Karuna Banerjee

Infobox actor
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name = Karuna Banerjee


imagesize = 170px
caption = Karuna Banerjee in Pather Panchali
birthname = Karuna Bandhyopadhyay
birthdate = December 25 ,1919
location = flagicon|India India
deathdate = November 13 , 2001 (aged 82)
deathplace = flagicon|India Kolkata, India
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yearsactive =
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baftaawards =Nominated Best Actress
1958 "Aparajito"
notable role = Sarbajaya in Pather Panchali and Aparajito

Karuna Banerjee (Bengali: করুণা ব্যানার্জী) (December 25, 1913 – November 13, 2001) was a Bengali actress immortalized by her roles in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy as the long suffering mother, Sarbajaya. Appeared in a number of other films, including Ray's Kanchenjungha.

Acting career

Karuna Banerjee (aka Karuna Bandhyopadhyay) had an acting career of more than two decades both in theatre and cinema. She is best known for her memorable performance as Sarbajaya the mother in the first two parts of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy : Pather Panchali and Aparajito. She went on to act in a few more films, including two more by Ray, one by Mrinal Sen, and one by Ritwik Ghatak which was never officially released.

Filmography

* Pather Panchali (1955), directed by Satyajit Ray
* Aparajito (1956), directed by Satyajit Ray
* Headmaster (1959), directed by Agragami
* Shubha Bibaha (1959), directed by Sombhu Mitra and Amit Maitra
* Kato Ajanare (1959), directed by Ritwik Ghatak
* Devi (1960), directed by Satyajit Ray
* Kanchenjungha (1962), directed by Satyajit Ray
* To Light a Candle, directed by Shant P. Chowdhury
* Interview (1970), directed by Mrinal Sen
* Adhikar (1994), directed by Rituparno Ghosh

Death

She died on 13 November 2001 in Kolkata, India. Her daughter, Shampa Banerjee, played the role of little Durga, in the film Pather Panchali.

Further reading

*Satyajit Ray, the filmmaker, the book of the films, The Apu Trilogy (ISBN 0-85647-100-3)
*Karuna Banerjee's collection of writings were published as a book, entitled "An Actress in Her Time (A Celluloid Chapter Persona Series)" in English and in Bengali
*"Sarbajaya: Selected Writings of Karuna Banerjee" (ISBN 81-86017-13-5).

External links

*
* [http://www.lovefilm.com/visitor/browse_contributor/87277/Karuna_Banerjee.html Page from Lovefilm.com]