Arundhati Devi, actor and director, was one of the most independent minded and forceful women in the history of Bengali cinema. At a time when the Bengali film business was a conservative and patriarchal in its attitudes and values, Arundhati Devi along with her contemporary Manju De broke new grounds as far the position and role of women in the industry were concerned.

Arundhati Devi was born in the year 1925. Her father Bibhucharan Guha Thakurta was a scion of the Guha Thakurta family of Barisal (now in modern Bangladesh) – a family well-known for its interest in and patronage of cultural activities. She studied at the Shantiniketan Ashram founded by Rabindranath Tagore and from a very early age received training in dance, theatre and singing. In fact, when she was only six, she acted in the drama Dakghar and the dance dramas Mayar Khela and Tasher Desh, both of which were written and directed by Rabindranath himself. She learnt Rabindrasangeet under Sailajaranjan Majumdar, a professor in music at the Vishwa Bharati University in Shantiniketan. She also took talim in Indian classical dance under Guru Brajabashi and Balakrishna Menon. Her dancing and singing skills were much appreciated in another Tagore dance drama Balmiki Pratibha (1943)which featured students of the Vishwa Bharati University.  In the same year, she stood first in the final year Rabindrasangeet exams of Vishwa Bharati and joined the All India Radio as a regular presenter of Tagore songs.

In Kolkata, Arundhati started doing her Master degree studies and wanted to become a journalist. There she came in contact with the scriptwriter Binoy Chatterjee, who was a family friend, and under his influence, she was selected to join the payroll of the New Theatres Studios, which at that time still held its position as the premier film production unit operating out of Kolkata. Arundhati made her cinematic debut in the seminal film Mahaprasthaner Pathey (1952) which also had a Hindi version named Yatrik. The film directed by Kartik Chatterjee, depicted a group of pilgrims on an arduous trek in the high Himalayas, was a smash hit and is considered the proto-type of a series of pilgrimage films such as Bikash Roy’s Marutirtha Hinglaj (1959) and Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna (1972) directed by Hiren Nag and which had the great Pankaj Mullick as its music director. In Mahaprasthaner Pathey, Arundhati Devi essayed the role of Rani, strong-willed young widow who develops a soft corner for the young Brahmachari of the team played by Abhi Bhattacharya. Basanta Choudhury, another notable actor of the Bengali screen, also made his debut in this film which also boasted of actors of the calibre of Tulsi Chakraborty, Sisir Batabyal and Molina Devi.

Following the success of Mahaprasthaner Pathey, Arundhati’s position as a powerful actor became well established but she was not destined for typical romantic roles. Instead she became the embodiment of the liberated, modern woman and often played complex characters who defied social conventions and mores. Films like Naad-o-Nadi and Shoroshi (1954) were modest successes but Arundhati held her own opposite stalwarts such as Chhabi Biswas, Bikash Roy and Sandhyarani in these films. In the same year she acted for the first time with Uttam Kumar in the New Theatre’s production titled Bokul which was directed by Bholanath Bose. In, Dashyumohan (1955), a film based on the exploits of a Robin Hood type character of Bengali pulp fiction, Arundhati played the role of the intelligent and brave assistant to the detective (Bikash Roy) who finally causes the downfall of the swashbuckling brigand Mohan (Chhabi Biswas). The film was one of the biggest hits of the year. During this period she had a short –lived marriage with the director Prabhat Mukherjee but this did not affect her position and career in the industry. Films such as Maa (1956) directed by Prabhat Mukherjee, Debaki Bose’s Nabajanma (1956) with Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee and Asit Sen’s Panchatapa (1957) also contributed to her reputation as an actor comfortable in portraying women characters with a mind of their own.  

The turning point in Arundhati’s life and career came in 1957 when she visited the Berlin Film Festival as a part of the official Indian delegation. In Berlin she met Tapan Sinha, whose film Kabuliwala (1956) was very well received in the Festival, and it was love at first sight. Sinha in his memoirs Mone Pore wistfully reminisces about a romantic interlude in a deserted Berlin park where she sang the Rabindrasangeet “Pothe Jete Dekechhile More” and captured his heart in an instant. In Kalamati (1958), their first film together, Arundhati gave a brilliant performance as a dedicated social worker determined to open a crèche for the exploited workers of a colliery. In Kshudita Pashan (1960), Tapan Sinha’s screen adaptation of a Rabindranath Tagore story about a palace haunted by the ghosts of the Sultanate era, she essayed the role of a dancing girl who infatuates the cruel Sultan. Arundhati’s character had no dialogues but she was able to win the hearts of the audience through her subtle expressions, gestures and dancing abilities. However as Sinha, himself admitted, she was completely miscast in his historical adventure film Jhinder Bandi (1961) – a re-creation of the Hollywood hit The Prisoner of Zenda starring Ronald Coleman, Sinha’s childhood screen hero. The film starred Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee in pivotal roles and was shot lavishly in the deserts and palaces of Rajasthan but Arundhati was a complete failure in a role which went against her métier as a performer. But in Jotugriha (1964), which is considered as Sinha’s most intimate and stylized film, Arundhati is spot on, playing the role of Madhuri, the estranged wife of Satadal (Uttam Kumar) an archaeologist. She is brilliant as the independent minded woman who starts a new life as a school teacher after her divorce. The film was a successful exploration of the trials and tribulations of marital life and is remembered for its restrained mood and great performances by the lead actors. She also had an important role in Harmonium (1975), Sinha’s lyrical look into the decadence of the Bengali zamindari system. Arundhati Devi was also the costume designer of Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982) – Sinha’s harrowing tale of a rape victim’s fight for justice with Tanuja in the lead role.

