Sumitra Devi was born in 1923 at Shiuri, in Birbhum district of undivided Bengal in a Brahmin orthodox family but was brought up in Muzaffarpur, district of Bihar. She was originally named as Nilima. Her father Murali Chatterjee was an advocate by profession. While in her teens Nilima was fascinated with the then silver screen beauties like Kanan Devi or Leela Desai and this fascination once turned into a strong desire to be an actress. Films of New Theatres were household names by then. Nilima sent an application along with a photograph to New Theatres. No one but her younger brother Ranajit was in the secret of doing this. Her letter was answered and she was called for an interview at N.T. and had to undergo a rigorous session of interrogation before finally being selected. Nilima adopted the screen name Sumitra. On the family front she faced a lot of opposition from her father. However she could overcome all odds only through her determination to enter the world of acting and it was the prestigious New Theatres where she signed her first film contract for My Sister. However, she was immediately offered another role by Debaki Kumar Bose in Sandhi which actually happened as Sumitra Devi’s debut film. Apurba Mitra was credited as the director of Sandhi but it was Debaki Bose, uncle to Apurba Mitra, who originally did the job of direction for this film that was remade several years later.
Sandhi was released on 26th October, 1944 and became a huge hit. Sumitra Devi became star with her first film and she was credited as an actress having an outstanding luminous screen presence. Even her first film won her the BFJA Award in the Best Actress in A Leading Role category. My Sister was released after Sandhi. Even after becoming a star she had to confront strong opposition from her non co-operative family and her first marriage at Bhagalpur ended in a divorce. During this time she became personally close to her Pather Dabi co-actor Debi Mukherjee and she got married to him in 1946. In the same year she again appeared alongside Asit Baran and Bharati Devi under the banner of New Theatres, in a Hindi film Wasiyatnama based on Vishabriksha, the celebrated novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the following years Sumitra Devi continued her silver screen career with the films like Abhijog (1947), Pather Dabi (1947), Pratibad (1948), Joyjatra (1948), Swami (1949), Debi Chowdhurani (1949).
In the year 1950 Sumitra Devi appeared alongside Ashok Kumar in Mashal under the banner of Bombay Talkies. The film was originally based on Rajani, a celebrated Bengali novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and was released with a Bengali version under the title Samar. She continued her Bollywood career with films like Ghunghru (1952), Mayurpankh (1954), Chor Bazar (1954), Arabian Nights (1955). In the year 1956 she appeared alongside Uttam Kumar and Chhabi Biswas in the remarkable Saheb Bibi Golam based on Bimal Roy’s brilliant novel of the same name. Pateswari, the role played by Sumitra Devi became a quite obsession to the Indian filmmakers. In the same year she was featured in The Raj Kapoor starer Jagte Raho which was also released with a Bengali version under the title Ekdin Ratre.
Through the late fifties Sumitra Devi’s reign began to slow down. Her films like Khela Bhangar Khela (1957), Aandare Alo (1957), Joutuk (1958) failed to impress her audience unlike her earlier ones. It was also opined that during the late fifties the audience of Bengali Cinema got preoccupied with the obsessive beauty of the then reigning Suchitra Sen and that drove Sumitra Devi into a corner. Still she had Kinu Gowalar Gali, a 1964 film in which Sumitra Devi, for the last time, excelled as an astute actress. Sumitra Devi died in Bombay on 28th August, 1990.
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