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SOUMITRA MITRA

Soumitra Mitra has been exposed to theatre since his early days. An avid lover of Fine Arts, Soumitra is an established and eminent person in the field of culture. ‘Archik’ & ‘Natayan’ founded by him with his friends in early days produced many theatre productions of which “Thanar Chatale Sue” an adaptation of Jean Paul Satre & “ Uttap Sankranto Kolkata” may be mentioned as his directorial ability. His association with theatre over the years has seen him work with Sambhu Mitra, Badal Sarkar, Ajitesh Bandopadhyay, Rudraprasad Sengupta and many others. Born in 1954, in an aristocrat family of North Kolkata, Soumitra grew up with the essence of cultural heritage. He acted in “Michil’ & “Aajker Spartacus” with Badal Sarkar in 1974-75. Joined Nandikar in 1976 and acted in “Football”, “Antigone”, “Mudrarakhasa”, “ Kharir Gandi” etc. He looked after day to day affairs of Nandikar as well as press & publications. In 1983, he quit Nandikar and went on independently produced Sunil Gangopadhayay’s “Radhakrishna” with noted celebrities of Kolkata. In 1975, he co-founded ‘Abritilok’ and started many creative performances on poetry besides theatre. “Kabita Utsav” which is very popular and appreciated en-mass. His collage of poetry is still fondly remembered.

All this while he continued recitation and came in close contact with Jyotirindra Moitra, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Sankha Ghosh. During the same period he published ‘Natyalok’ a fortnightly publication on group theatre and through all these works he came to close with Tripti Mitra, Bibhas Chakraborty, Monoj Mitra & his mentor tutor Late Keya Chakrabarty. His recitation has been released by Sare Gama, Bhabna, Asha Audio, Ananya Music etc. In 1997, Soumitra joined Ganakrishti and came closely with Bratya Basu. He has one accolade for his performance in “Aranyadev”, “Verus M” and “Shoteroi July”. He was the president for couple of years of the theatare group. In, 2004, Soumitra independently started his new theatre company Purba Paschim & produced three major theatre- Bratya Basu’s “Babli”, Ramaprasad Banik’s “Angshumati” & Bibhas Chakraborty’s ”Agnijal”.

With his wife Malabika

The journey of Puba Paschim is still running and it becomes a major theatre group of India. The production of Purba Pasachim acclaimed great appreciations from all corners. Soumitra started direction in Purba Paschim and the last production “Antony Soudamini” is one of the important milestone. His work in theatre, recitation has taken him to countries like USA, UK, France, Bangladesh, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Thailand, Canada for several times. He was a special invitee for the 13th North America Banga Sammelan in Los Angeles in 1993. In 2005, Soumitra attended Banga Sammelan in New York and performed solo recitation as well as stage production directed by Bratya Basu. In 2007, he again attended North American Banga Sammelan in Toronto and performed with Manoj Mitra, Bibhas Chakraborty, Meghnad Bhattacharjee beside recitation.

In 2009 & 2010, Soumitra attended London Sharod Utsab and performed with Manoj Mitra, Dipankar De, Meghnad Bhattacharjee. Soumitra has acted in several Tele films, serials, and feature films with such eminent directors like Gautam Ghosh, Raja Sen, Bratya Basu, Kaushik Gangopadhyay, Dulal Lahiri, Goutam Halder. Television is something very close to Soumitra’s heart as a composer, anchor & actor. His autobiography ‘Apon Ami’ has been published in 2013 and he has edited the life of Firingi Antony which has also been published in his credit. Soumita has directed various plays under the banner of Purba Paschim of which few renowned productions are Antony Soudamini, Akkel Gurum, Harpa Ban, Ek Mancha Ek Jiban. Very recently he appeared in a solo performance of theater named Ekla Samrat ( The Emperor Alone ) under the direction of Manish Mitra. He has received several awards.

His latest contribution to the Society has been dedicated relief work in flood and Corona affected Sundarban areas.