Arundhati Devi also acted in a number of important films in the late 1950s and early 1960s which clearly were her heydays as an actor. Films like Shashi Babur Sansar and Pushpadhanu, (all released in 1959), Indradhanu (1960) were modest hits but her histrionic abilities received kudos from all. She turned producer for the first time with Bicharak(1959) directed by Prabhat Mukherjee and the film which had her and Uttam Kumar in the lead roles was awarded a Certificate of Merit as the 3rd Best Feature film at the National Awards in 1960.In Bijoy Bose’s Bhagini Nivedita (1962),she playedthe definitive role of her career and portrayed the role of Swami Vivekananda’s Irish disciple who dedicated her life for the cause of India with great élan. Admittedly the film the film was a simplistic study of this complex and fascinating woman, but the role suited Arundhati Devi just right and the film was a box office success.

After Bhagini Nivedita, Arundhati Devi cut down her screen appearances drastically and began to explore other facets of filmmaking. She had already turned producer with Bicharak, in 1962 she used her musical training and abilities to the hilt and composed the music of Shiulibari – a film by Piyush Bose which again had Uttam Kumar and Arundhati Devi in the lead roles. She turned director –a major step in breaking the patriarchal Tollygunje Studio set-up - with Chhuti (1967) a film which was both a critical and commercial success. The film tells the story of a tubercular teenaged girl named Bhramar (Nandini Maliya) who gets neglected when her father –portrayed by the noted actor Ajitesh Bannerjee – remarries after the death of her biological mother. She finds salvation in her romantic interlude with a sensitive young man Amal who is willing to wait for her cure and return from the sanatorium. Set within the Anglo-Indian community of present Jharkhand, the film exploited the sylvan surroundings of McCluskiegunje – a quaint Anglo-Indian settlement – to the hilt with some wonderful lyrical imagery. The film is also remembered for its sensitive portrayal of teenaged girl’s stepping into the responsibilities of womanhood. Under her expert handling the debutant Nandini Maliya gave a great performance as the sickly girl infused with a sense of joie de vivre. Chhuti won a Certificate of Merit at the 1967 National Awards and established Arundhati Devi as a director of considerable merit. Her next film was Megh-o-Roudra (1969) which told the story of a young widow (Suchita Roy) who rises against all odds and becomes literate with the help of a young student who is rebel against the British Raj.  Arundhati Devi’s efforts were again appreciated for its lyrical quality and her competent portrayal of a woman of substance. In fact her most popular and best remembered film Padi Pishir Barmi Baksho (1972) – based on the popular children’s novel by Leela Majumdar – also had a woman as the central character. In this film the great Chhaya Devi essayed the role of Padi Pishi – a formidable widow who tricks the noted Raghu dacoit (Ajitesh Banerjee) into gifting her, a gem encrusted Burmese box of great antiquity. The film captures the hilarious search by the film’s protagonist – Padi Pishi’s descendant a young boy named Khoka – and his family and a bumbling private eye (Robi Ghosh). The flashbacks which tell the adventures of the intrepid widow are shot in colour while the film also used a lot of trick photography and optical effects imaginatively.  Overall it remains an extremely enjoyable film and is one of the foremost examples of children’s film in Bengali. Unfortunately after this film Arundhati Devi’s involvement got limited due a series of illnesses. Deepar Prem (1983), a film about teenaged romance featuring Suchitra Sen’s daughter Moon Moon Sen and Tapas Pal was her last feature film while in 1985 she made another woman oriented telefilm named Gokul.

Arundhati Devi died in 1990 after a long illness. With her death Bengali cinema lost one of its better female actors and more importantly one of its pioneering and independent women who created an indelible impression both with the audiences and the powers to be in the industry’s patriarchal set-up.

Monish K Das is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune with specialization in Film Editing, 1992. He now lives and works as a documentary filmmaker and social communication consultant in Kolkata.