She used to live two houses away from Suchitra Sen’s house in Pabna. Photojournalist Syeda Khanam talked about Suchitra Sen in a lively session with Dhaka Tribune.
Suchitra Sen lived in a joint family. She was a beauty from her childhood. “When she stepped in her adolescence, she became majestic and enigmatic. It was in 1940’s when she was going to Pabna Girls’ High school. Suchitra’s ethereal beauty amazed everyone. When she stepped in her 10th grade, she was harassed by local boys in the neighbourhood. For this reason, her parents sent her to Shanti Niketon in Kolkata.
“After two or three years, she came back in Pabna. I was enchanted by her young beauty. During the partition, I remember, Suchitra and her family were leaving for Kolkata. They visited our place in Pabna. I saw Suchitra gloomy and distressed for leaving her birthplace. During my job at a daily, I went to Kolkata on an assignment. I made a visit to her place in Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata.
“At that time, Suchitra performed in four to five films already and was a known face in the onscreen. With my 120mm camera, I took some of her images when she was buying clothes from a vendor at her house. That was the last time I saw the legendary actor.”
Syeda Khanam said: “In an interview with Uttam Kumar, which was published in the newspaper Chitrali, I asked the famous actor, a co-worker of Suchitra, how they both complement each other on the screen, he replied: ‘We have a better understanding onscreen, also we compete with one another to give our best take.’”
Syeda Khanam was a journalist and a press photographer in Begum newspaper. Born in 1937 in Pabna, she obtained her masters in Bangla literature and library science from Dhaka University. Syeda had an opportunity to take pictures of Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins. She exhibited solo photography exhibition of Satyajit Ray.