She was 82
- Suchitra Sen
Bengali screen goddess Suchitra Sen died at Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata, reports the Hindustan Times. She was 82.
NDTV reports that Suchitra last rites were conducted at Keoratola crematorium in Kolkata and the legendary actress was given a gun salute by the of West Bengal government.
She breathed her last at 9am. The immediate reason for her death was cardiac arrest.
She was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic on December 23 with a severe lung infection. During the past 26 days, she has frequently been in and out of the danger zone.
Suchitra was born in Pabna district on 6 April 1931.Her father Karunamoy Dasgupta was the headmaster of the local school and her mother Indira Devi was a housewife.
She was their fifth child and third daughter. She had her formal education in Pabna.
She married Dibanath Sen, son of a wealthy Bengali industrialist, Adinath Sen in 1947. She was survived by one daughter and two granddaughters.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia expressed deep sorrow and shock at the death of the legendary actress.
“An era has ended,” remarked veteran actress and film director Aparna Sen while expressing her immediate reaction.
In 1952, Rama Sen, now called Suchitra, faced the arclights for the first time in the ill-fated Shesh Kothay which was never released. She is known for her role in Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955) and Aandhi (1975). The actor entered into films five years after her marriage and made an indelible mark in Bengali film industry for more than two decades.
She was the household name for all Bangla film lovers over the decades. She made the most outstanding partnership with co-actor Uttam Kumar, the legend of Bangla film.
Uttam-Suchitra movies have become almost a different genre in the Bangla film chronicle.
Suchitra Sen was also the first Indian actress to be awarded at an international film festival, receiving the Best Actress Award for Saptapadi at the Moscow film festival in 1963.
However, after her 1978 movie Pronoy Pasha flopped, she disappeared from the public eye and even allegedly refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005, preferring not to make a public appearance.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
