Soumitra Chatterjee

Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay (Shoumitro Chôṭṭopaddhae; born 19 January 1935) is an Indian film and stage actor and poet. He is best known for his collaborations with film director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films, and his constant comparison with the Bengali cinema screen idol Uttam Kumar, his contemporary leading man of the 1960s and 1970s.

Starting with his debut film, Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959), the third part of Apu Trilogy, he went on to work in several notable films with Ray, including Abhijan (The Expedition, 1962), Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest, 1969); Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder, 1973); Sonar Kella (The Fortress, 1974), Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1978), Ghare-Baire (The Home and The World, 1984) and Ganashatru (Enemy of the People, 1989). Meanwhile, he also worked with other noted directors of Bengali cinema, with Mrinal Sen in Akash Kusum (Up in the Clouds, 1965), Tapan Sinha in Kshudista Pashan (Hungry Stones, 1960), Jhinder Bandi (1961), Asit Sen in Swaralipi (1961), Ajoy Kar in Saat Pake Bandha (1963), Parineeta (1969), and Tarun Mazumdar in Sansar Simante (1975) and Ganadevata (1978).

Bengali

Bengali may refer to something of, from, or related to Bengal, a region in the north-eastern part of South Asia including:

Other uses

See also

Music of India

The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk music, pop, and Indian classical music. India's classical music tradition, including Hindustani music and Carnatic, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. Music in India began as an integral part of socio-religious life.

Classical music

The two main traditions of Indian classical music are Carnatic music, which is found predominantly in the peninsular regions, and Hindustani music, which is found in the northern, eastern and central regions. The basic concepts of this music includes shruti (microtones), swaras (notes), alankar (ornamentations), raga (melodies improvised from basic grammars), and tala (rhythmic patterns used in percussion). Its tonal system divides the octave into 22 segments called shrutis, not all equal but each roughly equal to a quarter of a whole tone of Western music.

Hindustani music

The Hindustani music tradition diverged from Carnatic music around the 13th-14th centuries AD. The practice of singing based on notes was popular even from the Vedic times where the hymns in Sama Veda, an ancient religious text, were sung as Samagana and not chanted. Developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary traditions established primarily in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In contrast to Carnatic music, the other main Indian classical music tradition originating from the South, Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient Hindu musical traditions, historical Vedic philosophy and native Indian sounds but also enriched by the Persian performance practices of the Mughals. Classical genres are dhrupad, dhamar, khyal, tarana and sadra, and there are also several semi-classical forms.

Swastika Mukherjee

Swastika Mukherjee (born 13 December 1980) is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of actor Santu Mukherjee. Mukherjee first appeared on screens in the TV serial Devdasi and made her film debut in 2003 in Hemanter Pakhi. Her first lead role came with Mastan.

Personal life

Mukherjee spent her childhood in a self-described "simple life" with her father Santu Mukhopadhyay, younger sister Ajopa and mother Gopa. Her favorite films were Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. She was educated at Carmel School, Kolkata, St. Teresa' School, and Gokhale Memorial School.

In 1998 at the age of 18, she married singer Pramit Sen, son of Rabindra Sangeet singer exponent Sagar Sen. The marriage was unhappy, lasting two years before the couple separated. She accused him of physically abusing her and locking her out of their home when she was pregnant. She filed a charge against him for cruelty (it was later dismissed). According to Mukherjee, Sen filed for divorce in 2000 but changed his mind when she became successful in her acting career. She had one daughter from the marriage, Anwesha, born in 2000.