Abstract
Smita Banerji, Modernities and the Popular Melodrama, 2023, 290 pp., ₹1,045, Orient BlackSwan. ISBN: 978-93-5442-452-6 (Paperback).
Smita Banerjee’s book Modernities and the Popular Melodrama: The Suchitra-Uttam Yug in Bengali Cinema is yet another study of Bengali cinema but with a specific focus on these two superstars. The spread is huge and there is a danger that one may find it confusing. Nor can one be sure whether all the information is even necessary, and to understand the context fully, multiple readings of the text might make things easier. Further, although the Uttam-Suchitra pair continues to fascinate Bengalis, one is not sure how well this volume will appeal to its non-Bengali readers. The author poses certain questions: What can we understand about the desires and aspirations of newly independent India through these two stars and their audiences? What made them emblematic of middle-class bhadralok (genteel middle- and upper-middle class) ideas of love, life and work? For one, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen never had quite the appeal that stars like Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari or Madhubala enjoyed with a pan-Indian audience. Although together with Dilip Kumar, Suchitra Sen went on to act in Devdas, as she never made it big in Hindi cinema, the author’s first question remains a bit puzzling.
The book that is divided into a total of five chapters, along with a substantial Introduction and a Conclusion, engages with socio-political events that define Bengali cinema in the decades from 1950s to 1970s. The author uses Melodrama Studies to ‘unpack the specific uses that it is being put to in Bengali films to render the experience of modern urban subjectivities and their self-fashioning that find an expressive voice through this mode’ (Banerjee 2023: 11). One of the key issues under investigation in the book is subjectivity versus identity as defined by Stuart Hall as well as Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of self-fashioning. She also looks at the imaginary of the city of Kolkata as it comes through in these films as well as at the shifts the city witnessed from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Chapter 1 discusses the romantic roles played by the couple that would go on to redefine Bengali cinema for decades. These contributed a great deal to making them the stars that they eventually became. In Chapter 2, Banerjee discusses the New Woman through the roles played by Sen in films like Indrani. The book looks at these two stars in Chapters 3 and 4, discussing their afterlives through extra-textual material that helps analyse their stardom in a later chapter. The introduction is long but could have benefited from subsections laying out clearly the points of argument or investigation. Banerjee discusses in detail the lives of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and the reason for their rise in post-independence Bengali cinema plagued by the horrors of partition. She describes how the Bengali bhadralok came to fashion themselves after Uttam’s various roles and the critical attention these garnered as well. An interesting chapter in the book is the one examining the other roles of Uttam Kumar where his versatility as a ‘character actor’ was highlighted. Incidentally, he went on to enact comic roles as well as negative ones in several other films that are not included in the book. Banerjee discusses Jadu Bangsho, Ekhane Pinjar and Nagar Darpane in which Uttam played the ‘Dada’ figure—the quintessential older brother in Bengali families, and how it conflated with how the Bengali film industry saw him too. Not only did he steer the Bengali film industry to greater heights, but he was also seen as a patron of film technicians, did charity work and fundraising that also contributed to his star image. Banerjee’s study of the 1970s films is commendable as they essay the socio-political scenario of Bengal, especially the bhadralok world.
Chapter 5, which looks at popular imaginaries that travel across time, is another interesting chapter, especially since Uttam Kumar’s iconic status is being revived by the ruling party in 2023 in West Bengal. An able summary is provided of how Uttam Kumar is perceived by his fans and admirers. Banerjee examines the auto/biographies of these two stars, Amar Ami by Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen’s biography. She then goes on to engage with the concept of ‘gossip’, charting its academic trajectory in literature and social linguistics since the 1960s. She discusses actor Prasenjit Chatterjee’s key roles that had been portrayed by Uttam, and also his acting in a Bengali teleserial that contributes to the revival of Uttam’s iconicity.
Although the Introduction is long, it does not provide adequate or systematic knowledge about the topic. It rambles on in several different directions and is repetitive in parts. Competent editing would have made both the writing more accessible and reader-friendly. As the citations have not been done correctly, one has to constantly move between pages to find the name of the critic/author that Banerjee is referring to, taking away the pleasure of reading the book. At one level, the Uttam Suchitra era is a little dated and is not really an exciting area to reinvestigate in today’s world when Bengali cinema has evolved so much. However, what is commendable is that, as the author has put in so much work about this defining pair of Bengali cinema, the book will be a great help to other researchers in the field.