Legendary Bengali actress, Suchitra Sen, passed away at a city-based private hospital this morning. She was 83.

The actress was admitted to the hospital on December 24 with a lung infection. Doctors however, said that she died of a heart attack.

Known to be a recluse, Sen – the ultimate Bengali fantasy - had willingly been away from the public eye for over three decades now. As such she was often compared with Greta Garbo.

Her last film release was in 1978, Pranoy Pasha .

So strong was her desire to shun the public glare, that she even refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005.

Born in Pabna (now Bangladesh), her first appearance on screen was in 1953 - Sare Chuattor and Bhagaban Sree Krishna Chaitanya . But the runaway success of Sare Chuattor brought to the forefront a new pairing in the studio world of Tollygunj. The legendary Uttam–Suchitra pair was thus born.

Uttam Kumar of course was Bengal’s biggest ever matinee idol. And Suchitra, over the years evolved as the ultimate Bengali beauty. Their chemistry have held sway over the industry till date and even today their iconic pairing is the talk of legends.

The industry of course witnessed a spate of Uttam-Suchitra films following the success of Sare Chuattor , Ora Thake Odhare , Annapurnar Mandir , Agnipariksha , Moroner Pare , Sadanader Mela and Grihaprabesh were some of the notable ones.

Suchitra Sen’s impressive performances brought her to the notice of Bimal Roy in 1955. Her successful transition to Hindi films came with Devdas (1955); where she portrayed Parvati or Paro opposite Dilip Kumar.

Later, it was Hrishikesh Mukherjee who signed her for his directorial debut Musafir (1957) based on a story of Ritwik Ghatak with Dilip Kumar once again playing the lead.

Her successes in the Hindi film industry was followed up with equally stellar performances in Bengali films such as Harano Sur (1957), Pothe Holo Deri (1957), Deep Jwele Jai (1959), Saptapadi (1961), Saat Pake Bandha (1963) and Uttar Falguni (1963). Many of these were with Uttam Kumar.

There were some hits in Hindi too. These include teaming up with Dev Anand for Bambai Ka Babu (1960), Ashok Kumar and Dharmendra in Mamta (1966) and Sanjeev Kumar in Aandhi (1974).

While awards in India eluded her – she was twice nominated for the Filmfare awards ( Mamta and Aandhi ); she won the best actress award at the Moscow Film Festival for Saat Paake Bandha .

She was awarded the Padmashri in 1972. And, the Banga Bibhusan by the West Bengal Government in 2012.

abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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