Opinion | Indian cinema legend Soumitra Chatterjee’s death spotlights end of art film era

Noted Hollywood director Martin Scorsese once said the four most influential auteurs of the 20th century were India’s Satyajit Ray, Japan’s Akira Kurosawa, Italy’s Frederico Fellini and Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. With the death of star actor Soumitra Chatterjee of complications from Covid-19 in Kolkata on Sunday, the last living association to that classic age of the art film is gone.

The 85-year-old Chatterjee, one of Indian cinema’s most famous faces, collaborated closely with Ray, whose critically-acclaimed films won multiple awards including the Oscar for lifetime achievement, putting India on the global cinema map.

In fact, all four late directors were Oscars winners and together have influenced other acclaimed filmmakers including Scorsese, George Lucas, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Wes Anderson.

The directors Ray, Kurosawa, Fellini and Bergman were all influenced by the neo-realist style of filmmaking – which eschewed big stars and used simple non-lavish locations – and worked without the support of large, affluent studio systems. The impact of their work on later filmmakers closed the gap between art and mainstream films, paving the way for the abundance of content available on streaming platforms today, spanning languages, budgets and filmmaking styles.

Chatterjee acted in 14 of Ray’s 30 full-length feature films – however the online film and movie database IMDb lists him as having no fewer than 306 acting credits over a 61-year career. He typically played upright characters with a palpable vulnerability and is among a select niche of actors whom audiences saw ageing in real time on screen, akin to Robert de Niro and Jack Nicholson in Hollywood.