Celebrated Bengali writer Suchitra Bhattacharya passes away

Kolkata: Celebrated writer Suchitra Bhattacharya, many of whose books had been made into cult Bengali films including “Dahan”, died of a cardiac arrest at her south Kolkata residence on Tuesday night, her family members said. She was 55. Bhattacharya, who was born in 1960 in Bihar, was busy with her next puja fiction even on Tuesday evening but suddenly felt sick after dinner and was declared dead by her family physician at around 10:45 pm, the family member said. She was diagnosed as having suffered a massive cardiac arrest, the attending doctor said after declaring her dead at around 10:45 pm. [caption id=“attachment_2241504” align=“alignleft” width=“300”] Suchitra Bhattacharya. Image Courtesy: Facebook[/caption] A pall of gloom descended over the literary and artiste fraternity as news of her sudden death spread with Tollywood celebrities. “I am too numbed to say anything. She was nothing less than a mother,” said Rituparna Sengupta, who had brought to life a number of Suchitra’s literary works, including Dahan by Rituparno Ghosh and Alik Sukh by Shiboprosad Mukhopadhyay. Shiboprosad, who had directed a number of Suchitra’s popular novels including Ramdhanu, said he rushed to Kolkata from Bolpur after getting the news at around 11 pm. Contemporary writer Bani Basu and young writer Tilottama Majumder also condoled the death and expressed the truth was yet to sink in. Suchitra’s last rites will be performed on arrival of her daughter from outside the state on Wednesday. Suchitra penned over 20 novels, including Dahan, Kachher Manush, Hemonter Pakhi, Alik Sukh, most turning into bestsellers in Bengali literature and was popular among the new generation of women as well as others. She had received several literary awards. PTI