Utpal Dutt

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Utpal Dutt
Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Other namesUtpal Dutt
Occupation(s)Actor, director, writer-playwright
Years active1947–1993
WorksFilmography
Spouse
​
(m. 1960)​
ChildrenBishnupriya Dutta
AwardsFull list

Utpal Dutt (listen

Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983).[1][2][3][4] He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi (TV series) on Doordarshan
in 1993, shortly before his death.

He received

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship
for lifetime contribution to theatre.

Early life and education

Utpal Dutta was born into a

St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, University of Calcutta.[5][6]

Career

Though he was active primarily in Bengali theatre, he started his career in English theatre. As a teenager in the 1940s, he developed his passion and craft in English theatre, which resulted in the establishment of "The Shakespeareans" in 1947. Its first performance was a powerful production of Shakespeare's Richard III, with Dutt playing the king. This so impressed Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Kendal (parents of the actress Jennifer Kendal), who led the itinerant "Shakespeareana Theatre Company", that they immediately hired him, and he did two year-long tours with them across India and Pakistan, enacting Shakespeare's plays, first 1947–49 and later 1953–54; and was acclaimed for his passionate portrayal of Othello. After the Kendals left India for the first time in 1949, Utpal Dutt renamed his group the "Little Theatre Group" (LTG), and over the next three years, continued to perform and produce plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Tagore, Gorky and Konstantin Simonov. The group later decided to stage exclusively Bengali plays and to eventually evolve into a production company that would produce several Bengali movies. He also remained an active member of Gananatya Sangha, which performed through rural areas of West Bengal.[7]

He was also a founding member of

South Point School
in Kolkata.

Soon he would turn to his native

Indian theatre. He also formed groups like Arjo Opera and Bibek Yatra Samaj.[5]

Meanwhile, his transition to films happened while performing the role of Othello, when famous filmmaker Madhu Bose happened to be watching, and gave him the lead in his film Michael Madhusudan (1950), based on the life of the revolutionary Indian poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Later, he himself wrote a play on the fragmented colonial psyche of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, and the ambivalence of swaying between "colonial" admiration and "anti-colonial" revolt. He went on to act in many Bengali films, including many films by Satyajit Ray.[2]

Dutt was also an extremely famous comic actor in

Gautam Ghose; Bombay Talkie, The Guru, and Shakespeare Wallah, by James Ivory; Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, by Ritwik Ghatak; Guddi, Gol Maal and Kotwal Saab by Hrishikesh Mukherjee; Shaukeen, Priyatama and Hamari Bahu Alka directed by Basu Chatterjee and Amanush, Anand Ashram and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat by Shakti Samanta
.

Utpal Dutt also played the main villain characters in some of the major successful Amitabh Bachchan starrers such as The Great Gambler, Inquilaab (film) and the bilingual Hindi/Bangla movie Barsaat Ki Ek Raat. In fact, Utpal Dutt was the Hero (main lead) in Amitabh Bachchan's maiden venture Saat Hindustani.

"Revolutionary theatre is essentially people's theatre, which means it must be played before the masses,.."

Utpal Dutt[8]

Dutt was also a lifelong Marxist and an active supporter of the

Jatra or Yatra Pala, a Bengali folk drama form, performed largely across rural West Bengal. He started writing Jatra scripts, produced and acted in them, even formed his own Jatra troupe. His jatra political dramas were often produced on open-air stages and symbolised his commitment to communist ideology, and today form his lasting legacy.[10]

Through the 1970s three of his plays; Barricade, Dusswapner Nagari (City of Nightmares) and Ebaar Rajar Pala (Now it is the King's turn), drew crowds despite being officially banned.[1][5][11][12]

