Pahari Sanyal

Pahari Sanyal Biography

Pahari Sanyal, also pronounced as Pahadi Sanyal was a popular character artist of Hindi and Bengali cinema. Nagendranath Sanyal is his real name. He owns a special space and high status among Bengali character artists and Chhabi Biswas and Kamal Mitra are his contemporaries. He mostly played character roles in Bengali cinema. Bhanu Goyenda Jahar Assistant, Harano Sur and Shilpi are only a few among the memorable roles he played in Bengali cinema. He portrayed on screen ‘Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’ which is regarded as his best role. Aaradhana, Badi Didi, Haar Jeet, Devdas, Anban, Jagte Raho, and Mohabbat are his noted Hindi movies. He played character roles in two Satyajit Ray movies - Kanchanjungha (1962) and Aranyer Din Ratri (1989).

He was born as Nagendranath Sanyal on February 22, 1906 in Darjeeling, Bengal Province (British India). As he was born in the beautiful hill station Darjeeling, he got the nickname – Pahari. He was married to Meera Devi. He completed schooling from Lucknow and joined Benaras Hindu University for Engineering studies. But he discontinued his studies as he was interested in doing something different. He learnt Hindustani Classical Music from Morris College in Lucknow where he trained under Ustad Mohammed Hussain, Chote Munna Khan, Nasir Khan and Ahmad Khan. He was interested in instrument music and learnt tabla too.

In 1933, he got his first break in the film “Meerabai” and was paid rupees 150. He has also sung a few songs for movies and was one of the earliest singing actors. After working in a few Bengali movies, he reached Mumbai in 1942. His performance in the film “Protishruti” earned him a Bengal Journalist Association award. He played Sharmila Tagore’s father in 1969 blockbuster Aaradhana. The movie “Vidyasagar” is the landmark movie of his career. This legendary actor passed away in 1974.

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Updated: October 10, 2014