Rajen Tarafdar

Rajen Tarafdar Biography

Rajen Tarafdar was a film maker of Bengali cinema. He was born in Bangladesh. He has been a successful director, script writer as well as an actor of Bengali cinema. Sandhya Roy, one of the earliest romantic heroines of Bengali cinema was introduced to the field by Rajen Tarafdar. In 1988, he received Bengal Film Journalist Association award for best direction for the movie, Nagpash. In 1976, he won best screenplay awards at BFJA for the movie, Sansar Simante. 1957 film, 'Antariksha', starring Chhabi Biswas, Sandhya Roy, Dilip Roy, Harimohan Bose and Prabir Kumar was a realistic movie about a feudal society. Second noted movie was Ganga that won both critical and commercial success. From mid shot to long shot, everything would be sketched in a book before shooting. Being an artist himself, he had a very wholistic view of cinema.

Rajen Tarafdar was born on June 7, 1917 in Rajsahi, British India. He completed graduation from Government College of Art and Craft of Calcutta in the year 1940. He was a graphic designer in an advertising agency before joining movies. He made his directorial debut with the movie, Antariksha in the year 1957. As a director, his most noted works include - Antariksha (1957), Ganga, Agnisikha (1962), Jiban Kahini (1964), Akash Chhoan (1967), Palanka (1975) and Nagpash (1987). He wrote the screenplay of his own directorial venture Ganga apart from Sansar Simante (1976) and Ganadevata (1979).

Rajen’s portfolio is not complete without his acting status. He has acted in a few movies like - Basundhara (1986), Khandhar (1984), Arohan (1983), Aakaler Sandhane (1982) and In Search of Famine (1981). Basundhara was directed by Shekhar Chattopadhyay which included Soumitra Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh, Lily Chakraborty, Jnanesh Mukhopadhyay in the crew along with Rajen tarfdar. As a director, he did only 7 movies, yet known for his prolific works as a movie maker.

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Updated: January 09, 2014