Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 September 1876 ৩১শে ভাদ্র, ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ Debanandapur, Hooghly district, Bengal Presidency, British India (now in West Bengal, India) |
| Died | 16 January 1938 (aged 61) ২রা মাঘ, ১৩৪৪ রবিবার Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Kolkata, West Bengal) |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist |
| Language | Bengali |
| Nationality | British Indian |
| Period | 19th century – 20th century |
| Literary movement | Bengali Renaissance |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards | Jagattarini Award (by the Calcutta University) |
| Spouse | Shanti devi (m. 1906–1908) Hironmoyi devi (m. 1910–1938) |
| Signature | |
| Website | |
| sharat | |
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, alternatively spelt as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee (Bengali: শরৎচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়; 15 September 1876 or ৩১ শে ভাদ্র ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ – 16 January 1938), was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. Most of his works deal with the lifestyle, tragedy and struggle of the village people and the contemporary social practices that prevailed in Bengal. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.[1][2]
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876 (৩১ শে ভাদ্র, ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ),[3] in a Bengali Brahmin family in Debanandapur, a small village in Hooghly, West Bengal.[4]
Sarat Chandra spent most of his childhood at his maternal uncle's home[5] in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Chandra spent his childhood in extreme poverty. Chandra was a daring, adventure-loving boy. His education began at Pyari Pandit's pathshala, an informal village school and later he joined Hooghly Branch High School.[6] He was a good student and got a double promotion that enabled him to skip a grade.[7] He passed his Entrance Examination (public examination at the end of Class X) but could not take his F.A. (First Arts) examination or attend college due to lack of funds.[8]
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Main article: Sarat Chandra Kuthi |
After returning from Burma, Chattopadhyay stayed for 11 years in Baje Shibpur, Howrah. Then he made a house in the village of Samta, in 1923, where he spent the later twelve years of his life as a novelist. His house is known as Sarat Chandra Kuthi. The two-storied Burmese style house was also home to Sarat Chandra's brother, Swami Vedananda, who was a disciple at Belur Math. His and his brother's samadhi are within the house's compound. Trees like bamboo and guava planted by the renowned author still stand tall in the gardens of the house.[9]
The phenomenal popularity of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay has been attested by some of the most prominent writers as well as literary critics across India in their writings.[10] Most of the authors in Assam and Odisha, at least before the Independence, read him admiringly in original Bengali; rest of India read him in translations in varying quality. Publishers were never tired of reprinting his works; he remains the most translated, the most adapted and the most plagiarized author.[10] His novels also reached a number of people through the medium of film and he is still an important force in Indian cinema. O. N. V. Kurup[10] writes "...Sarat Chandra's name is cherished as dearly as the names of eminent Malayalam novelists. His name has been a household word". Dr Mirajkar[11] informs "the translations of Sarat Chandra created a stir amongst the readers and writers all over Maharashtra. He has become a known literary personality in Maharashtra in the rank of any popular Marathi writers including H. N. Apte, V. S. Khandekar, N. S. Phadke and G. T. Madkholkar". Jainendra Kumar,[10] who considers that his contribution towards the creation and preservation of cultural India is second, perhaps, only to that of Gandhi, asks a rhetorical question summing up Sarat Chandra's position and presumably the role of translation and inter-literary relationship: "Sarat Chandra was a writer in Bengali; but where is that Indian language in which he did not become the most popular when he reached it?"
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Further information: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay filmography |
His works have been made into around fifty films in many Indian languages.[10] Particularly, his novel Devdas has been made into sixteen versions, from Bengali, Hindi to Telugu. Parineeta has also been made thrice in Hindi. In 1957 Bardidi was made by director Ajoy Kar. Rajlakshmi O Srikanta and Indranath Srikanta O Annadadidi by Haridas Bhattacharya in 1958 and 1959 respectively, Majhli Didi (1967) by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Swami (1977), for which he was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Story, are other adaptations. Another famous film Chhoti Bahu (1971) is based on his novel Bindur Chhele. His novel 'Datta' was adapted into a Bengali film as Datta (film) in 1951 directed by Saumyen Mukhopadhyay starring Sunanda Banerjee and Manoranjan Bhattacharyya with Ahindra Choudhury as Rashbehari,[12][13] and again in 1976 starring Suchitra Sen and Soumitra Chatterjee. The film Sabyasachi (film) was released in 1977 based on his work Pather Dabi. The other movies based on his novel were Nishkriti, and Apne Paraye (1980) by Basu Chatterjee, starring Amol Palekar.[14] The Telugu film Thodi Kodallu (1957) is also based on this novel. Gulzar's 1975 film, Khushboo is majorly inspired by his work Pandit Mashay. The 1961 Telugu film Vagdanam by Acharya Aatreya is loosely based on his novel Datta. Also the 2011 film Aalo Chhaya is based on his short story, Aalo O Chhaya.'Chandranath'is also another film made based on his novel in the year 1957 and Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar played the main role.
| Year | Award | Category | Film(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Filmfare Awards | Best Story | Swami | Won |
