Uttam Kumar in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Nayak’
Today marks the 37th death anniversary of Uttam Kumar, the biggest Bengali movie star (3 September 1928– 24 July 1980). I know him from having watched only two of his movies—Satyajit Ray’s ‘Nayak’ (1966) and Shakti Samanta’s ‘Amanush’ (1975). However, these two were more than enough to experience the man’s innate charisma and impressive acting chops. In West Bengal, whose cinema he ruled, he was an infallible superstar whose slight hint of a smile left his admirers gasping for air.
It was said, perhaps with some exaggeration, that Rajesh Khanna, regarded as India’s first true pan-national superstar, picked up Uttam Kumar’s smile. I had asked Khanna if that was true. He merely smiled his trademark crinkly eyed smile in response.
In ‘Amanush’, Kumar played a frequently inebriated hedonist with a deep sense of having been aggrieved by a judgmental small fishing village community. That was the first, and for a long time, the only movie of his I had seen in the mid 1970s. He left quite an impression as a bit of sozzled loser pining for Rekha’s (Sharmila Tagore) attentions. I remember trying to enact a few drunken scenes from the movie as a 16-year-old carrying my brother Trilochan’s Old Spice bottle. Mercifully, I did not ever attempt to drink Old Spice. Even I knew it was a cologne and not a beverage.
I saw Ray’s ‘Nayak’ in recent years only to confirm that Kumar had remarkable screen presence added with his rather impressive craft as an actor. Admittedly, two movies are too little to say this but in neither he came across as a labored performer. There was a certain ease to his presence that was unmistakable in both.
Apart from the two movies, my only other frequent engagement with Kumar has been a hit Hindi song “Tujhe dekha, tujhe chaha, tujhe puja mainey’ (Saw you, loved you, worshipped you) from ‘Chhoti Si Mulaqat’ (A Brief Encounter-1967). I find that in this song, like the songs in Amanush, Kumar avoided overstating his gestures and emotions.
Recently, while watching Ray’s ‘Nayak’ it struck me that that seemed to be his stock in trade even if you discount the fact that it was one of the world’s great masters who had directed him and who was not known for overwrought emotionalism. In the movie, as the name suggests, Kumar plays the character of a movie star or leading man who on a train journey begins to reassess his life and career with his fellow passengers as his reference. By some coincidence, even in this movie he was paired with Sharmila Tagore. To offer you some trivia, Tagore also made a very successful pair with Rajesh Khanna, who was seen by some as channeling a bit of Uttam Kumar.
I might consider watching ‘Nayak’ again to mark Kumar’s death anniversary.