Remembering the Mahanayak

In remembrance of the 43rd death anniversary of the original megastar, Uttam Kumar, The Daily Star revisits the Mahanayak's legacy in Bengali cinema.

Mahanayak Uttam Kumar—a name fitting for the charisma, persona, and relatability of Bengali cinema's top star—has always been perplexing for film critics, filmmakers, and audiences alike.

Undoubtedly a cultural icon, Kumar's unequivocal popularity as a romantic hero, easy charm, smile, and innate likeability is uncontested, but let's look at what made him the megastar we remember today.

Uttam Kumar—born as Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay on September 3, 1926—popularly nicknamed the 'Mahanayak' (literally translated as the 'megastar'), starred in over 200 films in his entire career. Some of his most popular and iconic roles were in films like "Harano Sur", "Bicharak", "Saptapadi", "Jhinder Bandi", "Sesh Anka", "Deya Neya", "Lal Pathar", "Jatu Griha", "Thana Theke Aschi", "Chowringhee", "Nayak", "Anthony Firingee", "Amanush", "Bagh Bondi Khela" and "Chiriyankhana".

The contemporaries of Kumar like Soumitra Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt, Bhanu Bandopadhyay, and many more were working on films that stood out to tell the tale of time. Even though Bengali cinema was passing the golden age with trailblazers like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Kumar chose the easiest route to commercial success, intentionally choosing to establish himself as a 'romantic' hero.

Debuting with Nitin Bose's "Drishtidan" in 1948, Kumar's journey in Bengali cinema was never smooth. Delivering 12 flops back to back, he thought of leaving acting and even became a clerk. A theatre artiste at heart, he could not ever leave cinema, but his choices in choosing certain films remain a wonder for film critics to date, not because they were terrible, but because they could have been so much better.

Kumar is remembered as the actor who refused the mighty Satyajit Ray for several of his films. Perhaps if he had not, history would be very different.

The Mahanayak's screen persona and roles can be easily considered one-dimensional, and his magnetic self-assured portrayals of educated characters like doctors, clerks, musicians, and even a superstar, were an escape for audiences. However, his audiences were not elitists, they were the ordinary people, suffering from social, political and moral turmoil and instabilities. Therefore, Kumar's characters remained a fairy tale that audiences tried to connect and relate to.

But can we actually deny his influence that easily? Kumar certainly went on to play a 'safe' narration and often told a story that varies from the time he lived in. While his contemporaries might have created more relatable stories, they did not exactly give audiences something to hope and dream of.

Uttam Kumar might have played safe roles, but whatever he did, was enough to deliver a breath of refreshment, hope, aspiration, and happiness to the then ordinary people. His comfortable, conventional coupling of romantic dramas and stardom was necessary because not everything needs to be politically correct or reactive.

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Uttam Kumar Uncrowned king of the silver screen

Kumar's acting range was unquestionable, and his on-screen persona and mannerisms—from rolled-sleeve formal shirts, ties, pointed shoes, tuxedo, and three-piece suits to loosely-worn kurtas, homely singlets, and light, cotton dhotis– remains equivocal with his unconquerable stardom.

No other entity in the history of Bengali culture has so neatly embodied the middle class's imagination, anxieties, and desires than Uttam Kumar.