Birthday Wishes to Madhabi Mukherjee

Madhabi Mukherjee née Chakraborty (originally Madhuri Mukherjee), was born on 10 February 1942, has won the National Film Award for Best Actress for the Bengali film Dibratrir Kabya. She has acted in some of the most critically acclaimed films in Bengali cinema.

Her major role was the title role of Charu in Satyajit Ray's masterpiece Charulata. Her impact was such that Madhabi Mukherjee is still considered among the all-time greats of Bengali cinema.

As a young girl, she became involved in the theatre.She worked on stage with doyens like Sisir Bhaduri, Ahindra Choudhury, Nirmalendu Lahiri and Chhabi Biswas. Some of the plays she acted in included Naa and Kalarah. She made her film debut as a child artist in Premendra Mitra's Kankantala Light Railway (1950).

Madhabi first made a major impact with Mrinal Sen's Baishey Shravan (Wedding Day) in 1960. Her next major film was Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha (The Golden Thread) made in 1962 but released in 1965. In the early 1960s, she was recruited by Satyajit Ray to portray the role of Arati in the 1963 film, Mahanagar (The Big City). She plays Arati who takes a job as a saleswoman due to financial constraints in the family. The large joint family is horrified at the thought of a working woman. For Arati, going door to door selling knitting machines opens up a whole new world and new friends and acquaintances including an Anglo-Indian friend, Edith. Earning money also raises Arati's status in the family especially when her husband (Anil Chatterjee) loses his job. When Edith is sacked unfairly, Arati resigns in protest.Madhabi's towering performance as Arati dominates the film.

This film was soon followed by her portrayals of Charu in Charulata (The Lonely Wife), the 1964 film based on Rabindranath Tagore's novella Nashtanir (The Broken Nest, 1901). Mukherjee's stunning portrayal of Charulata, a bored and neglected housewife of Calcutta in the 19th century, is undoubtedly a towering performance in the history of Indian cinema.

Madhabi's third and last film with Ray was Kapurush (The Coward) in 1965. The film looks at Amitabha Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee), a screenwriter whose car breaks down in a small town. He lodges with a local resident, Bimal Gupta (Haradhan Bannerjee). Bimal is married to Karuna (Madhabi Mukherjee), who was a past girlfriend of Amitabha, a fact which Bimal is unaware of. Despite playing out predictably, Kapurush still has a great deal of charm, most notably in the wordless acting prowess demonstrated by Soumitra and Madhabi.

Her major films post Kapurush include Calcutta 71 in 1972 by Mrinal Sen, Biraj Bou in 1972 by Manu Sen, Streer Patra in 1972 by Purnendu Patri, Ganadevata in 1978 by Tarun Majumdar, Bancharamer Bagan in 1980 by Tapan Sinha, Chokh in 1982 then Chhandaneer in 1989 by Utpalendu Chakrabarty and Utsab in 2000 by Rituparno Ghos