Samik Bandyopadhyay
| Samik Bandyopadhyay | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1940 Calcutta, West Bengal |
| Occupation | book editor, film critic, theatre critic, art critic |
| Nationality | Indian |
Samik Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: শমীক বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়; born 1940) is a Kolkata-based critic of Indian art, theatre and film.
His father Sunit Kumar Banerjee did his Ph.D. on Elizabethan lyrics under Sir H. J. C. Grierson, the famous discoverer of the metaphysical poets, at University of Edinburgh in the 1930s, and subsequently became a professor of English literature. If his scholarship inspired the younger Samik to study English literature, his political consciousness inspired Subrata, the eldest of his sons, to joining Communist Party.
Bandyopadhyay entered college in 1955 and graduated from the University of Calcutta in 1961 subsequently earned a Master of Arts degree in English literature. He started working as a lecturer Rabindra Bharati University in 1966. In 1973, he joined the Oxford University Press as an editor and worked there till 1982. He resigned and never sought an employment because no job was lucrative enough for buying the books he wanted to read. He took up tutoring English literature for his profession, which enriched his reading as well as brushed his critical edge. He continued book editing, however, with Seagull Books, till 1988, and then with Thema Publishing.
Bandyopadhyay joined the Communist Party of India after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, -i.e., with full knowledge of the Soviet discovery of the truth about Stalinist era, when many of Indian Marxists were leaving the Communist Party out of the disgust that ensued. Later on, he also witnessed incorporation of Gramscian thought in Indian Marxism. In 1993, his book Antonio Gramsci Nirbachita Rachansamagra was published in Calcutta.
His first writing on theatre, on the actor Mei Lanfang of Beijing opera, was rather insignificant. His next article was on Jatra performances he saw in 1962; that was published in Bohurupi patrika. His love with theatre intensified and he started interviewing contemporary stalwarts of Bangla theatre, e.g., Utpal Dutt, Badal Sircar, Sombhu Mitra, among others, for further clarifications on their works.
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