Victor Banerjee

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Victor Banerjee (2013)

Victor Banerjee ( Bengali ভিক্টর বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় Bhikṭar Bandyopādhyāẏ ; born October 15, 1946 in Calcutta ) is an Indian actor. He became popular with a wide audience through the role of Dr. Aziz is known in David Lean's award-winning literary adaptation Journey to India (1984).

Life

childhood and education

Victor Banerjee was born in Calcutta in 1946, the only child of a wealthy Bengali family who owned several estates. His father's rather conservative Hindu family had sympathized with the Indian independence movement for several generations. His grandfather boycotted British merchandise and was friends with the well-known politician Subhash Chandra Bose . Banerjee grew up in great wealth in a Calcutta palace with 40 servants, where the most famous classical musicians of Bengal also gathered for private concerts. As the only descendant, for fear of kidnapping, he was always accompanied by two Afghan bodyguards on excursions and on the way to school. Banerjee received his upbringing at a boarding school run by the Congregation of Christian Brother . At the age of five, his talent for acting and singing was discovered there, and he participated in a school performance of the opera The Pirates of Penzance . He remained connected to this passion: since his youth he appeared in other amateur productions of light operatic material and in 1966, at the age of 20, took over the first tenor part in a production of The Desert Song . Six years earlier his grandfather had died without a will, whereupon he witnessed how the valuable interior of his parents' house had to be sold at auctions for tax reasons. In the early 1970s he interpreted the character of Jesus of Nazareth in a Bombay production of the play Godspell .

Banerjee later attended Jadavpur University in his hometown. He completed his studies in comparative literature with a master’s degree. Banerjee then, to the displeasure of his family, found employment with the trading company Reynolds Aluminum and later worked in Bombay and New York for the shipping company Pacific & Orient Steamship Line . To his father's annoyance, he made acting his profession and began a serious career as a theater actor. In 1981 he made his debut as a theater director with a production of the play An August Requiem . He made his film acting debut in 1977 with the supporting role of Prime Minister in Satyajit Ray's period film The Chess Players , in which he starred alongside Sanjeev Kumar , Shabana Azmi and Saeed Jaffrey . This was the prelude to a long-term collaboration with the renowned Bengali filmmaker, which Banerjee then also staged in his subsequent film projects. The young Indian was seen as the lover of a married wife and mother (played by Aparna Sen ) in Ray's short film Pikoo (1980), while he took on the role of a liberal and western-minded landowner in the literary film Das Heim und die Welt (1984) who gives his wife (played by Swatilekha Chatterjee ) independence. Banerjee also took on leading roles in James Ivory's television film Der große Trubel um Georgies und Bonnies Bilder (1978), in which he plays a young maharajah who teaches two fanatical art collectors an apprenticeship, and in the German film production Jaipur Junction (1982) by W. Werner Schaefer , who reports on a young German skilled worker (played by Herbert Knaup ) who, as a construction manager in India, has to defend himself against a corrupt company management and ambitious Indian local politicians.

Success with "trip to India"

Banerjee's international breakthrough in English-language cinema came in 1984 with the lead role in David Lean's Journey to India . In the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by EM Forster , the actor took on the role of the widowed and impoverished young Muslim doctor Aziz, who made the acquaintance of the Englishwoman Adela (played by Judy Davis ), alongside well-known actors like Peggy Ashcroft and Alec Guinness. power. She is accompanied by the mother of her fiancé (Ashcroft) and wishes to get to know the real India . However, the elegant, puritanical lady accuses Aziz of raping her after a trip to the famous Marabar caves. The following process threatens to turn into a revolt of the indigenous population in India during the time of British colonial rule. For his last feature film, David Lean had searched in vain in England and in Bombay for a suitable actor for the role of Dr. Aziz wanted before he went to Calcutta on the advice of an Indian friend. At the same time, film producer Richard Goodwin became aware of Banerjee. On the advice of his friend Satyajit Ray, Banerjee took on the role he was given after a six-hour conversation with Lean, who, as usual, did not do screen tests. Although according to his own admission the novel had bored him as a literary student and he preferred Forster's reunion in Howards End and works by Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy , he read and studied Travel to India before memorizing the film script. Banerjee was also able to partially prevail over the director in questions about the language accent of the role and the skin color.

After its release, Reise nach India received high praise from critics, who celebrated Lean's last film as a terrific return to classic British narrative cinema and also the best directorial work since The Bridge on the Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The British-American film production was then eleven times for the Oscar nominated, but had at the Oscar ceremony in 1985 compared to Miloš Forman's theatrical adaptation Amadeus in the cold. Unlike Peggy Ashcroft and Judy Davis, Banerjee did not receive an Academy Award nomination, although the Times of London dubbed him a "New Star from the East" for his portrait of the Charlie Chaplin Indian doctor while New York gave him the title Times for his "electrifying performance" as the first Indian actor since Sabu , who achieved worldwide success in a Hollywood production. For his acting performance, Banerjee was awarded the American National Board of Review for Best Actor in 1984 , while two years later he received the Evening Standard British Film Award and a nomination for the most important British film award BAFTA Award .

