Prabhat Mukherjee (1917-1997) was an Indian film director, actor and writer. He is known for his work in Bengali, Assamese, Odia and Hindi language films.

Career

Mukherjee's career began with

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

. He started acting in Bengali films in 1950. The first film directed by him was ''Maa'' (1956) in Bengali language. In 1959 he worked with the legendary iconic actor

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar (born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), widely known as Mahanayak (), was an Indian film actor, producer, director, screenwriter, composer, and playback singer who predominantly worked in Bengali cinema ...

in a cult film called Bicharak which was won the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali The National Film Award for Best Bengali Feature Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Rajat Ka ...

. Mukherjee directed three more films till 1960. Assamese film '' Puberun'', directed by Mukerjee was released in 1959. The film was screened at the 1960 Berlin Film Festival. He also wrote the script for the film. From 1972 to 1984, Mukherjee made at least five Odia films. One of these is ''Ratnakar'' (1982), which was the first film of Odia actor and director Prashant Nanda.His other Odia films include " Nuabou"(1962), " Jeevan Sathi"(1963), "Sadhana"(1964). In 1972 Mukherjee directed his first Hindi-language film '' Shayar-e-Kashmir Mahjoor'', which was a biopic on Ghulam Ahmad (1885-1952), the famous national poet of Kashmir and produced by

Government of Jammu and Kashmir The Government of Jammu and Kashmir is the principal administrative authority responsible for the governance of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Established on 5 March 1948 as the Government of Princely state of Jammu and Ka ...

Balraj Sahni Balraj Sahni (born Yudhishthir Sahni; 1 May 1913 – 13 April 1973) was an Indian film and stage actor, who is best known for (1946), '' Do Bigha Zameen'' (1953), '' Chhoti Bahen'' (1959), '' Kabuliwala'' (1961), Waqt (1965) and '' Garm Hava'' ...

played the title role. After that Mukherjee directed two more Hindi films before coming back to Bengali films. He introduced Mallika Sarabhai into films.

Personal life

Mukherjee married to Arundhati Devi (Guha Thakurta), who was an actress in Bengali film. She acted in Mukherjee’s directorial debut ''Maa''. Mukherjee had also co-starred with Arundhati in Bengali film ''Shorashi'' (1954) directed by Pashupati Chetrjee. However his married life did not last. Arundhati met director

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

at the Berlin Film Film Festival in 1957 and later Arundhati Devi and Sinha got married. His second marriage also failed. Though he was a successful person in his career, Mukherjee was emotionally plagued by two divorces until he visited Dwarka Mai and the home of Shirdi Sai Baba’s tomb. Here he found peace, courage and strength to turn his life around and live it to the fullest. He spent the remainder of his life studying the teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba, the Indian saint.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Prabhat Bengali film directors Hindi-language film directors Assamese-language film directors Odia film directors 1917 births 1997 deaths