Suchitra Bhattacharya (10 January 1950 – 2015) was an Indian novelist, known for works including ''Hemanter Pakhi'', ''Kachher Manush'', ''Aleek Shukh'', ''Icche'' and ''Kacher Dewal''. During her career as a writer, she composed over 20 novels and many short stories. Her novel ''Dahan'' was adapted into the 1997 film '' Dahan'', and her novels ''Iccher Gach'', ''Alik Sukh'' and ''Ramdhanu Rang'' were adapted into films by

Shiboprosad Mukherjee Shiboprosad Mukherjee (, Bengali: ; born 20 May 1974) is an Indian film director, writer and actor. He, collaborating with Nandita Roy, debuted with their film '' Icche'', which garnered both critical acclaim as well as commercial success. The ...

, and her novel ''Onnyo Bwasanto'' was adapted into a television film by Aditi Roy.

Early life and education

Suchitra Bhattacharya was born in 1950 in

Bhagalpur Bhagalpur is a city in the Indian state of Bihar, situated on the southern banks of the river Ganges. It is the 2nd largest city of Bihar by population and also the headquarters of Bhagalpur district and Bhagalpur division. Known as the Sil ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. She was interested in writing from her childhood. Bhattacharya graduated from the

Jogamaya Devi College Jogamaya Devi College is one of the oldest and leading women's colleges in Kolkata, India. It shares the same building with Asutosh College (day college) and Syamaprasad College (evening college) and is named after the wife of Sir Asutosh Mukh ...

, an affiliated undergraduate women's college of the historic

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

, in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Career

Having taken many odd jobs in her early youth, she finally joined the public service, leaving in 2004 to become a full-time writer. She started writing in the late-1970s, and novels in the mid-1980s, finding early success with her novel ''Kacher Dewal'' (Glass Wall). Her writing focuses on contemporary social issues. Her life experiences are reflected in many of her stories and novels. Bhattacharya was enthusiastic about fellow contemporary women authors Sangita Bandyopadhyay and

Tilottama Majumdar Tilottoma Mojumdar is an Indian Bangali novelist, short story writer, poet, lyricist, and essayist.http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/author-tilottoma-denied-entry/ The Indian Express. 4 March 2012, 6:26 AM. In the ''Cities'' secti ...

, and was deeply influenced by Ashapurna Debi and

Mahasweta Debi Mahasweta Ray is an Indian actress and television personality who is known for her work in Odia films and soap operas. Her numerous accolades include record 8 Odisha State Film Awards. Biography Ray was born in an academic family (Rajkishore R ...

. Her novels and short stories have been translated into

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

, Tamil,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

, Oriya,

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, Gujarati,

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

and English. She has also written novels and short stories for children. Her novel ''Dahan'' was made into the 1997 film '' Dahan'' by Bengali director

Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his ...

. The short story "Ichcher Gaach" was also made into a full-length feature film ''Icche'', directed by

and Nandita Roy. "Hemonter Pakhi" was also made into a feature film by Urmi Chakraborty. Suchitra Bhattacharya also contributed to the Bengali adult crime fiction genre with her detective character Mitin Masi, one of the few female detectives in Bengali literature. The first novel with Mitin Masi was ''Sarandai Saitan'', followed by: ''Sarporahosya sundarbone, Jhau jhien hotyarorosya, Dussapno bar bar, Sander saheber Puthi'' and others. Other Mitin Masi novels were written for adults. Suchitra Bhattacharya died on 12 May 2015, aged 65, due to a cardiac arrest at her home in Dhakuria, Kolkata.

Awards and accolades

Suchitra received many awards, including the Bhuban Mohini Medal from Calcutta University in 2004, the Nanjanagudu Thirumalamba National Award (1996), the Katha Award (1997), the Tarashankar Award (2000), the Dwijendralal Award in 2001 from Kalyani, the Sharat Puroshkar (2002), as well as the Bharat Nirman Award, Sahitya Setu Award and Shailajananda Smriti Puroshkar in 2004 and Dinesh Chandra Smriti Puroskar in 2015. She received the Mati Nandy award in 2012.

Selected novels

* ''Kachher Manush'' (Close to Me) * ''Dahan'' (The Burning) * ''Ichcher Gaach''( The Wish Tree) * ''Bhanga Kal'' (Falling Apart) * ''Kacher Dewal'' (The Wall of Glass) * ''Hemonter Pakhi'' (Bird of Autumn) * ''Neel Ghurni'' (Blue tornado) * ''Aleek Shukh'' (Heavenly bliss) * ''Gabhir Ashukh'' (A Grave Illness) * ''Uro Megh'' (Flying Cloud) * ''Chhera Taar'' (Broken string) * ''Alochhaya'' (Shadows of Light) * ''Anyo Basanto'' (Another Spring) * ''Parabas'' * ''Palabar Path Nei'' (No escape) * ''Aami Raikishori'' * ''Rangin Pritibi'' (Colourful world) * ''Jalchhobi'' (Watermark) *''Mitin Masi'' book series *''Dashti Upanyas'' (Ten novels) *''German Ganesh'' *''Ekaa'' (Alone) *''Aynamahal'' (Palace of Mirrors)

Films Based On Her Books

*'' Dahan'' (1997) *'' Hemanter Pakhi'' (2001) *'' Icche'' (2011) *'' Alik Sukh'' (2013) *'' Ramdhanu'' (2014) *''

Salt Mango Tree ''Salt Mango Tree'' is a 2015 Indian Malayalam-language comedy-drama film directed by Rajesh Mohanan, starring Biju Menon, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli and Suhasini Maniratnam. The film is a remake of the 2014 Bengali film ''Ramdhanu'' and the ...

'' (2015) *''Onnyo Basanto *'' Mitin Mashi'' (2019)

References

External links

Biography
on the official website of US Library of Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharya, Suchitra Indian feminist writers Indian women novelists Bengali detective fiction writers 1950 births People from Bhagalpur Bengali writers 2015 deaths Jogamaya Devi College alumni University of Calcutta alumni 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers 21st-century Indian novelists Women crime fiction writers Novelists from Bihar Writers from Kolkata Women writers from Bihar Indian mystery writers