Suchitra Sen dies at 83

Legendary Bengali actress of yesteryears Suchitra Sen, died in a Kolkata hospital at 83 on Friday. Hospital sources said she died of cardiac arrest at 8.25am. She was admitted to the Belle Vue Clinic on December 23 with severe respiratory tract infection. Since then she had been frequently in and out of the danger zone. Sen, who was also called Bengal’s Greta Garbo, began her career with the Bengali film ‘Shesh Kothay’ in 1952 and is known for her role in Bimal Roy’s ‘Devdas’ (1955) and ‘Aandhi’ (1975). She was also the first Indian actress to be awarded at an international film festival – Best Actress award for ‘Saptapadi’ at the Moscow film festival in 1963. But after her 1978 movie, ‘Pronoy Pasha’ flopped, she disappeared from the public eye and even allegedly refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005 preferring not to make a public appearance. “An era has ended,” remarked veteran actress and film director Aparna Sen in her immediate reaction.