The definitive biography of one of Indian cinema's biggest icons

Arguably the greatest star of Bengali cinema, Suchitra Sen mesmerized audiences for years, before withdrawing from the public gaze and refusing to emerge in the limelight in the last decade of her life. In this nuanced biography, Shoma Chatterji unveils the two different dimensions of the Suchitra Sen persona: as a legendary romantic star with an audience pull spanning over two decades, and her slow but steady metamorphosis into a powerful performing artist through films like Deep Jele Jai, Hospital, Mamta and Aandhi who could seamlessly and effortlessly essay completely different characters without the on-screen partnership of Uttam Kumar. Award-winning author and film critic Shoma Chatterji presents a fascinating portrait of an icon of Indian cinema, addressing two significant elements that have not been touched by other writers: Suchitra Sen as a working woman in films and her wilful social seclusion.

About the Author

Shoma A. Chatterji, film critic, journalist and author, won the National Award (1991) for Best Film Critic and the Best Film Critic Award from the Bengal Film Journalists' Association (1998). Her book Parama and Other Outsiders: The Cinema of Aparna Sen won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema in 2003.