Educated in a premier missionary boarding school in Darjeeling, the hills and its inhabitants were never far from his heart. Whether he was penning a feature article for Kolkata edition of The Statesman in the '70s or directing Bong Connection screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York or singing a song which drew inspiration from western music, his love for the hills has always been manifest.

Dutt, a resident of Entally in central Kolkata, would have been a lawyer had he followed in the footsteps of his father. If his father's office and legal practice beckoned, the convent educated boy turned his back to it. Right from his school days in Darjeeling, he wanted to be an actor. An uncertain life inspired him all along.

Instead it challenged his resolve and innate acting skills. Responding to the temptation Dutt never regretted not having donned the band and the gown or warmed a chair as a corporate honcho. None would not have been difficult career for a boy of his background. Graduating with an honours degree in English from a city college was the ideal icing on the cake. But germ of acting had entered Dutt's soul. His post school life nurtured his acting ambitions.

Never being a green horn convent product, Dutt took to post school challenges as a duck takes to water. Once almost ordered by a student leader of his college to cut his long hair as it was considered a sign of western decadence, Dutt stood his ground saying that it was short hair which should be dispensed with as a mark of western influence.

Underscoring his point, Dutt pointed to the flowing locks of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore, none of whom can be said to be champions of western fashion. He persuaded the student leader to his ways indicating an ability to charm a bird off a tree.

The passage to the stage and then the film studio was not at all easy. Arguments had broken out with his father during which even as the duo stuck to their guns not once did they stray from agreeing to disagree in English. This language together with his love for acting and music have sustained Dutt through many a bad patches. These loves of his life have always been the vehicles of his comeback trail.

Influence of individuals have shaped the life and times of Anjan Dutt. Be it his parents, street theatre pioneer Badal Sarkar, film maker Mrinal Sen, former editor of The Statesman Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, the paper's drama critic Dharani Ghosh, Desmond Doig, to name a few have by his own admission, shaped and swayed Dutt's life.

The influence of these men, each stalwart in his own right, infused confidence in Dutt. If Sarkar made Dutt who considered himself a Darjeeling boy get better acquainted with the nooks and corners of Kolkata and fall in love with it, the others let him take apparently fool hardy decision like not working in commercial films and never regretting it.

Going to Germany on a scholarship and surviving on a shoe string budget was arguably the beginning of a roller coaster career for the Entally boy. The next logical step was joining Open Theatre and performing plays of Peter Weiss, Brecht and Jean Ganet.

The mid '70s were a period of unprecedented political unrest in what was then Calcutta and staging these plays which were not politically correct was fraught with risks. Small wonder, the group broke up.

Cinema beckoned and Dutt's debut film Chaalchitra directed by Mrinal Sen earned the former stage actor critical acclaim at Venice Film Festival. Though it was not commercially released, Dutt arrived in the world of silver screen.

But Dutt did not seize this chance with both hands. Instead he took up music and belting out Jeebanmukhi (pertaining to life) songs and strumming his guiter. Arguably Chakrita Aami Peye Gechi..... stands out among them.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Dutt took up direction. Duttavs Dutta which is stated to be a take on his early life (which Dutt denied) showed glitz, glamour and the underbelly of the politically violent Kolkata of the '70s was a hit. But his direction of films on famous fictional sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi was of an entirely different genre. It focused on a city in the wake of The Great Calcutta Killing and a nation on the threshold of freedom.

Be it for his songs or his films, Dutt has always been in the news. He is a great Calcuttan. He wants to explore much more of the old world charms of this city which are on the wane. Kolkata citizens are still looking for fresh songs from this youthful veteran to express the pangs of the people and the city they love. (IPA Service)