Ruma Guha Thakurta (1934-2019) was a veteran Indian singer and actor. She worked mainly in Bengali cinema, but before moving towards it, she worked in Hindi cinema for a few years. In 1950, she married Kishore Kumar. In 1958, he founded the Calcutta Youth Team, which is the oldest team in India. He has worked with several famous directors like Satyajit Ray, Tarun Majumdar, Tappan Sinha and Meera Nair. He died in 2019.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ruma Guha Thakurta was born Ruma Ghosh on Saturday 21 November 1934 (aged 84 at death) in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Kolkata, West Bengal, India). His zodiac sign is Scorpio. He completed his primary education in Loreto, followed by Junior Primary in Gokhale and then Sacred Heart School, Lahore. Ruma Guha went to Uday Shankar’s Almora Academy to learn dance from him. To study music, he went to Swarabitan, Kolkata, which was founded by his parents. He later trained under Abdul Rehman Khan of Patiala Gharana to perfect his art. He is a graduate of Visva-Bharat University.
Physical appearance
Weight (approx): 75 kg
Hair color: black
Eye Color: Black
family
Ruma Guha belonged to the Thakurta Kayastha community.
parents and siblings
Ruma Guha was born to Satyen Ghosh (Monty Ghosh) and Sati Devi. Both were artists. Sati Devi was a famous singer. Sati Devi’s sister Bijoya Ray married Satyajit Ray. Ruma’s parents ran a music school, Swarabhitani, in Calcutta. He was the only child of his parents.
husband and children
Ruma Guha married Kishore Kumar, the youngest son of the Ganguly family, in 1950. The couple had a son, Amit Kumar, a famous singer. Ruma and Kishore lived together for 8 years; However, they divorced in 1958. Kishore Kumar once revealed the reason behind their divorce. She said,
He was a very talented person, but we couldn’t get together because we looked at life differently. He wanted to build a team and build a career. I wanted someone to build a house. How can the two be reconciled? You see, I am a simple village type. I don’t understand the careers of women in this business. Wives must first learn how to make a home. And how can the two be reconciled? Career and home are completely different things. That’s why we went separately.”
Ruma Guha with Kishore Kumar and son Amit Kumar
Ruma remarried to Arup Guha Thakurta in 1960. He was a film director. The couple had two children, son Ayan and daughter Sromona. Sromona Guha Thakurta (Sharamana) is also a famous Bengali singer.
Ruma Guha (front row first from left) with her husband Arup Guha Thakurta and children
Ruma Guha with her son Amit Kumar
religion
Ruma Guha and his family were inclined towards the Brahmo Samaj.
Career
movie
Guha moved to Bombay in the 1940s. He was 10 years old when he made his acting debut with Amiya Chakravarty’s Jawar Bhatta (1944). It was also Dilip Kumar’s debut film.
Jwar Bhatta (1944)
From 1950 to 1958, he acted in several Hindi films such as Mashaal, Afsar and Rag Rang. After the divorce, she returned to Calcutta and started her career in Bengali films. He made his debut in Bengali cinema with ‘Khaniker Atithi’ in 1959. In the same year, he acted in another film ‘Ganga’, produced by Rajen Tarafdar; Ganga won the National Award for Best Feature Film that year and Ruma’s portrayal of Hime was critically acclaimed. After marrying Arup Guha Thakurta, she produced Benaras in 1962, directed by her husband, Arup Guha. This film won the Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Award (BFJA Award) for Best Feature Film in 1963.
Ganga Ruma with Guha Thakurta 1960 (front row first from left)
From 1960 to 2006, he acted in several Bengali films. In 1963, he played the role of ‘Choto Boo’ in Nirjan Saikate and won an award at IFFI. He was active in cinema until 2006. The Namesake (directed by Mira Nair) was her last film in which she played Irrfan Khan’s (Ashok) mother.
Movie titled Ruma Guha Thakurta (2006)
He is also known for his work on Satyajit Ray (1962), Palatak (1963), Antony Faring (1967), 80 Te Asio Na (1967), Balika Badhu (1967), Dadar Kirti (1980), Dhane (1982), Bhalobasa Bhalobasa (1985), Ganashatru (1989) and Invali Sister’s Carriage’ (1994) Ganashatru won an Oscar nomination in 1989.
song
Ruma Guha took singing to new heights in India through the Calcutta Youth Choir. He founded the Calcutta Youth Choir, a song and dance troupe to perform folk and mass songs, in 1958 with Salil Chaudhary and Satyajit Ray. Salil Chaudhary is known as the father of choral singing in India. He founded the Bombay troupe during his IPTA (Indian People’s Theater Association) days, but he was too busy to focus on that, so he handed over the baton to Ruma Guha, who, with the help of Satyajit Ray, created stages in the years to come. Calcutta Youth Choir also went to perform international songs. From Bhupen Hazarika and Rabindranath Tagore to Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte, the Calcutta Youth Choir has adapted and celebrated every type of song.
Calcutta youth choir sings on stage
Under his leadership, the Calcutta Youth Choir won the first prize at the Copenhagen Youth Festival in 1974. They performed ‘Shwagato Mandela’ at the Garden of Eden on the historic day of Nelson Mandela’s visit to Kolkata in 1990. Ruma later said in an interview that the song was composed in one night.
Nelson Mandela in the Garden of Eden in 1990
On April 9, 2012, he directed and directed his last show there.
Ruma Guha Thakurta on the 50th anniversary of the Calcutta Youth Choir
Ruma Guha also rose to prominence as a playback singer, singing for the films 1958’s Lukochori and 1961’s Tin Konya before 1970’s Bakso Badal and 1976’s Mera Dharam Meri Maa.
Awards, honors, achievements
- He received the Soviet Union’s Nehru Peace Award in 1982.
- Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Award (BFJA Award) for Best Feature Film “Ganga” in 1963.
- IFFI (International Film Festival of India Award; Female) for ‘Niranjan Saikate’ in 1965.
- First prize at the Copenhagen Youth Festival for the youth team in 1974.
death
Ruma Guha Thakurta passed away on June 3, 2019 at his Ballygunje Place residence in Kolkata. He suffered from many diseases related to old age. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
ᲜῦᲗᲦᲚ ᲦᲦ ᲦᲧᲝᲩ #RumaGuhaThakurta.
He was a Bengali actor and singer. In this video he sings “Tu Zinda Hai, to zindagi ki jeet par yakeen kar” he says that in India chanting and chanting of choruses are related to Vedic concepts and #SalilChowdhury started in Indian cinema. pic.twitter.com/wXrFO8mj7k
— Bollywooddirect (@Bollywooddirect) June 3, 2019
Ruma Guha Thakurta passed away
Facts/Trivia
- Indira Gandhi liked to listen to the Calcutta Youth Choir. He was the one who released the album ‘Waqt ki Aawaj’ earlier.
- The Calcutta Youth Choir under the leadership of Ruma Guha Thakurta performed in Dhaka to celebrate the first anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh.
- The Calcutta youth team also welcomed Cuban President Fidel Castro during his visit to India in the 1990s.
- A Calcutta youth choir sang a song in 1998 to celebrate Amartya Sen’s Nobel Prize in Economics.
- President Ram Nath Kovind has sent a letter expressing his condolences to Ruma’s son Amit Kumar on the death of his mother.
President’s Note on the Death of Ruma Guha Thakurta
Categories: Bollywood
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
