The professor-playwright who grew to become a comic book star, chilling villain in Bollywood and Tollywood

NEW DELHI: His portrayals of the idiosyncratic, moustache-fanatic, and rule-imposing Bhawani Shankar or the strict ACP Dhurandhar Bhatawadekar in a brace of breezy Bollywood comedies are undeniably unforgettable, however he performed a extra lifelike function in ‘Guddi’ – that light deconstruction of the glittering but hole edifice of filmdom.

Utpal Dutt, as Prof Gupta within the 1971 movie, is aware of neither scolding nor recommendation will change the filmstar-struck teenager (then Jaya Bhaduri in her first Hindi movie), and the one means out is to let her take pleasure in fascination with movies and be taught first-hand the artificiality, heartbreaks, and wrestle that lies behind them.

Portraying a trainer, with revolutionary concepts, was not troublesome for Dutt, who was born on today (March 29) in Bengal’s Barisal (now in Bangladesh) in 1929. He had been an English trainer in (then) Calcutta’s South Level Faculty within the Nineteen Fifties and earned his college students’ admiration for his insights into literature, particularly Shakespeare’s performs, and impeccable diction.

He can be seen once more as a sensible elder, like Mr Bhattacharya who ensures a cheerful ending in ‘Julie’ (1975), and Mr Singh of ‘Baat Ban Jaaye’ (1986), who offers full freedom to his niece (Zeenat Aman) to decide on her life companion.

However, he would use his fluent English to browbeat the Police Inspector (Om Prakash) within the denouement of ‘Gol Maal’ (1979) – although he additionally derisively known as him “munchmunda”.

It was Dutt’s sense of timing, humorous intonation, particularly his pronunciation of “achha” – and the maniacal gleam and laughter he may produce, that enabled him to shine in comedy – ‘Gol Maal’, ‘Rang Birangi’ – particularly his slapstick chase of Farooque Sheikh by means of a youngsters’s playground, ‘Kissi Se Na Kehna’ (each 1983), and ‘Lakhon Ki Baat’ (1984).

He may use the identical mannerisms to play a chilling villain too – artful munim Ghoshal who drives the hero (Uttam Kumar) to despair and wreck in ‘Amanush’ (Bengali and Hindi, 1975), the covetous Maganlal Meghraj in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pleasure Baba Felunath’ (Bengali, 1979) and the bane of Amitabh Bachchan’s life as underworld don Saxena in ‘The Nice Gambler’, Sahuji in ‘Barsaat Ki Ek Raat’ (1981) and venal politician Seetaram in ‘Inquilaab’ (1984).

All this histrionic functionality owed to his thorough grounding in theatre – on which he was eager since his college days and made a reputation for himself each as a performer and a playwright. It additionally led to a spell in jail on expenses of sedition!

Nevertheless, it was Shakespeare that was fortunate for him – his efficiency as ‘Richard 3’ introduced him to the eye of the Kendalls (who subsequently grew to become Shashi Kapoor’s in-laws) and he accepted their invitation to affix their troupe and toured India with them for the subsequent two years.

Earlier, his efficiency as ‘Othello’ led to his first movie ‘Michael Madhusudan’ (Bengali, 1950).

Dutt later based his personal troupe and staged performs of Shakespeare, in addition to these of Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Rabindranath Tagore, Maxim Gorky, and Bertolt Brecht, earlier than deciding to focus on Bengali performs and transfer out onto the streets to succeed in the individuals.

Whereas he translated and tailored many Shakespearean and trendy playwrights, he additionally wrote practically two dozen performs, together with ‘Aaj ka Shahjahan’, which was the inspiration for Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘The Final Lear’.

It was ‘Kallol’ (1965), on the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946, that was a watershed. His function because the cigar-smoking Admiral, who orders the shelling of the mutineers, prompted Okay. A. Abbas to solid him because the Punjabi ex-serviceman who instructions the ‘Saat Hindustani’ (1969) – which was Amitabh’s debut and his personal entry into Bollywood.

However, Dutt’s theatre and Kendall affiliation had already made him one of many cross-over Indian stars for the Service provider-Ivory duo – enjoying a maharaja of their ‘Shakespeare-Wallah’ (1965), a choosy sitar maestro in ‘The Guru’ (1969), and in addition showing in ‘Bombay Talkie’ (1970).

He got here to nationwide prominence with Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’ (1969) as a “rule-book tyrant”, who rediscovers his humanity after a spell within the wilderness. The movie fetched him a Nationwide Award.

Dutt went on to do many Bollywood and Tollywood movies for the subsequent twenty years and extra – starting from these which grew to become cult classics to these ‘masala’ kitsch which sank with no hint. He later confessed that he had carried out a lot of the movies for the cash, and forgot the plot and even the film’s title after finishing his capturing.

His swan track – as for Satyajit Ray – was that masterly story of vanishing household ties and belief ‘Agantuk’ (1991), derived from the latter’s quick story ‘Athithi’. Dutt, earlier than he handed away in August 1993, revealed he handled the function as a “duty” since Ray had instructed him that the character of Manomohan Mitra drew on the auteur himself.