Candid Moments

1991. Utpal Dutt (1921 – 1993) & Sobha Sen (1923 – 2017).  Utpal Dutt was a great intellectual and a legendary Indian actor, director and playwright renowned for his versatile roles in both Bengali and Hindi cinema. He was a good friend of mine with whom I spent a lot of time together on French art and culture, especially when he was my house guest in Paris. His actress and theatre artiste wife Sobha Sen, known for her powerful roles in plays, accompanied her husband to my art exhibition in Kolkata at the Academy of Fine Arts.

INDIA’S BLOODY INDEPENDENCEIN 1947

When India was partitioned 1947 to create Pakistan, a new country for Muslims, about 20 million people of Bengal and Punjab were displaced and brutally victimized. Sen’s wealthy, literate family had huge landed property in erstwhile East Bengal, the present Bangladesh, which was carved out to be East Pakistan for Muslims. So for being Hindus Sen’s family was overnight evicted from their home. Without taking any possessions, they fled for their lives amidst people warring over religion, and so became squatted refugees in West Bengal.