Umasashi

Umasashi (1915–2000), was an Indian film actress of Bengali descent who appeared in many roles from 1929 to 1951.^[1] Her on-screen pairings with actors such as Durgadas Bannerjee, K.L. Saigal, Pahari Sanyal and Prithviraj Kapoor were popular on those days.

Early life[]

Umasashi was born on 1915 ^[2] in a poor Brahmin family of Calcutta. Her father Nilmani Chattopadhyay's ancient home was in Dhaka, East Bengal, British India but he later settled in Calcutta. He was a Kirtan artist and sometimes act as a Jatra artist in a local Jatra group. As a child Uma received a very little formal education in a local school due to poverty.^[3] She received dance and music training from the age of four. Miss Satkari Ganguly was her first music and dance teacher. As Satkari Ganguly was an actor she took her on stage where she started work as a group dancer in theatre like Minerva, Alfred and Russa. Soon she played minor roles in the stage and became a part of a touring Jatra group from Kolkata to different parts of undivided Bengal like Chittagong, Cox's Bazar etc. She was a perfectionist at her time. She had appointed several Hindi, Urdu and English tutor for perfect pronunciation of those languages. After her Debut in Bangabala a silent movie she had to quit the stage because the authorities would not allow their paid staff to work in films.

Career[]

She started working as an actor in the silent movie Bangabala in a small role of Subarna. The other silent films she act are Bigraha (1930) and Abhishek (1931). In this time she started recording songs for Columbia and then to Hindusthan Musical Products as Smt. Uma Devi. ^[4] Umasashi appeared in over 3 silent movies as an actor. In 1931, She appeared in the first Bengali language sound film, Dena Paona (1931),^[5][6](Bengali: দেনা পাওনা) which was a major hit. Where she acted in a crowd scene of Gajan and also sang a song “ Baba Apan Bhola Moder Pagal Chhele “ along with Miss Abhavati. She was trained the song by legendary music director Pankaj Kumar Mallick.^[7] Umasashi 's first leading role was in Chandidas(1932) movie of New Theatres where she played the role Rami. Old cinema lovers are still remember her for the role of Rami.

Personal life[]

Umasashi married Mr Guru Prasad Dev an attorney by profession and a member of the Shobhabazar Rajbari on the top of her career. In those days it was not easy for a glamorous actress to become a member of such a conservative family. So she had to wait for quite some time to allowed into the ancestral house of the Deb's. Her husband was already married and Umasashi had to share the house of her husband with his first wife. There was another problem to left the glamour world as she had a contact with the New Theatres which was not over yet. But the proprietor of New Theatres Mr B.N. Sircar was very kind hearted and gladly given the necessary permission and his blessings to the newly wed couple. Later she becomes a mother of three sons and a daughter. After her marriage she mostly remained outside the film industry. At an advanced age she gives interviews to the print and electronic media for occasionally and attended film functions for twice.^[8]

Death[]

She died on 6 December 2000. Her family did not want any publicity so the news of her death was came to media after a few days of her death.

Awards and nominations[]

She attended BFJA award giving function as a chief guest. She got the Hero Honda award as the living legend in the year 2000.

Selected filmography[]

References[]

External links[]

• Umasashi at IMDb