"Suchitra Sen : Biography of a female star" a talk by Dr. Smita Mitra at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 17th December 2013

Time : 3:00 pm

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info :  Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'

Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on ‘Suchitra Sen : Biography of a female star’a talk by Dr. Smita Mitra, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi.

Abstract : This presentation maps the accretion of ‘iconicity’ of the well known popular female star of the 1950s and 60s from Bengal, Suchitra Sen. She is an important figure for the popular cinema in Bengal as she became one of the most successful female stars who commanded a status that is very often compared to Kanan Devi, the erstwhile star of the 1930s-40s. This presentation will unpack her stardom through a journey from the 1950s, 60s and the circulation of nostalgia around her that seems to haunt the contemporary as well. The paper will focus on certain cinematic moments from her career, the first phase in the 50s in which she became known for her romantic couple roles opposite Uttam Kumar, then the break- up of their pairing in the 60s to her charting of her individual star text in the 60s where she consolidated her position with the first ever International award won by an Indian actress at the Moscow film festival in 1963 with Saat Paake Bandha. Her star text was calibrated very carefully along the grids of sensual beauty and glamour. In effect it was this combination that led to a sense of unease that is seen in the numerous reader’s letters and responses in the film magazines of that time. She eventually became a recluse after her retirement from the industry in 1978 and after scattered brief public appearances has not been seen in public. Her retirement phase is marked by a curious re-invention of her star persona: the sadhika figure, a devoted devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahans, single handedly orchestrated by her biographer G K Ray, a cine journalist who was associated with the Bangla newspaper Jugantor. The questions that the speaker will address are the following: What could explain the possible reasons of unease that is visible in the film magazines of the 1950s -60s around the glamorous and sensuous star image of Suchitra Sen?  Why despite being a superstar she is not considered a serious actor like her contemporary Sabitri Chatterjee with whom she is always unfavorably compared? Why has she been ‘remade’ as a renouncer figure? How has nostalgia aided in this contemporary reinvention? Does her star text enable an entry to understand the contours of female stardom in the Indian context?

Speaker : Dr. Smita Mitra is Associate Professor English at Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, University of Delhi. Her areas of interests include Post- Colonial and Feminist Studies.  She has submitted her Ph.D dissertation on, ‘Post-Colonial Modernity: Melodrama and Self Fashioning in the Popular Bangla Cinema 1950-1970’, at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. Her present work looks at issues of cinematic modernity and stardom in the Indian context. She has published articles on the condition of Bangla film industry in the 1950s, in the Book Review and on Suchitra Sen, the female superstar of the 50S-60s in Seminar. Her recent presentations include ‘Scandalous Love: Eroticism in/and Popular Bangla Love Films of the 1950s’; ‘Writing the Star: Stardom and the Bangla Little Magazine discourse’ and ‘Writing the Stars: Issues of Gender and the Archive in Popular Bangla Cinema’. 

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