Today happens to be the 99th birth anniversary of the legendary Bengali actor Uttam Kumar. Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore worked with him in quite a few films, including Satyajit Ray’s classic Nayak. The actress looked back at Uttam Kumar in an interview with us.
Sharmila Tagore remembers Uttam Kumar in Nayak on his 99th birth anniversary: “The way he walked, the way he lit his cigarette, everything was star-like”
You did a number of films with Uttam Kumar, including, of course, Satyajit Ray’s Nayak
Yes, Nayak is the most important. But I also did some other notable films with Uttam Babu including Sesh Anka where he played the murderer in whodunit inspired by Chase A Crooked Shadow. Later we did two back-to-back Hindi-Bengali bilinguals directed by Shaktida (Samanta) Amanush and Anand Ashram. Don’t think he was very comfortable doing Hindi films.
For Uttam Kumar, Nayak was his first with Satyajit Ray. You have worked many times with Ray
Of course, I ranked Debi, Apur Sansar, even Aranyer Din Ratri above Nayak. But after seeing it again, I’ve completely changed my mind. And Uttam Babu is so, so good. And every character and like I said, even I was quite good. Yeah, I liked myself. And, you know, that empathy and changing my character’s tone a little bit.
And don’t forget the spectacles
Spectacles, yes. Manikda suggested I wear spectacles. Yes, give you an exceedingly intellectual look. But he just changes the character a little bit, you know, the look of the character. And there was a lot of protests and a lot of criticism that why did Manikda (Ray) use a star. But, you know, there was instant recognition. Instant identification. So, he didn’t have to, you know, establish the character. And the way he walked, the way he lit his cigarette, everything was star-like.
Uttam Kumar was a smoker in real life too, I believe?
Yes, yes. He died in his fifties.
So it’s a beautiful film and I’m so happy that another generation will see it. I think this has got a beautiful form. Ray brings many characters from all over the place in a kind of a limited time, limited space, like a train. And we glimpse everybody’s life. It’s a moment in their life and then, everyone just disperses. So, it’s a very beautiful form.
Also, the loneliness of the superstar. I think this was the first time we saw that
That, of course, he elaborates that what we perceive stars as, perhaps they’re not. They’re also, you know, flesh and blood and they have feelings and they have their own history. But we judge them so quickly. We are so flippant about them. We call them arrogant, like the cricket stars also. We love them. And the next minute, moment we hear something about them, we are done. Or at an unguarded moment, if the star snubs you unknowingly, you hate the star further. Yes, it’s a very fragile respect you have for a star. You know, you’re not really loyal to that person. You’re easily replaced by somebody else. So, it’s a kind of a very transient.
So, then you can see that, you know, his insecurities, if there are three flops in a row, where will he be? So the Nayak in Satyajit Ray’s film finds somebody else to talk to, who would sort of, he feels, understand him. And he opens up to her, my character Aditi. So, all these little fleeting moments where you meet somebody and there is a connection and then you go in your separate ways. So, once the train stops, everybody disembarks and they are all dispersed. For that moment, during that train journey in Nayak, you become part of that world. So, it’s a very interesting film. Very interesting, lovely film. I am so glad a whole new generation is watching Nayak.
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