The actor used to dream of acting 50% like Birthday Uttam Kumar

In today's era, there are only a few film lovers who would know Uttam Kumar, but from the 50s to the 70s, Uttam Kumar was called the emperor of the Bengali film industry. It is not that Uttam Kumar did only Bengali films, he also made some Hindi films which include Chhoti Si Mulakat, Amanush, Anand Ashram, Kitaab, Desh Premi, etc.

Starting from the beginning, Arun Kumar Chatterjee worked as a clerk at the Calcutta port, and at the same time, his passion for acting forced him to join the Star Theatre. This was in 1945-48 when the film world was slowly shifting from Bengal to Mumbai. Arun Kumar was about to start his career in films at that time. In those days, the way loud acting was done in theatre, the same way actors started acting in films as well. It had become a trend to be overdramatic and shout loudly every time. But Arun Kumar's style was different. He started his career as an extra artist in a Bengali film named Mayadure but the film could not be released. Then he worked as a hero in a film named Drishtidan (1948), but this too flopped. Then someone suggested to him that the name Arun Kumar Chatterjee did not suit him and that he should come up with a stage name.

By the time Arun Kumar thought about it, his second film Kamona (1949) was released and it too flopped. Although Arun Kumar's acting was being praised, how long could the failure of the film keep him in the industry?

Considering his name to be a misconception, Arun Kumar Chatterjee became Uttam Kumar, and this name led him in such a good direction in his career that his next film Maryada became a hit. After this, only Sahyatri and Basu Parivar became hits, but Seventy-Four made him a Bengali star.

If you watch Uttam Kumar's acting, you will find that he never looked like he was acting. He got into the character as if he lived that character every day.

This was his specialty when he did Nishi Padma in Bengali, and Shakti Samanta in Bollywood could not stop himself and decided to make a Hindi remake of that film. Now think what will be the name of that Hindi remake film?

Shakti Samanta first finalized the actress for that film, who was Bengali beauty Sharmila Tagore. But it was very difficult to prepare Sharmila Tagore for a role in which she had to romance the hero and later also become the mother of a child. Sharmila initially refused to apply whitener to her hair, but then when Shakti Samanta shot some scenes and showed them to her, she felt that yes, some changes would have to be made to make this role look mature.

When Rajesh Khanna was offered the role of playing Uttam Kumar, he immediately said yes. But he did not have any dates. Shakti Samanta said, "Kaka, you do one thing, you shoot till 6:30, right? All your busy schedules are till 6:30, right? Give me the time after that, I will start shooting with Sharmila at 2 o'clock."

Thus, in just six months of effort, Shakti Samanta made a master class film like 'Amar Prem', and the film became such a super hit that Rajesh Khanna became a super duper star.

After the success of this role, Rajesh Khanna said, “I told Shakti Da that if I could do even 50% of the acting done by Uttam Kumar Ji, I would consider myself blessed.”

The comments made by every big star for Uttam Kumar are worth paying attention to –

Uttam Kumar did only two films with the great filmmaker Satyajit Ray, 'Nayak' and Chidiyakhana, but Satyajit Ray's statement after the death of Uttam Kumar was that "A bright lamp of the Bengali film industry has been extinguished today, is no hero like him today, nor will there ever be in the industry."

To enter the Hindi film industry, Uttam Kumar produced a film himself, named 'Chhoti Si Mulakat' (1967), in which he was accompanied by Vyjayanthimala . This film, composed with Shankar Jaikishan 's music, was released with great fanfare, but the Hindi-speaking audience could not digest this film at all and the film flopped badly. Uttam Kumar's acting was praised a lot but Vyjayanthimala was criticized a lot, but Uttam Kumar never blamed her. Vyjayanthimala used to say about Uttam Kumar "Uttam Kumar was one of the most professional and gifted actors. He was an expert in lip-syncing. All the critics blamed me for the failure of Chhoti Si Mulakat, but Uttam Kumar never criticized me."

However, it was also heard that Uttam Kumar had put everything at stake for this film and due to the failure of this film, he had his first heart attack. But if we ignore these rumors, Uttam Kumar went back to Bengal cinema soon after this. Shakti Samanta, his biggest fan of acting, brought him back to Hindi cinema once again.

In 1974, Uttam Kumar was seen sharing the screen with Sharmila Tagore in the film Amanush, which depicted problems related to casteism, illiteracy, etc. in Indian villages. This film was not a big blockbuster but Uttam Kumar's acting was highly praised. Not only this, Uttam Kumar also received a special Filmfare Award for this film. His best friend Kishore Kumar was awarded the Filmfare Award for the title song of the film - 'Dil Aisa Kisi Ne Mera Toda, Barbadi Ki Or Aisa Moda'. Along with this, lyricist Indeevar was also given the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist.

In Bengali films, his most popular pairing was with Suchitra Sen. Suchitra Sen used to say about him, “Uttam is my friend, he is amazing but I still feel that he has not been able to get roles worthy of his true potential.”

The great showman Raj Kapoor also used to say freely about Uttam Kumar that "Uttam Kumar is the smartest and the best hero of the modern era"

It was also heard that Dilip Kumar did not want Uttam Kumar to establish himself in the Hindi film industry, although Uttam Kumar was definitely called the Dilip Kumar of Bengali films. But Dilip Kumar had said about him that "Uttam was the best actor of our times, he was a simple-hearted person of his kind."

Actor-director Sumitra Chatterjee even used to say "If Uttam Kumar comes after committing a crime and then smilingly says that he has not committed any crime, then I will definitely believe that he is innocent."

Such a talented actor, who was also a singer and knew how to compose music, who at times understood films more than the director and when he entered into production, he never missed putting in his last coin.

Uttam Kumar, who is dedicated to films, deserves all the praise he can get.

He worked with Shakti Samanta in the Hindi film Anand Ashram (1977) and in the same year he played the lead role in Gulzar's film Kitaab. Unfortunately, none of the films did well at the box office, but both received rave reviews from critics.

In 1979, he again appeared with Sharmila Tagore in Bhimsen's film Dooriyan and this film also surpassed every other film in garnering praise.

But on 24 July 1980, he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of just 53. Although he was kept under observation by the hospital for 8 hours, he could not recover.

The industry lost an actor that day whose acting did not seem like he was acting, it seemed as if he was really living this scene, this character. Even after his death, some of his films were released in which he appeared with Amitabh in Desh Premi (1982) and his last appearance was in Mera Karam Mera Dharam (1987) with Dharmendra.

The world remembers such an actor even 41 years after his death and even today people learn how to act by watching his films.