Abhijaan to explore multi-faceted personality of Soumitra Chatterjee, says director Parambrata

Actor-Director Parambrata Chatterjee, who helmed Soumitra Chatterjee’s biopic Abhijaan for the big screen, has said it was like being guided to the life of the Master by the Master himself. Parambrata said he had harboured a long cherished dream of capturing the thespian’s life in the form of a biopic. “As things fell in place, I signed Soumitra jethu to portray himself on screen. Thus, Abhijaan begun. It remains as one of his last works on celluloid,” he said on Friday after the trailer launch of the film. “The history of Indian cinema remains incomplete without mentioning the name of Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay. I am truly indebted to him for agreeing to not even just allow me to make this movie but also act in it. His demise is truly unfortunate and a major loss for the film and theatre fraternity,” Parambrata said. Recalling how the Dada Saheb Phalke awardee was extremely active even at his age, he said “I have shared some wonderful moments while working on Abhijaan. It was like being guided to the life of the Master by the Master himself. So many unknown facets came up during our conversations.” While the 84-year old had portrayed himself during the later phase of his life, Jisshu Sengupta has essayed the younger Soumitra on the screen. A galaxy of acclaimed actors from Bengali film industry are in the cast. While Paoli Dam will be seen as diva of 60s and 70s and Soumitra’’s contemporary Suchitra Sen, Sohini Sarkar portrays as Madhabi Mukhopadhyay, Rudranil Ghosh as good friend and versatile character actor Rabi Ghosh, Padmanabha Dasgupta as acclaimed Anup Kumar, Tuhina Das as Soumitra’s co-star in an important film Waheeda Rehman. Dulal Lahiri as veteran actor in ’60s Chhabi Biswas, Q aka Kaushik Mukherjee as Soumitra’s mentor in films Satyajit Ray, Debshankar Halder as Shishir Bhadhuri, Anindita Bose as friend and colleague Aparna Sen, Tridha Choudhury as Sharmila Tagore, Basabdatta Chatterjee as wife Deepa Chattopadhyay Sohini Sengupta as daughter Poulomi Bose amongst others. Superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee will be seen in a special role while Parambrata Chatterjee has also one surprise appearance. Recalling his shooting experience, the last phase of which had continued during unlock phase in last year, Parambrata said “capturing the era and the mannerisms of other renowned personalities were quite a challenge but my entire cast played their roles to perfection.” He said in the trailer voice over addressing Soumitra: “You are not merely an actor, you are a poet, a playwright, and a politically conscious personality. You are all in one.” “I have sought to bring out the journey in Soumitra Chatterjee’s life in this film. Apart from his acting career, snippets of his private life and his life’’s adventure has been brought forth in the movie which I loath to call commercial.” Parambrata, who shared a special rapport with Satyajit Ray’s Apu said he will never use the word late before Soumitra’s name anywhere in the film’s credits. The film seeks to explore the actor, poet, painter and a doyen in the field of theatres - the multifaceted personality - and one of the cultural icons of Bengal. The film will be released in coming months, this year but the date is yet to be finalised. National Award Winning Music Composer Prabuddha Banerjee has composed the music for the movie while the screenplay and dialogues are done by Padmanabha Dasgupta, Parambrata Chatterjee and Dr Shubhendu Sen. Watch the trailer here —