{"id":3567,"date":"2017-03-29T16:11:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T10:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=3567"},"modified":"2017-04-01T22:37:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T17:07:25","slug":"utpal-dutt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/utpal-dutt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Multi-Layered Persona of Utpal Dutt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Utpal

Utpal Dutt
(29 March 1929 \u2013 19 August 1993)<\/p><\/div>\n

Utpal Dutt was born on 29th<\/sup> March 1929 in Basirhat. Few remember his rich contribution to the history of theatre in the country, much less, his contribution to the world of cinema- both Hindi and Bengali, mainstream and off-mainstream. Dutt, who began his career as a stage actor when he was a schoolboy, in Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III<\/em>, took theatre beyond the geographical parameters of the stage. Like Augustc Boal (the Latin American theatre personality who wrote Theatre of the Oppressed<\/em>), Dutt felt that all theatre is political. He never wearied of stressing that theatre could never be meaningful if does not consider the political ethos within which it has to negotiate the terms of the volatile and fluctuating relationships between and among human beings.<\/p>\n

His career in films spans an oeuvre of more than 100 films covering forty years. It covers a colourful range of characterizations beginning from the upright and honest government officer in Mrinal Sen\u2019s Bhuvan Shome<\/em> (1969) to Satyajit Ray\u2019s Agantuk<\/em> (1991) and Gautam Ghose\u2019s Padma Nadir Majhi<\/em> (1993.)\u00a0 His range covered a happy mix of the comic and the villainous in Hindi mainstream cinema. He regaled the audience as the lovelorn Bhavani Shankar Bajpai in Naram Garam<\/em> smitten by the beauty of Swarup Sampat. And the audience hated him for his diabolic villainy in Shakti Samanta\u2019s Amanush<\/em>. He played the despotic dictator to the hilt in Ray\u2019s Hirak Rajar Deshe<\/em> while he used his Bengali-ised Urdu to make audiences laugh away in a delightful guest appearance in Dulal Guha\u2019s Do Anjaane<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Utpal

Utpal Dutt in Mrinal Sen\u2019s Bhuvan Shome, Satyajit Ray\u2019s Agantuk and Heerak Rajar Deshe, Gautam Ghose\u2019s Padma Nadir Majhi and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Naram Garam and Golmaal<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cVisual images did not make any impact on me, neither during my childhood days, nor when I turned older,\u201d he once said when asked why he stepped into cinema much later in his life after he had already done a lot of theatre. His entry into cinema was more by chance than by deliberate choice. When Shakespearana International Theatre Company led by Geoffrey Kendall left India for good, Utpal Dutt\u2019s troupe continued to perform English plays. Once while they were performing Othello<\/em>, the famous filmmaker Madhu Bose came to watch the performance. He was then looking for a leading man to do his film based on the life of the Indo-Anglian poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Impressed by Dutt\u2019s interpretation of Othello<\/em>, Bose offered him the role. Dutt was then looking for an opportunity to widen his canvas and to branch out and seek fresh pastures so he accepted the offer happily.\u00a0 This was the beginning of a long career marked by a thick portfolio of films in Hindi and Bengali while the stage remained his first love and his troupe continued its movement in serious political theatre.<\/p>\n

Mrinal Sen once admiringly described Dutt as an actor who could play roles from the sublime to the ridiculous with equal flair. When asked how he made the switch from an outright commercial masala <\/em>film like Fariyaad<\/em> to a Ray film like Joy Baba Phelunath, Dutt said, \u201cI have developed a technique of shutting my mind off, switching it off, rather. I will not be able to tell you even the names of the films I have acted in or even the name of the character I have just finished shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did character roles and switched smoothly from villainous characters to comic ones without effort. He is one of the first of theatre personalities who did not permit theatrics to spill over into his acting for the film camera. He did not wear his intellectual knowledge on his sleeve and few of the Bollywood industry had an inkling into his rich work in theatre, first in Bengali and then in English. His brief cameo in Dulal Guha\u2019s Do Anjane<\/em> with Rekha, Amitabh Bachchan and Prem Chopra as a producer who stammers over certain Urdu words was hilarious and satiric at the same time.<\/p>\n

Utpal Dutt strikes a deal for a film with Amitabh Bachchan in his pidgin Hindi in Do Anjaane<\/em> (Watch from 3:28)<\/span><\/p>\n