Obituary: Uma Dasgupta, Durga forever

In Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay's iconic Bengali novel Pather Panchali (1929) — adapted into an even more iconic film by Satyajit Ray in 1955 — the character of Durga, elder sister of the protagonist Apu, doesn't make it in life beyond her eleventh year. Surrounded by crushing poverty and a largely uncaring society, the strong-willed yet compassionate little tomboy succumbs to malaria on a stormy night in the heart of rural Bengal.

For generations of readers and worldwide film lovers, she has remained Apu's beloved 'didi', the immortal child who never grew up. Curiously enough, something similar happened to Uma Dasgupta, the little girl who played Durga in Ray's film. Sadly mortal, she finally lost her battle to cancer in Kolkata today at the age of 84.

And yet, despite several public appearances through the years, this former teacher never really outgrew her 'Durga' phase, perhaps because she never took her acting career too far beyond Pather Panchali. It is a testament to the film's impact that so many still remember her enough for her passing to make national news.

In what became one of the most iconic images from Indian cinema, Ray had Apu and Durga running through a field of kaash flowers to see a train for the first time in their lives, a sequence that deviated from the book, in which Durga passes away nursing an unfulfilled desire to actually see a train, poignantly asking her brother if they can go see one once she gets better.

That scene has no doubt been replayed countless times today as lovers of cinema across the world pay tribute to the girl who never grew up.

Writing in Anandabazar Patrika in tribute, Dasgupta's co-star Subir Roy, who played Apu, had this to say: "Today, more than ever, I remember the days shooting for Pather Panchali. I was just nine then, and knew nothing of shooting. Uma di was 14. We were shooting together in Boral in Garia (then a suburb of Kolkata), though the train sequence was shot in Palsit near Saktigarh (in Purba Bardhaman district today). Didi was really protective of me, we would eat together, tease each other, just like real-life brother and sister. She literally became my elder sister on the shooting floor."

In years to come, the slim, doe-eyed 14-year-old 'Durga' would have a successful career as a school teacher. Having gone against her father's wishes to act in a film despite her childhood grounding in theatre, she was content to give the silver screen a miss, making one of her last public appearances at a centenary tribute to Ray.

She remains forever Durga. Again curiously appropriate, given that Uma is one of the goddess Durga's many names.