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 Silk ...

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 Be ...

. 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 Mu ...

, 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 university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

, in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

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, and was deeply influenced by Ashapurna Debi and Mahasweta Debi. Her novels and short stories have been translated into

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

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 was des ...

, 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 Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

, Punjabi 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 ''Icche'' (English:''Wish'') is a 2011 Bengali language Indian drama film directed by Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy. This is the debut film of the director duo. The film is based on Suchitra Bhattacharya's novel and revolves around the r ...

'' (2011) *''

Alik Sukh ''Alik Sukh'' (English: ''Unreal Happiness'') is a 2013 Bengali Medical psychological thriller based on the novel ''Alikh Sukh'' by Suchitra Bhattacharya. The film is directed by the duo Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy, starring Debshanka ...

'' (2013) *''

Ramdhanu ''Ramdhanu'' ( en, The Rainbow) is a 2014 Bengali family drama film, adapted from Suchitra Bhattacharya's short story, Ramdhanu Rawng and directed by Nandita Roy & Shiboprosad Mukherjee, the directors of Icche, Muktodhara, Accident and Alik Suk ...

'' (2014) *'' Salt Mango Tree'' (2015) *''Onnyo Basanto *''

Mitin Mashi ''Mitin Mashi'' is a 2019 Indian Bengali detective film directed by Arindam Sil, produced by Rupa Datta and presented by Camellia Production Pvt. Ltd. The film starring Koel Mallick and Vinay Pathak, is based on the ''Hate Matro Tintey Din'', ...

'' (2019)

References

External links

Biography
on the official website of

US Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...

{{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