4 | | Actress. Bengali star of 60s socials best known as romantic lead opposite [[Uttam Kumar]] (with whom she apparently featured in 33 films). Spent some of her childhood in Rangoon; introduced into films by veteran Bengali actress Chandrabati Devi. Début in [[Nirmal Dey]]’s [[Basu Parivar]], after which she married and retired from films for some years. Incarnated the ‘heroine’ of reformist middle-class pulp fictions. Adhered more to melodramatic orthodoxy than her chief rival, [[Suchitra Sen]], evoking e.g. Jamuna’s acting in [[P.C. Barua]] productions and generating a sense of nostalgia for pre-Independence middle-class Bengali melodrama, thus providing a kind of cultural legitimation to the weepies of the [[Agradoot]]/Agragami/[[Yatrik]] units and film- makers like Piyush Bose. Known outside Bengal for her extraordinary performance as the heroine in [[Ghatak]]’s [[Meghe Dhaka Tara]] and [[Komal Gandhar]]. These, and [[Ajoy Kar]]’s Suno Baro Nari, were rare instances in which she stepped out of her star image. Turned producer with the commercial flop Uttar Meleni. |
| 4 | Actress. Bengali star of 60s socials best known as romantic lead opposite [[Uttam Kumar]] (with whom she apparently featured in 33 films). Spent some of her childhood in Rangoon; introduced into films by veteran Bengali actress Chandrabati Devi. Début in [[Nirmal Dey]]’s [[Basu Parivar]], after which she married and retired from films for some years. Incarnated the ‘heroine’ of reformist middle-class pulp fictions. Adhered more to melodramatic orthodoxy than her chief rival, [[Chronicle/Suchitra Sen|Suchitra Sen]], evoking e.g. Jamuna’s acting in [[P.C. Barua]] productions and generating a sense of nostalgia for pre-Independence middle-class Bengali melodrama, thus providing a kind of cultural legitimation to the weepies of the [[Agradoot]]/Agragami/[[Yatrik]] units and film- makers like Piyush Bose. Known outside Bengal for her extraordinary performance as the heroine in [[Ghatak]]’s [[Meghe Dhaka Tara]] and [[Komal Gandhar]]. These, and [[Ajoy Kar]]’s Suno Baro Nari, were rare instances in which she stepped out of her star image. Turned producer with the commercial flop Uttar Meleni. |