Report by: Barnali Bose (Senior Associate Editor ICN-Group)
On the 30th of January,2018, Soumitra Chatterjee,the living legend of Bengali Cinema received the much coveted Legion d’ honneur from the French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler.
The honour had earlier been conferred upon Durga Charan Rakshit, Satyajit Ray, Lata Mangeskar, Bikas Chandra Sanyal, Pt Ravi Shankar, Amartya Sen and Sharukh Khan.
The actor,now aged 83 has acted in over 300 Bengali feature films of which 14 were directed by Satyajit Ray and 6 by Tapan Sinha, both acclaimed as iconic in Bengali film direction.
Two posters from his films were on display but the sight of the vintage Ash Carbon projection that screened Chatterjee’s debut film ‘Apur Sansar’ filled him with emotion .
His acquaintance with France began as a student of Literature and the beauty of French impressionist paintingfurthur deepened his ties with France.
The French ambassador described him as”an emblematic actor of Ray’s Cinema”and ” a prototype of the Bengali gentleman.”
Ziegler mentioned the year 1988 when the then French President had himself presented the award to Satyajit Ray on his visit to Kolkata.
Mr Chatterjee said that he felt honoured and privileged to have received the award and the occasion would remain etched in his memory as long as he lived. To this, Ziegler is quoted to have said,” You are a true friend of France.France loves you as much as you love France.”