With the lead role in Ronald Neames English comedy RAMS (1986), where he cheats as alleged doctor in the upscale London society and his American television debut in Jerry London melodrama Dadah means death (1988) with Julie Christie , Hugo Weaving and John Polson was he represented in other English language productions. Nevertheless, the "sensitive actor" failed to build on his successful role in international cinema. After playing the good-natured patriarch in Roman Polański's psychological thriller Bitter Moon and appearances in the British television series True Adventures of Christopher Columbus (both 1992), he concentrated on working in Hindi film and Indian television. In the recent past he was seen as a lovesick aging judge in Anant Balani's romantic comedy Joggers' Park (2003) or as the father of an AIDS patient in the drama My Brother… Nikhil (2005). Occasionally he also goes on trips to the Bengali cinema . In interviews today, he is more critical of working with great directors such as Ray, Ivory, Lean and Polański. "They put me on a certain serious image, so that no one can introduce me in a funny role now," said Banerjee in spring 2005.

Victor Banerjee is married and has two daughters, born in 1975 and 1977. In 1988 the Indian, who counts Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Great Poetry among his favorite books, took on the role of Jesus again in a Bible production of The York Mystery Plays , directed by Steven Pimlott. In the meantime, Banerjee moved from Calcutta to the small town of Masuri in the Himalayan region and was also active politically and as an author. Banerjee was also a co-founder of the Indian Screen Extras Union .

Filmography

  • 1977: The Chess Players ( Shatranj Ke Khilari )
  • 1978: The hustle and bustle of Georgie's and Bonnie's pictures ( Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures ; TV movie)
  • 1980: Pikoo (TV movie)
  • 1981: Kalyug
  • 1982: Jaipur Junction
  • 1983: Madhuban
  • 1983: Doosri Dulhan
  • 1983: Arohan
  • 1983: Protidan
  • 1984: Prarthana
  • 1984: Home and the World ( Ghare Baire )
  • 1984: Journey to India ( A Passage to India )
  • 1985: Pratigya
  • 1986: RAMS - Three women and no baby ( Foreign Body )
  • 1987: Ekanto Apon
  • 1987: Pratikar
  • 1988: Agun
  • 1988: Dada means death ( Dadah Is Death ; TV movie)
  • 1989: Aakrosh
  • 1990: Byabadhan
  • 1990: Raktorin
  • 1990: Debata
  • 1992: Inner world, outer world ( Mahaprithivi )
  • 1992: Bitter Moon
  • 1992: True Adventures of Christopher Columbus (TV series)
  • 1996: Lathi
  • 1996: Mahan
  • 1997: Danab
  • 1998: Moner Moto Mon
  • 1998: Raja Rani
  • 2002: Antarghaat
  • 2002: Deba
  • 2002: Hindustani Sipahi
  • 2003: Bhoot
  • 2003: Joggers' Park
  • 2004: Abar Asbo Phire
  • 2004: Bandhan
  • 2004: Bow Barracks Forever
  • 2004: Ho Sakta Hai!
  • 2005: Home Delivery: Aapko… Ghar Tak
  • 2005: It Was Raining That Night
  • 2005: My Brother ... Nikhil
  • 2005: Yatna
  • 2006: Bradford Riots (TV movie)
  • 2006: The Bong Connection
  • 2007: Apne
  • 2007: Bandhu
  • 2007: Chaurahen
  • 2007: Kalishankar
  • 2007: Dad steps on the gas - A family cannot be stopped ( Ta Ra Rum Pum )
  • 2008: Aparadhi
  • 2008: Bandhan (TV series)
  • 2008: Sarkar Raj
  • 2008: Tahaan
  • 2009: Aladin
  • 2009: Chowrasta Crossroads of Love
  • 2011: Delhi in a Day
  • 2011: Gosain Baganer Bhoot
  • 2011: Meherjaan
  • 2012: Shabdo
  • 2014: Children of War
  • 2014: Gunday
  • 2014: Unfreedom
  • 2015: NaMo 4D
  • 2018: High Life

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Nan Robertson: Victor Banerjee - India Personified. In: The New York Times . March 17, 1985, p. 19.
  2. ↑ a b c d e John Higgins: The new star from the East. In: The Times . March 4, 1985, ed. 62077, p. 15.
  3. ↑ a b c Ong Soh Chin: The other side of Dr Aziz. In: The Straits Times. April 21, 199, p. 7.
  4. ↑ a b c d profile at hollywood.com (English; accessed October 3, 2008)
  5. ↑ Vincent Canby: The Screen: 'Passage To India', By David Lean. In: The New York Times, December 14, 1984, Late City Final Edition, Section C, p. 10
  6. ^ Trip to India. In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006, ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1 .
  7. ↑ Look Back In Anger. - Portrait at the-soucth-asian.com, January 2005 (English; accessed October 4, 2008)
  8. ↑ Matt Wolf, “Mystery Plays” Play On. The Associated Press , June 13, 1988, York, England
  9. ↑ Banerjee, Victor . In: Ephraim Katz: The Macmillan international film encyclopedia. New York (NY): Macmillan, 1994, ISBN 0-333-61601-4 . P. 83.
personal data
SURNAME Banerjee, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Banerji, Victor; Bannerjee, Victor; Bannerji, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Calcutta