Moushumi Chatterjee Biography

Moushumi Chatterjee is a Bollywood actress, who has also acted in Bengali cinema. Moushumi was extremely beautiful, blessed with a flawless complexion, sharp features, cute dimples and a well-endowed figure. She also proved herself as a tremendously talented actress.
She could play the effervescent teenager, the mugdha nayika, the coquettish lover, the serene wife, the naughty girlfriend and the loving and affectionate elder sister with equal ease. She worked with all the top leading men of her time, right from Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra to Vinod Mehra.

Unfortunately, despite her talent and looks, her career did not reach the heights it should have. Perhaps, it was because she was married. Indian cinema back then was not mature enough to accept a married woman as the leading lady. So like her contemporary Bindu, she had to watch from the sidelines as less talented, less beautiful and less striking actresses bagged the best roles in Hindi cinema.

Chatterjee was born in Calcutta. Her father Prantosh Chattopadhyaya was in the army. She had a sister and a brother. Her grandfather was a judge. She is married to Jayant Mukherjee (son of Hemant Kumar). They have two daughters, Payal and Meghna. She started to act in Bollywood movies after her marriage, which was quite unusual for women at that time.

Career

She was introduced to movie audiences in 1967 in a Bengali movie Balika Badhu directed by Tarun Majumdar. She was on the top of her career in the 70s and early 80s, and worked with top stars, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Jitendra.
She received Filmfare nominations as Best Actress for Anuraag (1972) where she played a blind girl, and as Best Supporting Actress for Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974) where she played a rape survivor. She still acts in movies, but not at the same pace as earlier in her career.

She acted with her youngest daughter, Meghna, in her daughter's debut movie, a Bengali film titled Bhalo Bashar Onek Naam directed by Tarun Majumdar, the same person who directed Chatterji's very first movie, Balika Badhu. Bhalo Bashar Onek Naam was also the debut movie of Uttam Kumar's grandson Gaurav Chattopadhyay.

Memorable Performances

In Anurag opposite Vinod Mehra and in Krodhi opposite Dharmendra.