Kankabati
- Actress
The first graduate woman to enter the Bengal stage was Kankabati Sahu,
daughter of a landlord Gangadhar Prasad Sahu. She was born in May, 1903
in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The father was a man of modern outlook and sent
his two daughters Kankabati and Chandrabati to Calcutta for education.
As a student Kankabati got an opportunity to visit Raindra Nath Tagore
at his Jorasanko residence and sang Tagore's Ei Lahinu Sanga Taba
before him. This led to her good fortune to get lessons in music and
acting from Tagore himself. In her college days Kankabati took part in
cultural activities within college campus as a singer and as an
actress. After graduation, Kankabati entered the university for her
M.A. degree but at the same time expressed her desire to enter the
professional stage and her father agreed readily. Accordingly, in 1928,
she signed a contract with Art Theatres whereby she would be their
exclusive artiste for three years although she would get a salary only
after three months of training, Rupees three hundred a month in the
first year, then four hundred a month during the second year and
finally five hundred a month in the third year of the contract. The
announcement of her stage entry in the newspapers and magazines caused
a lot of excitement and rumbling because since 1873, when women first
entered the professional stage in Bengal, only those from red light
areas of Calcutta had taken to acting professionally. However,
Kankabati broke her contract unilaterally and joined the group of the
legendary Sisir Kumar Bhaduri. A court case was slapped on her and an
injunction issued barring her from participating in any professional
stage of Calcutta. The matter was settled out of court by theatre
lovers and Kankabati was free to act on the stage and in the group of
her choice. Mud slinging and juicy articles did not stop at that and
acid remarks about the actress who had gained "fame" and name even
without appearing once on the stage continued and leading figures of
the field showed undue interest and questioned when the debut of the
"famous actress" would actually happen. Her educational qualifications
led learned persons to remark that they did not believe that a
university degree did not mean that she could be a good artiste. Sisir
Kumar had to train the newcomer in haste and gave her a singing role,
that of Bharatnari in his play Digbijoyi and in the first week of
February, 1929 Kankabati first appeared before the public on the stage.
There was naturally a tremendous rush at the theatre to witness her
performance and Kankabati passed with distinction specially because she
received support for her role in the songs, more so for the Tagore
songs. Her entry on the stage singing Tagore's Gram Chhara Oi Ranga
Matir Path was greeted with great enthusiasm by the audience. In her
first play Digbijoyi , Kankabati had renowned stage personalities like
Biswanath Bhaduri, Charushila, Jiban Ganguly, Rabi Ray, Harisundari
Blackie and above all Sisir Kumar as co-stars. During this time
Kankabati became close in personal life to Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and the
duo went on to produce one success after another in the forthcoming
years. These included Basantaleela and Tagore's Bisarjan where
Kankabati played male characters. These were followed with Buddhadeb
Charit as Goutami, Alamgir, Bibaha Bibhrat as Bilasini Karfarma, Pally
Samaj as Jethaima, Tapati as Bipasha, Shesh Rakhsha, Sree Sree
Bishnupriya as Sachimata, Gairik Pataka as Jijabai, Mahaprasthan as
Gandhari and Rukmini, Rizia, Nadir Shah, Abhimanini as Bala, Sita in
different characters, Chirakumar Sabha as Nirabala, Biraj Bou, Sarama
as Mandodori, Dasher Dabi as Sujata, Bijoya in the title role,
Reetimata Natak as Swagata, in the title role, Jogajog as Kumudini, to
name a few. Sisir Kumar Bhaduri's team got an invitation to perform in
the United States and Kankabati along with the entire group left for
New York on the 30th of September via Karachi and returned in March
1931. This foreign trip remained somewhat unsuccessful for the troupe
but along with Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and Parbhadevi , Kankabati managed
to earn critical appreciation. The failure of the foreign trip
devastated Sisir Kumar and he became increasingly dependent on alcohol.
This affected the stage performances of his wife also and Kankabati was
criticized for many of her performances after this trip. Kankabati
first appeared on the screen in the silent film Bicharak (1928) based
on a story by Tagore in the role of Khiroda. In sound films her most
important work were in Palli Samaj (1932) as Jethaima, Seeta (1933) as
Seeta and Talkie of Talkies (1937) as Swagata. She had completed about
half the shooting for Sisir Kumar Bhaduri's film Chanakya (1939) in the
role of Mura, when she suffered from an attack of meningitis and was
admitted at the Carmichael Medical College in Calcutta where she
breathed her last on 21st June, 1939 leaving behind Sisir Kumar Bhaduri
and their two children, a son and a daughter. Her one regret at death
bed was that she could not rid her husband Sisir Kumar of alcohol. Her
portion in Chanakya (1939) was not scrapped but the remaining part was
completed by Rajlakshmi Devi.