Veteran Bengali director Tarun Majumdar passes away

Veteran Bengali director Padma Shri Tarun Majumdar died on Monday at the age of 91. The director was hospitalized at the state-run hospital, SSKM in Kolkata. He was on ventilator support. The director was well known for making movies based on compelling tales highlighting the life of middle-class families.

Born on 8 January 1931 in the Bengal Presidency of British India, Majumdar’s father Birendranath Majumdar was a freedom fighter.

In 1985, he debuted as a director in the film industry with Basanta Choudhury in Alor Pipasha. Previously, he worked under Yatrik—a group of filmmakers that included Tarun Majumdar, Dilip Mukhopadhyay, and Sachin Mukherjee. Yatrik separated in 1963.

Majumdar went on to direct blockbusters such as ‘Balika Badhu’ in 1967, ‘Kuheli’ in 1971, ‘Shriman Prithviraj’ in 1973, ‘Fuleswari’ in 1974, ‘Dadar Kirti’ in 1980, ‘Bhalobasa Bhalobasa’ in 1985, and ‘Apan Amar Apan’ in 1990.

Tarun Majumdar has four National Film Awards to his credit for Kancher Swargo, Nimantran, Ganadevata and Aranya Aamar. He was honored with Padma Shri in 1990.

Talking about his films, earlier in 2015, Tarun Majumdar had said, “I have always been intrigued by human relationships and values. I think the quest of a man is to become a better human being. I think I understand the middle-class milieu better and hence interpreted it in various ways on celluloid.”