India, May 31 -- A few weeks before the release of Apur Sansar (The World of Apu; 1959), directed by Satyajit Ray, Charlie Chaplin's Limelight was re-released in Calcutta. A large hoarding in the city displayed the film's poster. The actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who was making his cinematic debut with Ray's film, would "admire this larger-than-life poster as he passed the area" on his way to work, writes journalist Sanghamitra Chakraborty. "One evening. unmindfully looking up to get a glimpse of the Limelight poster. he got the shock of his life." Chaplin's face had been replaced by his own. "It was a poster of Apur Sansar." This remarkable debut launched Chatterjee into a career that would make him one of the most important actors of 20th-century India. Chatterjee acted in 14 of Ray's 29 feature films. He also collaborated with almost every major director in Bengali cinema, and had a successful career as a stage actor, a poet, the editor of a magazine, and dabbled in visual arts. Chakraborty's deeply researched biography, Soumitra Chatterjee and his World, explores these aspects of his life and career. Through interviews with his family, friends and colleagues, archival research (including Chatterjee's journals) and an analysis of his work, Chakraborty creates a compelling portrait of a complicated human being. Instead of slipping into a hagiography, as is common with celebrity biographies in India, Chakraborty explores the less-than-complimentary aspects of her subject's life too, including his extramarital affairs and dubious career decisions. She does this with an empathy that does not in any way diminish Chatterjee but instead reveals him to be human. Though Chatterjee has been the subject of several biographies, this is perhaps the most detailed and engaging one yet. The book is divided into 10 parts, each exploring a different aspect of its subject's life, ranging from his family and early years outside Calcutta, his college and university education, his early days in theatre (under the tutelage of the thespian Sisir Kumar Bhaduri), his Coffee House friends and literary pursuits, his committed leftist politics, and his relationship with his wife Deepa Chatterjee, a talented badminton player. A significant portion is dedicated to his relationship with Ray. It is also full of anecdotes that might surprise even devoted cinephiles. For instance, writing about why Chatterjee did not collaborate with Ritwik Ghatak, one of the most celebrated Bengali arthouse filmmakers of the 1960s, Chakraborty quotes from an interview in which Chatterjee describes a public meeting a which he and Ghatak were guests. Quite characteristically, Ghatak turned up inebriated and started abusing Ray. "I did not get provoked since I did not hold a brief to defend Ray," says Chatterjee. "Maybe he got frustrated at my nonchalance and he threw a swear word at me." Flying into a rage, Chatterjee held Ghatak by the collar and landed a blow on his face. From the vantage point of half a century on, it is somewhat amusing to see, through Chakraborty's narration, two revered figures engage in such behaviour. Such incidents remain with the reader long after the book has been put away. The author also analyses Chatterjee's work with filmmakers such as Tapan Sinha, Asit Sen and Saroj De, locating it within the context of Bengali cinema. There is very little scholarship on Bengali popular cinema, with scholars focusing largely on Ray and his arthouse contemporaries. This book, therefore, breaks new ground. It will hopefully inspire more writers to examine the history of a remarkable film culture....