Tarun Majumder (1931-2022): The humanist storyteller departs

Veteran filmmaker Tarun Majumder died of age-related ailments on Monday morning at the age of 91. He was one of the foremost directors to rule the hearts of audiences with moving human dramas steeped in the simplicity of the Bengali way of life for five decades.

The four-time National award-winning director, who was honoured with Padma Shri by the Indian government in 1990, was not only successfully able to infuse mass appeal in soul-stirring literature-based content but he also launched some of the most celebrated artistes of Indian cinema, including Moushumi Chatterjee, Mahua Roy Chowdhury and actor Tapas Paul.

Majumder also collaborated with Sandhya Roy, the reigning queen of Bengali cinema from 1960 to 1970, in twenty films and they eventually both got married.  

Born in a small city in the Bogra district of Bangladesh, a part of the Bengal Presidency of British India, on 8 January 1931, Majumder shifted to Calcutta along with his family in 1945. Despite their dire economic condition, Majumder would sometimes watch films produced by New Theatres, Bombay Talkies or directed by Charlie Chaplin, which kept the fire of telling stories alive in him.

In an interview with DD Agartala, Majumder revealed that while watching those films, he would start weaving his own plot in mind with the characters. Majumder learnt about screenwriting from reading cyclostyled scripts of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios’ English films that were submitted for censorship purposes and later sold off.

While working as an apprentice in Srimati Pictures, Majumder met Dilip Mukherjee and Sachin Mukherjee. In 1959, the trio directed their first film Chawa Pawa — with Majumder going by the moniker Yatrik — starring the iconic pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

Majumder was inspired by Satyajit Ray’s vision of telling stories with close detailing and a humanistic approach. He admired his pioneering contributions in films, literature, illustrations and music. Both Ray and Majumder heavily drew inspiration from Bengali literature in their films and also integrated songs by Rabindranath Tagore to lend universality to their characters’ emotional turmoil.

Yatrik also made Smriti Tuku Thak (1960), Kancher Swarga (1962) and Palatak (1963). Starring Anil Chatterjee, Kancher Swarga marked the acting debut of Dilip Mukherjee and fetched the trio the National Award for the Best Bengali feature film.

Palatak (1963), starring Anup Kumar, Sandhya Roy, Anubha Gupta and Ruma Guha Thakurta, was based on Manoj Basu’s story of a privileged man, who instead of choosing to lead a comfortable life, sets out to explore the world driven by an indomitable wanderlust. A roaring success, Palatak was later made into the Hindi film Rahgir (1969).

In 1965, Majumder discarded the Yatrik persona and directed Ek Tuku Basa (1965) and Alor Pipasa (1965). Both starred Roy as the female protagonist while Soumitra Chatterjee and Basanta Chowdhury played the male leads.

The filmmaker launched the teenage actress Moushumi Chatterjee in Balika Badhu (1967), a story about child marriage set against the backdrop of the freedom struggle. Based on a story by Bimal Kar, the film turned out to be the top-grossing film of the year and also won the Filmfare East Award for Best Film. Balika Badhu was later made into a Hindi film, which was a moderate success at the box office.

In 1972, Majumder won his second National Award for Nimatran (1971), based on a story by Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay.

Majumder’s Sriman Prithviraj (1973), a love story involving two adolescents that unfolds during the Swadeshi Movement, was again a major box office success and achieved cult status over the years. The film marked the debut of actress Mahua Roy Chowdhury and actor Ayan Banerjee.

Mahua-di was never happy in her life, remembers co-star Deboshree Roy

Born Shipra Roy Chowdhury, the actress had her name changed to Mahua at the suggestion of the director and was groomed by Sandhya Roy. The film’s songs, which were composed by Hemanta Mukherjee and written by Gouriprasanna Majumdar, gained massive popularity as well.

Majumder continued to enthral audiences with stories drawn from the treasure trove of Bengali literature and came up with more gems, including Phuleshwari (1974), based on Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay’s story of a village girl who falls in love with a criminal, and Sansar Simantey (1975), adapted from a short story by Premendra Mitra.

