By Rachaita Hore (Anish Sahni, Assistant Editor at The Indian Economist)
To comment or to not comment – that is the all-encompassing question plaguing every celebrity, self-styled or otherwise. January 17,2014 brought with it the death of two strong-willed and independent women- Mahanayika Suchitra Sen and Sunanda Pushkar, better known as the glamourous wife of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor. One chose to remove herself from public glare indefinitely and the other willingly sought it to focus attention on her personal life. This article seeks to explore the equation of the Suchitras and the Sunandas of the world with our society.
Suchitra Sen, born Rama Dasgupta in Pabna district of Bangladesh, breathed her last at the age of 82 in Belle Vue Hospital, Kolkata after a fatal cardiac arrest at 8:25 am. She was the first woman in Indian Cinema to build an acting career post-marriage and childbirth. Notably enough, she became the first Indian actress to win an overseas award when she won the Silver Prize for Best Actress for her film Saat Paake Bandha at the 1963 Moscow International Film Festival. After a long standing film career spanning over 50 movies, a career that included a successful Bollywood stint and numerous homegrown runaway hits co-starring Uttam Kumar, (forming the memorable Uttam-Suchitra duo, one that became a timeless testament to Bengali nostalgia) Mrs. Sen chose voluntary isolation. She faded away, initially from the media and then from the society, at large. The reason for her decision was never quite explained.
General speculation denotes her inclination towards spirituality and narcissism as possible culprits. She was often compared to the Swedish beauty Greta Garbo for her wish to evade the limelight. Such was her stoicism that she refused to forsake the privacy of her apartment despite the lure of a Dadasaheb Phalke Award. In death too, her enigma lives on. The elusive goddess of Bengali cinema was carried to her cremation site in a closed casket, evading the public eye till the very end.
This decision appears to have received a fair amount of flak. Many felt cheated as they had been hoping to catch one last glimpse of the actress, which had been denied them for decades. But the cine-star willed otherwise and so it was done by her ever-supportive family. As the day wore on, news channels were brimming with bites from contemporaries who had gone to the extent of criticizing her and calling her arrogant. A few actually opined their belief that shed deliberately made herself into a recluse to further sculpt her image. Whatever the case may be, I believe an individual has the right to live his or her life the way they desire. If Suchitra Sen chose a life away from the camera and in the company of her near and dear ones only, her decision must be respected. Yes, she was a public personality but she never did the public any disservice. She practiced her profession as long as she thought fit and then quietly retired to a life of rest and meditation. The street on which she resided has been renamed in her memory by the state government. If I could picture her, I suppose Id picture her blushing at the thought of it!
The coverage of the veteran stars death had not finished doing the rounds when the news of another death broke out. Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor was found dead in Room 345 of New Delhis Leela Hotel. Shashi Tharoors secretary Abhinav Kumar gave the first official statement to the media. He confirmed the news of her death and went onto add that the Tharoors had been sharing a suite at the hotel due to undergoing renovation work at their house. A lot in his account of the events seemed erroneous. Consecutively, many contradictory versions began to emerge thereafter from the hotel authorities and the Delhi Police. Both parties chose to reserve their comments on the cause of death. There was some talk of an illness but her doctor ruled out a resultant death on being interviewed the next day. The Post Mortem was carried out on January 18 and revealed evidence of the presence of signs of injury on the body. The report has not been released yet and since the matter is sub-judice, one must be careful to not give way to speculation. But recent memory recalls the scandal the Tharoors found themselves embroiled in just the other day. Mrs. Tharoor seemed to have gotten wind of an extra-marital affair involving her husband and a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar ansd had decided to get to the bottom of things herself. Refusing to keep quiet, she sought out journalists herself voicing her anger and frustration on the topic. Funny then that journalist Barkha Dutt, among others condemned her action on prime-time television shows, looking down upon Mrs. Tharoor in what she termed dirty-linen. Had the ministers wife not approached the media herself, would the media not have put out scoops on the subject? Why the sudden moral-high ground, I ask. Later though, Mrs. Tharoor denied having made such statements and claimed that her Twitter account (where most of the saga played out) was hacked. Some gab about Ms. Tarar being an ISI agent was also afloat. Everything alleviated (or at least, appeared to) at last when the Tharoors declaring marital bliss issued a joint statement. All reports on the contrary were dismissed as apocryphal. Sources say that originally Sunanda alone booked the hotel room for herself and only later did her husband arrive to transfer it to his name and join her in her stay. Then, who killed Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor? The truth will come out as it is wont to. The suicide saga, though, appears like an implausible cover up.
Suchitra Sen and Sunanda Pushkar. Both women, now dead. Maligned for assuming diametrically opposite stances on their private lives. Starkly different and yet in the end, rendered alike by the same society. Mull it over.
She is a second-year English Hons student at Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta University. She is a wannabe-writer/journalist and has been authoring articles on and off for The Times of India since her first-year. She has also had her fictional pieces featured in various national magazines, online and offline, notably Kindle Magazine and Youthopia. Feminist, Hipster, Oddball are all labels that have been used at some time or the other to describe her. To start a dialogue, drop her a mail at rachaita.h@gmail com.