By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
On Her Birth Anniversary
Born 26 April 1948, Moushumi Chatterjee acted in Bengali and Hindi films with aplomb.The cute dimpled simple looking girl played opposite many of the leading Hindi heroes like Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra & Vinod Mehra.
It would be news to many that the actress made inroads into the filmdom after her marriage to Jayant Mukherjee (son of Hemant Kumar) as results she was looked upon with a diffetrent attitude & saw many good roles go to actresses lesser known & talented than herself.
Though she started her film career with a Bengali film ‘Balika Badhu’ (1967),the actress is still remembered for her simple girlish looks and the roles she enacted in Shakti Samanta 1972 film “Anuraag” starring Nutan, Ashok Kumar Vinod Mehra & Moushmi Chatterje with a soothing number “Sun Ri Pawan Pawan Purbaiya” in the vocie of Lata Mangeshkar. She played a blind girl with perfection and received applause from both critics and the audience. She later made her presence felt in “Roti Kapda Aur Makaan” (1974),a star studded film featuring Manoj Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor,Zeenat Aman ,Moushmi Chatterjee ,Prem Nath,Kamini Kaushal & Aruna Irani.She plays a poor girl.
.”Kuchhe Dhaage” (1973), “Benaam” (1974), “Rftaar” (1975), “Ghayal” (1990), “Zulm Ki Hukumat” & Khule-Aam” (1992) & “Maang Bharo Sajna” are some of her noted films. She was cast opposite Amitabh Bachchan in “Benaam” (1974) with a thrilling number in the voice of Chanchal “Main Benaam Ho Gaya”. “Piku” (2015) was one of her last releases.
Born in Calcutta,called ‘ City of Joy’, to Prantosh Chattopadhyaya, an Army Official, Moushumi’s real name is Indira . Her grandfather was a Judge.
Nominated Best Actress for her roles in “Anurag” & Supporting Actress in ‘Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. She was bestowed with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 .