In an interview (2015) with the website Sahapedia.org, Majumder revealed that Ray was so engrossed by Sansar Simantey that he made detailed notes for a shorter version of the film after watching it once. Sansar Simantey also won the Filmfare East Award for Best Film.

For Majumder, literature was the best means to explore life as he thought it was impossible for one person to gain a vast range of experiences over a single lifetime, which can be offered by books. In the interview broadcasted on DD Agartala, the director revealed that his primary vision was to tell stories with characters capable of undergoing a heroic transformation despite having flaws. He sincerely believed that life is a journey of continuous self-improvement, and with every story, he hoped to inspire self-reflection and awareness in his audience.

The director received his third National Award for the multi-starrer Ganadevata (1979), an epic cinematic adaptation of the novel of the same name by Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay.  Both Nimatran and Ganadevata received the Filmfare East Award for Best Film.

In 1980, Majumder’s Dadar Kirti, based on an unpublished novel by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, took his career to greater heights. The super-hit Bengali film launched Tapas Paul and ensured his place in mainstream Bengali cinema for the next two decades. Mahua Roy Chowdhury aced the role of female protagonist Saraswati, and she received the Filmfare East Award for Best Actress. Deboshree Roy played the second female lead in the film. Before Dadar Kirti, the actress was known as Pinky Roy and was going through a rough phase in her career. Majumder advised her mother to change her name to Deboshree and Dadar Kirti turned out to be the turning point in her career.

In Majumder’s films, music and songs play a crucial part in conveying emotions. In an interview with noted tabla player Tanmoy Bose for the Bengali channel Akash Aath, the director said, “Music is the most condensed form of communication, and it can replace twenty pages of dialogues.”

Majumder mostly worked with Hemanta Mukherjee, who also rendered some of the most memorable songs from his films. Mukherjee also received the National award for Best Male Playback Singer for Nimantran and the West Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards (BFJA) for his music direction in Palatak, Balika Badhu, Phuleshwari and Bhalobasa Bhalobasa (1985). Mukherjee also won the BFJA Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Phuleshwari.

In 1985, Majumder made a shift from his comfort zone and helmed a documentary on afforestation, produced by the state government’s forest department. Here, again, he proved his excellence and the work of non-fiction — Aranya Amar — won the National Award for Best Scientific Film.

After a series of flops, Majumder tasted success with the romantic drama Bhalobasa Bhalobasa, starring Deboshree Roy and Tapas Paul. The actor went on to become a regular face in Majumder’s films and consecutively starred in Pathbhola (1986), Parasmoni (1988), Apon Amar Apon (1990), Kothachilo (1994) and Bhalobasar Anek Naam (2005).

In 2003, Majumder’s signature style of storytelling once again worked wonders at the box office with the Rituparna Sengupta-starrer Alo (2003). Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s classic novel Kinnardal, the film was screened for eight months at a stretch and was also nominated for National awards. The trend continued with Chander Bari (2007), his next collaboration with Sengupta. Majumder’s last feature film Bhalobasar Bari (2018) also starred the actress.

Bhalobasar Bari review: A melodramatic plot with no twist to engage the audience

In 2019, the then-88-year-old director made Adhikar, his last docu-feature, on the struggles faced by unorganized labourers of the country.

An avid reader, the filmmaker wrote extensively on Bengali cinema and the film industry. His published works include Cinemaparha Diye (Part 1 and Part 2) and Batil Chitranatya. According to the Bengali newspaper Eisamay, Majumder had also finished writing another book, Nakshikantha, in 2020.

According to the same report, during the lockdown, Majumder was planning a film with references to the Great Famine of Bengal, communal violence during the Partition and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Though filmmaking is a collective effort, Majumder believed that the process should be so synced that it would appear as a seamless harmonious effort from a singular mind.  In his prolific career, Majumder hardly experimented with form and content and was also quite satisfied with the fact that he never had to compromise on his vision of storytelling. However, the great director had two unfulfilled desires. He wanted to make a children’s film based on Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder’s folk tales collection Thakumar Jhuli and to adapt Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s epic novel Aranyak.