Nidhi Dugar Kundalia retweetledi
He could speak 8 languages and they said he could recite all 37 of Shakespeare's plays from memory. An award winning playwright & stage artist and one of Satyajit Ray's favourite actors.
Also one of India's finest comic actors in films like Golmaal, and Hirak Rajar Deshe. The irony is that the marvellous comic roles in Golmaal and other films, what most people outside remember him for, is what he regarded as the least important "I have developed a technique of shutting my mind off, switching it off, rather. I will not be able to tell you even the names of the films I have acted in or even the name of the character I have just finished shooting.”
He was also a brilliant writer & regular theatre reviewer. “Mr.Dutt as Othello was rather a pitiable sight, with his voice gone, his breathing laboured and his bulk enormous.” This was Utpal Dutt reviewing his own stage performance using the pseudonym Iago.
He also loved classical art and there is this wonderful story told by his daughter. "When we went to Italy, it meant we would have to spend at least one day on viewing each sculpture. We had hired the services of a guide. But, we found that Baba knew more about the place than the guide. The next day, the guide asked us if we would be ready to go on our own."
A true renaissance man and a principled one, not scared to go to prison for his views. Utpal Dutt was truly one of our greats.
97th birth anniversary today.
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