Kali Banerjee

Kaliprasad Banerjee (20 November 1921 – 5 July 1993), professionally known as Kali Banerjee was an Indian actor, who worked in the 1950s–1970s in Bengali cinema. He is best known for his work with film directors like Satyajit Ray in Parash Pathar (1958) and Ritwik Ghatak in Nagarik (1952) and Ajantrik (1958).

Starring in many commercial ventures in the 1960s, his association with the serious film-makers is what has given the actor an imperishable place in the history of Bengali cinema. He starred first in the movie named 'Tatinir Bichar' and 'Barmar Pathe' (On the way to Burma). Further he brought out a convincing portrayal of a young Chinese vendor Lu Wang in the street of Kolkata in time of India's freedom struggle in Mrinal Sen's Neel Akasher Neechey (1959).

He acted in Satyajit Ray's Parash Pathar (1958) and Teen Kanya (1961), but it was his association with Ritwik Ghatak, with whom he worked in Nagarik (1952), Ajantrik (1958) that the cinephiles mostly enjoy and want to commemorate.

He played a Bahurupi in Bari Theke Paliye. Then there was Ajantrik, where he was flawless in the portrayal of an idiosyncratic driver Bimal who is in love with his car. Besides these Arthouse films, he acted with aplomb in the films such as * Kabuliwala (1956), Badsha, Kinu Gowalar Goli, Guru Dakshina and the Hindi films such as Bawarchi (1972) directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

He acted as the leading character 'Totla Ganesh' (stammering Ganesh) in Satyen Bose's popular hit comedy Barjatri (1951) (English title: The Marriage Procession). The Bengali movie-goer fondly remembers his understated comedy and excellent comic timing in the film. After that he worked in hundreds of Bengali commercial movies. Important side roles played by Banerjee in all those movies made him very popular in Tollywood (Bengali film industry).[citation needed ]