He wrote Louha Manab (The Iron Man), in 1964 while still in jail, based on a real trial against a pro-Stalin, ex-Politburo member by supporters of Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow of 1963. It was first staged at Alipore Jail in 1965, by the People's Little Theatre. His stay in jail unleashed a new period of rebellious and politically charged plays, including Tiner Toloar (The Tin Sword), partially based on Pygmalion, Dushapner Nagari (Nightmare City), Manusher Odhikare (Rights Of Man), based on the Scottsboro Boys case, protests against the racial discrimination and injustice of the Scottsborough trial of 1931, Surya-Shikar (Hunting the Sun) (1978), Maha-Bidroha (The Great Rebellion) (1989), and Laal Durgo (Red Fort) (1990) about the demise of Communism, set in a fictitious East European country, and Janatar Aphim (Opiate of the People), (1990) lamented on Indian political parties exploiting religion for gain.[4] In all, he wrote twenty-two full-length plays, fifteen poster plays, nineteen Jatra scripts, acted in thousands of shows, and directed more than sixty productions, apart from writing serious studies of Shakespeare, Girish Ghosh, Stanislavsky, Brecht, and revolutionary theatre, and translating Shakespeare and Brecht.

He also directed a number of films such as Megh (1961), a psychological thriller, Ghoom Bhangar Gaan (1965), Jhar (Storm) (1979), based on the Young Bengal movement, Baisakhi Megh (1981), Maa (1983) and Inquilab Ke Baad (1984).

Legacy

Dutt in 2013 stamp of India.

Forty years after the staging of the classic play Kallol which entails the story of the mutiny of Indian sailors against the British on the Arabian Sea, for which he was even imprisoned, was revived in 2005, as Gangabokshe Kallol, part of the state-funded "Utpal Dutt Natyotsav" (Utpal Dutt Theatre Festival), on an off-shore stage, by the Hooghly River in Kolkata.[13]

Shakespearean actor, and directed for the screen by Rituparno Ghosh, later won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English
.

Personal life

In 1960, Dutt married theatre and film actress

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.[14]

Death

On 19 August 1993,[5] Dutt died due to a heart attack right after he returned home from the S.S.K.M hospital, Calcutta, West Bengal where he had undergone dialysis.[15]

Awards and recognition

Filmography

This is an incomplete filmography of Utpal Dutt.

Plays

  • Mirkassim
  • Tiner Talowar
  • Ferari Fauj
  • Boniker Rajdando
  • Barricade
  • Chayanat
  • Kangor Karagare
  • Kallol
  • Ongaar
  • Aajker Shahjahan
  • Lohaar Bheem
  • Mahusher Adhikarey
  • Ebar Rajar Pala
  • Danrao Pathikbar

Works

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b Inside the actor's mind Archived 8 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine Mint (newspaper), 3 July 2009.
  2. ^ a b Remembering Utpal Dutt[permanent dead link] Shoma A Chatterji, Screen (magazine), 20 August 2004.
  3. ^ The Mirror of Class: Essays on Bengali Theatre by Himani Bannerji[usurped] Frontline (magazine), Volume 18 – Issue 12, 9–22 Jun 2001.
  4. ^
    The Telegraph (Kolkata)
    , 26 August 2006.
  5. ^ a b c d "Obituary: Utpal Dutt". The Independent. 21 August 1993. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  6. ^ Banerji, Arnab (2012). "Rehearsals for a Revolution: The Political Theater of Utpal Dutt". University of Georgia. 34: 222–230. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  7. ISBN 0231144229
    . Page 382-383.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-87745-961-4
    . Page 114
  9. ^ Saubhadro Chatterji (11 March 2009). "Poll-bound Bengal turns to artistes". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 16 March 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  10. ISBN 0-8248-0845-2
    . Page 55.
  11. New York Times
    , 25 November 1965.
  12. Britannica.com
    .
  13. The Telegraph (Kolkata)
    , 5 November 2005.
  14. ^ Dutt and his dimensions Archived 7 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Hindu, 26 October 2007.
  15. ^ "Google Groups". Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2015.

External links

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