Rajeshwari Raychowdhury

Rajeshwari was born in 1952, to the Bengali Writer Bimal Raychowdhury and the Bengali poet Kabita Sinha. Parameshwari Raychowdhury and Konad Raychowdhury are her younger siblings.^[2] The eloped couple had to work very hard to make both ends meet as aspiring writers and poets^[7]

Raychowdhury made her debut in Purnendu Patri's Strir Patra (1973) which was based on Rabindranath Tagore's short story of the same name.^[8] The film well documents the subjugated and dominated womanhood of the 20th century Indian society. It stars Madhabi Mukherjee in the lead. Rajeshwari portrayed Bindu, a teenage girl who is sheltered by the in-laws of her elder sister. Bindu is considered a burden in the family and is compelled to overwork throughout the entire day. The only person who is kind to her is Mrinal played by Mukherjee. Bindu later marries an insane person and kills herself to end the oppression by her in-laws.^[9] Upon release, the film won critical favour.

Rajeshwari took a six-year sabbatical to complete her education and returned to silver screen with Job Charnaker Bibi (1979) based on Pratap Chandra Chunder's novel of the same name.^[10] The film starred Soumitra Chatterjee as Job Charnock while she portrayed the role of Leela, Charnock's wife.^[11] She performed in the lead opposite Tapas Paul in the drama Rupasi.^[12] She featured in Sujit Guha's love-triangle Dolanchanpa (1987) alongside Sandhya Roy and Ranjit Mallick.^[13]

Rajeshwari had two daughters, Monoshini Gordon and Priyadarshini Mitra, and a son, Abhishek Mitra. In the late 1980s, she was rumored to have left her husband and settled with Abhishek Chatterjee in his apartment in South Kolkata. Her alleged relationship with Chatterjee was widely speculated about in the media.^[3] The speculation appears to have been associated, in part, with Rajeshwari and Chatterjee having worked together in their first film, Jeevan Pradip (the title is incorrectly spelled on Abhishek Chatterjee's Wikipedia page). However, the reported romantic relationship between Rajeshwari and Chatterjee did not take place. Rajeshwari had left her marital home for personal reasons unrelated to Chatterjee and did not leave her husband to begin a relationship with him. She remained with her husband, who was her lifelong partner until the end of her life.

After her separation from Abhishek Chatterjee, Raychowdhury turned alcoholic and eventually developed cirrhosis. In 1994, she died of Hepatitis B in Kolkata.^[5]