An old Bangla song softly lingers through the halls of the India International Centre in Delhi, where memories of the legendary actor, singer, and filmmaker Arundhati Devi (born Arundhati Guha-Thakurta) come alive in a moving archival exhibition titled, ‘A Star Named Arundhati’. Curated by Mrinalini Vasudevan and Tapati Guha-Thakurta, the exhibition unfolds the story of a woman who helped shape the cultural imagination of a generation through her bold choices and commanding presence.
Born into a distinguished Bengali family, Arundhati grew up amid literature, music, and reformist thought. Her years at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan immersed her in Rabindranath Tagore’s aesthetic philosophy, while Gandhian ideals of discipline and moral clarity shaped her worldview. These influences instilled a conviction that art could transform society, offering reflection, resistance, and ethical engagement.
Candid family photographs — siblings laughing, friends in quiet conversation — reveal the private warmth behind the poised public figure, hinting at the empathy she later brought to her performances.
Solid performances
Her creative journey began with music. On All India Radio, Arundhati’s voice captivated audiences with Bengali songs rooted in classical and folk traditions. Music soon led her to cinema, where her expressive restraint and emotional nuance set her apart. By the 1950s and ’60s, Bengali cinema straddled romantic melodrama and the introspective realism of Satyajit Ray and Bimal Roy. In that milieu, Arundhati’s performances reflected women’s moral and emotional complexities across historicals, thrillers, comedies, and social dramas.
Unlike her more glamorous contemporaries such as Suchitra Sen or Supriya Chowdhury, she refused roles that hypersexualised or simplified her characters, bringing instead sophistication, honesty, and depth.
Her early films explored women negotiating love, duty, and independence. In Nad o Nadi (1954), she supported a partner’s ambitions; in Sati (1954), she unsettled traditional notions of marriage. Roles in Godhuli (1955) and Shurahi (1954) emphasized intellect and compassion, while Prashna (1955), Toka Ana Payi (1956), and Janmantar (1959) addressed class, caste, and moral dilemmas, sometimes in haunting dual roles.
Motherhood recurs as a motif, not merely sentimental, but socially imaginative. In Chhele Kar (1954) and Bakul (1954), she played women nurturing children beyond convention. Under Prabhat Mukherjee’s direction, she portrayed maternal figures in Maa (1956) and Mamata (1957), navigating infertility, separation, and care for differently-abled children. Jatugriha (1964) dealt with the pressures of childlessness on a couple.
Her acclaimed collaborations with Asit Sen — Chalachal (1956) and Panchatapa (1957) — further demonstrated her range. In Chalachal, she played Sarama, a doctor balancing personal and professional loyalties, accused of driving her husband to suicide. In Panchatapa, as Santana, a working-class woman caught in a dam site love triangle, she sacrifices herself to save a colleague. Sen recalled her as “principled, devoted, and gentle,” noting he would not have become Asit Sen without her influence.
She continued portraying independent working women in Kichhukhon (1959), Akashpatal (1960), and domestic comedies like Shashibabur Shongshar (1959), becoming the cinematic face of a new Bengali womanhood: modern, articulate, and empathetic.
Her directorials
Arundhati’s transition to direction and screenwriting extended the same reflective precision. Her National Award-winning Chhuti (1967) blended lyricism with realism, portraying youth and friendship with understated elegance. Later films, including Megh and Patalghar, explored psychology and moral ambiguity with poetic restraint.
Her son, Anindya Sinha, recalls, “She moved between personal and professional life seamlessly. She raised two children, balanced family responsibilities, and returned to films and direction on her own terms. She was liberated in the truest sense — doing what she believed in, regardless of convention.”
The exhibition also revealed surprising aspects. Curator and grand-niece Mrinalini Vasudevan explains that early writings uncovered in Anandabazar Patrika archives show Arundhati’s engagement as a writer and aspiring journalist — facets previously overshadowed by her singing and acting careers. These discoveries illuminate both her personal journey and the broader milieu of post-independence Bengali cinema, women’s evolving roles, and the interplay of art and social consciousness.
Arundhati Devi passed away in 1990, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate through her music, films, and defiant grace. 'A Star Named Arundhati' reconstructs not just a career, but a worldview — one in which creativity, integrity, and quiet courage intersect. As her old melodies drift through the exhibition halls, what remains is her enduring light: a woman who lived and created on her own terms, offering inspiration and reflection to generations past and present.
The exhibition is on till October 25, at the Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, IIC, 11 am-7 pm
