mini-review marathon: the old-ish Bengali films, Uttam edition

The internet indicates that there is an Uttam Kumar/Soumitra Chatterjee camp rivalry. Helen above, I find the fan camp thing so irritating and tiresome. But since I have six films to discuss and only energy to write about three, here is the Uttam half of my recent Bengali viewing (Soumitra's soon to follow—never fear, Sonpapdis!).

Before getting underway with the films, I'd like to recommend a resource that actually discusses in an intelligent manner some of the differences in the types of characters and films done by the two actors and thus the cultural ethos each speaks to. I'm not done with it yet (which is why I won't try to summarize what it says about Uttam and Soumitra as cultural figures), and if you are as new to the topic as I am you will probably be swamped by people and film names you don't recognize, but so far Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation by Sharmistha Gooptu seems a solid overview of the history of Bengali movie-making, with individual chapters on a few of the broader trends and most important players. It's an interesting and not overly pretentious read.

However, I most definitely get the sense that the author is in some way defensive of Bengali cinema; there's a slight but persistent tone of "these movies are better than those [Bombay's, specifically]" (and maybe even "ours/yours"), an attitude that is probably betrayed by the book's specifically worded subtitle. The author elaborates the phrase "an other nation" into the theme that Bengali cinema has long been a separate world from Hindi films, creating its own narrative for the nation, as well as one that operated earlier and more profoundly in an international context, in terms both  of movies being seen outside India and of influences coming in (owing in part to Calcutta as the former capital and long interested in outside ideas, new technology, etc.). But like I said, I'm not done yet, so don't please don't take that as my final opinion. And because it's a proper academic book, it has footnotes, an index, and an extensive bibliography, should you want to know more. There's also a chapter on Ray that I think stands alone fairly well—and is extensively reproduced in Outlook here. There's even a Kindle version of the book for rent on Amazon, so go, read!

Sare Chuattar
If imdb is to be believed, this gentle comedy (from the Bhanu-Jahar stable, I think?) is the first Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen pairing.

The story is set in a boarding house, and it follows several of the residents through day-to-day problems and family entanglements.

Uttam and Suchitra have a classic "We hate each other! No wait, we love each other!" romance in the watchful and eager-to-comment presence of their neighbors. This might be another film whose humor is really lost in translation—or maybe even lost to the passing of time, no longer able to reach jaded millennial first-time audiences like I am. It's pleasant enough, but I like the comedy, romance, and performances in Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assitant much better.

Saptapadi

When I asked for recommendations of Uttam-Suchitra films, many people told me this was at the top of their lists.

With rainstorms, alcoholism, wartime medical service, bombings, and horrible parents who do not support their children's Hindu-Christian romance, this has many ingredients for Epic Romance. It is much to Uttam Kumar's credit that the film rarely feels that way, generally listing to something calmer, though still very cinematic. Suchitra gets the raw end of this script, big time; her character, the truculent Rina Brown, does not get to show any likable sides until at least 45 minutes in, and a party tune nearly sinks her as she struggles to lip-synch laughable lyrics like "On the merry-go-round let's ride and roll. On the merry-go-round let's rock our soul."  (WTF were people smoking in 60s Calcutta that merry-go-rounds seemed rock n' roll?). I gather the iconic image from this film is the pair's song on a motorcycle, but it didn't work for me either, again in part due to whatever Muppet-y business she's doing with her face.

Fortunately, the script snaps into place, and the more emotional moments of their romance are much better crafted. My favorite parts of Saptapadi are the smaller-scale ones, like their individual, quiet mulling over changing feelings and the very sweet and caring exchange they have after he receives terrible news from his family.

For the record, I am also unimpressed by the film's rendition of a scene from Othello voiced by Jennifer Kendal and Utpal Dutt. I don't know how this kind of acting was received at the time, but to my ears almost 50 years later it is artificial and forced, especially Jennifer, of whom I would expect much better given her theatrical upbringing, though if you've watched her parents at work in Shakespeare-Wallah you know exactly where she got it. What say you?

Chowringhee
Chowringhee has that Robert Altman feel of almost countless threads weaving together, this time set in a Calcutta hotel with Uttam Kumar being understatedly suave in a dapper suit as the invaluable front desk staff who keeps the guests and management happy even when he doesn't like what they're up to. He is utterly charming in his romantic arc with Anjana Bhowmick

This picture is here simply because I've never seen a woman in a 60s film want to be a pilot and I think it's freaking awesome.

Other characters include Utpal Dutt as the owner of the hotel (named Marco Polo, for reasons I did not intuit), Subhendu Chatterjee as Uttam's protégé, Biswajeet as a juvenile rich boy, and Supriya Debi as the "hostess" he loves (poor woman—the makeup department makes her look like a drag queen). Uttam gets most of the comedy, including this exchange about how the job description had required him to speak Bengali like Rabindranath, English like Shakespeare, and Hindi like Tulsidas, but he had showed up with only the following qualifications: 

I too can speak Bengali like Shakespeare!

Everything balances very nicely in Chowringhee. No scripted story and no performance take away from any of the others, which can be a tricky feat to pull off in these kinds of multi-arc projects. Depending on your taste or mood, certain stories will appeal to you more than others, and if memory serves there are at least three unhappy endings, which I tell you as warning because two of them are very sad indeed.

No doubt I am too uneducated in the subject to make pronouncements about what I think of Uttam Kumar as an actor,  but I do want to say that after five of his films (all from the 1960s except Sare Chuattar above) I really like his style of calm that somehow communicates very readable, relatable emotion, whether it's regret, hesitation, love, whatever. Sometimes it seems his default facial expression is slightly smug (not aided by the occasional Dev Anand-y puff of hair), but once he starts moving, that disappears and is replaced by whatever is appropriate for the scene. He also has a fun twinkle in his eyes during some of his comic scenes that I really like. It's there in Nayak too, that expression of "This is silly, but I'm a nice guy so I'll go along" or "I think I'm really quite fond of you, so I'm going to see if I can get you to play with me awhile longer." A self-assuredness that does not devolve into arrogance and is actually more interested in conversation than declaration is so appealing.

And if you have any Uttam recommendations for me, please let me know. I plan to clean-sweep the Calcutta DVD stores of subtitled Soumitra, so why not sprinkle in some Uttam in as well?