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Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema. He belonged to Lucknow was one of the greatest Bengali actors from Uttar Pradesh.[1]
Born in Darjeeling as Nagendranath, but the nickname Pahari, one from hills stuck to him, throughout his career. After completing his schooling in Lucknow, he joined Banaras Hindu University to pursue engineering degree, however left it to study Hindustani classical music at Marris College of Music, Lucknow (later known as Bhatkhande Music Institute). Here he trained under Ustad Md. Hussain, Chote Munna Khan, Nasir Khan and Ahmed Khan and learn tabla from Rashbehari Sil and Abid Khan.[2][3]
After serving as private secretary to Maharaja of Dewar for one year, he shifted to Kolkata in 1932, where he was PC Barua, and Debaki Bose. This led to him joining New Theatres as an singer-actor at a monthly salary of Rs 150 and debuting with Meerabai (1933) as Chand Bhatta, a role he reprised in the Hindi version, Rajrani Meera (1933), a biographical film on mystic Meerabai.[2] By late 1930s, playback singing to getting established so he started focussing solely in acting. He received the Best Actor Award at the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards (BFJA) for film Pratisruti (1941) directed by Hemchandra Chunder.[2]
After a bried stint in Hindi cinema in 1940s, in films like Milan (1946) directed by Nitin Bose , Sanyal returned to Kolkata and acted in many Bengali films, such as Harano Sur, Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant, and Shilpi. Besides being a supporting character actor, Sanyal has also played lead roles in his portrayal of Bengali reformer Vidyasagar and the poet, playwright and actor Girishchandra Ghosh in "Mahakabi Girishchandra". He played the small role of an ornithologist in Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjungha and later a character role in Aranyer Din Ratri. He has also acted in some Hindi films like the Raj Kapoor vehicle Jagte Raho (1956), Suchitra Sen starrer Mamta (1966), the dual version of "Aradhana" (1969) directed by Shakti Samanta and English films such as the Merchant Ivory Productions venture The Householder (1963).[2]