by ASHOK MITRA
Her going marks the surcease of a particular ambience. That ambience was created by the Bengali middle class in the middle decades of the 20th century. It coincided with a wondrous spurt of creativity in different spheres. That creativity was wrapped in a self-esteem full of dignity as well as humility, and could well claim for itself the sobriquet of a civilization. Scholars keep writing and talking about the supposed Bengali renaissance of the 19th century. Little point in joining issue with them. But the burst of creativity that took place roughly a century later ought to be accorded no less a recognition. Why be bashful about it either — the socio-cultural churning occurring in that phase was the direct outcome of the unravelling of a radical Left consciousness. It spilled over to earnest new experiments in literature, drama, filmmaking, dance, music, painting, sculpture. With the communist party acting as demure impresario, talent flooded the Bengal landscape. The coming out of Suchitra Mitra was a part of that cultural explosion. It can be put the other way round too. She herself contributed in shaping the milieu in the same manner academicians like Susobhan Sarkar, Hiren Mukherjee or Debiprasad Chattopadhyay, thespians like Sombhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt or musicians like Ravi Shankar and Salil Chowdhury or writers and poets like Manik Bandyopadhyay, Bishnu Dey, Samar Sen and Subhas Mukhopadhyay did. The new strivings admittedly had bourgeois roots, with sophistication written all over. What was nonetheless remarkable was the intensity of the urge to reach out to the people. And while the stirring of ideology constituted the undercurrent, that other awareness was equally strong: sophistication does not hurt the cause of ideology, quality counts in all seasons and under all circumstances.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)