bengali filmmaker whose movies come with Hrid Majharey, Rong Beronger Korhi, Ahaa Re and Mahishasur Marddini.