Bengali actors and their most unconventional roles

Two of the most difficult things to portray on celluloid are comedy roles and the role of a villain or an odd one which breaks the stereotype. These characters, if essayed efficiently, open the door of a spectrum of human frailties and complex emotions. Here is a list of Bengali actors who surprised the cine lovers with their unconventional character portrayals:

The Bengali beauty is not just a household name in the Kolkata film industry; she has also cemented her place in Bollywood with two hits ‘Hate Story’ and ‘Yaara Silly Silly’. However, the 32-year-old actress, after starting her career with Gautam Ghosh’s ‘Kaalbela’, shocked the whole industry with her frontal nude scenes in ‘Chatrak’. The sex clip of this 2011 film went viral for explicit sexuality. Paoli was heavily criticized for the scene showing oral sex. The issue turned so big that even national media were forced to host debates to discuss the situation.

Rituparno Ghosh gifted Bengali cinema a new life. The last part of his work to some extent became too personal. His films started to portray homosexual relationships instead of heteronormative ones (‘Memories In March’, ‘Arekti Premer Golpo’). By portraying the burning issue, whose existence we still refuse to accept in society, the national award-winning director, who passed away in 2013, was extremely audacious with his opinions and his cinematic ideology. That’s why the latter half of his life saw his once favourite ‘middle class’ fans suddenly questioning all his work and even alleged it was his personal agenda that persuaded him to do such controversial roles.

In Anik Dutta’s 2013 film ‘Ashchorjyo Prodeep’, Sreelekha Mitra played the role of a cribbing wife Jhumur whose husband is Anilabho Gupta (Saswata Chatterjee), a typical modern day middle-class man. The beautiful actress with her voluptuous look in transparent sarees literally shocked the Bengali audience. Sreelekha was never shy of showing her body parts, but this time it was too extreme to handle. While her family goes through ups and downs and ultimately confronts the facets of middle-class existence, Sreelekha was often seen in bold dresses to satisfy her daily needs.

Bengali film industry’s iconic figure Uttam Kumar is regarded as one of the best actors India has ever seen. A career that spanned over three decades saw Uttam Kumar in as many as 211 films. Pijush Bose’s 1975 social drama ‘Bagh Bondi Khela’ is believed to be the legendary actor’s first ever appearance as an antagonist. Uttam was cast as an evil politician, expert in cross-border smuggling, money laundering, illegal property business and a man who loves prostitutes. The movie, inspired by a story written by renowned author Prafulla Roy, didn’t do well at the box-office and the Bengali audience failed to accept their idol portraying a completely negative role. They were shocked to see their romantic hero as a villain.

Rii has always been the common link between a bunch of films confronting the general norms in both acceptability and decorum for the past few years. She has acted in her partner Q’s directorial ‘Bishh’, ‘Gandu’ and ‘Tasher Desh’. All of these films showed sexually explicit scenes with a daredevil approach breaking the contemporary approach. Termed as one of the major sexually explicit Bengali movies, Rii’s most shocking role was in ‘Cosmic Sex’ that went viral on the internet as soon as it was released online. Director Amitabh Chakraborty tried to go deep into the Baul philosophical part of Deha Tathya. It also became one of the most searched movies online and drew scathed attack from the critics due to Rii’s sexually explicit scenes.

Critically acclaimed director Birsa Dasgupta’s 'One' is widely acknowledged as a milestone film for Bengali industry. Tollywood superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee was portrayed as a completely negative character. He played the role of a mad scientist who invests his entire genius in evil deeds. The way he played the character, it clearly showed his masterclass in breaking the cliches. Another shocking role of the actor came in Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s ‘Khwato’ in which he played the role of an erotic novel writer Nirbed Lahiri. When your physical pleasure outgrows the moral and ethical restrictions then the definite line between an animal and a human being gets blurred. Prosenjit’s in and out, negative role in this film surprised everyone. How many actors would dare to accept such difficult role?

Meet Saswata Chatterjee as the fictional contract killer Bob Biswas, a character made famous by the 2012 thriller ‘Kahaani’. The Sujoy Ghosh directorial set in Kolkata’s dark underbelly gave a new life to popular Bengali actor Saswata. Bob Biswas is a typical Bengali, middle-aged insurance agent during daytime and a contract killer with snake eyes at night. As fans testify, Bob Biswas clearly proves that looks can be deceptive sometimes. For Saswata, whom we have even seen as Topshe, the assistant of Satyajit Ray’s legendary fictional character Feluda in his early days, Bob Biswas became the ticket to nationwide stardom, despite being a negative role.

This Bengali classic pitted the legendary Uttam Kumar against Soumitra. The former was a matinee God at that time and the latter was climbing his way to superstardom with terrific performances and spontaneity. And the rest is history! They both went on to create sheer magic in the remake of 'The Prisoner of Zenda'. Soumitra played the antagonist and to some extent managed to overshadow Uttam Kumar’s protagonist character. After watching ‘Jhinder Bandi’, many even fell in love with the antagonist Mayurbahon more than the protagonist Shankar Singh.