Michael Madhusudan Dutt stopped writing in English and started writing in Bengali midway through his career as a writer

Michael Madhusudan Dutt was an iconic face of Bengali literature, having brought the Western form of sonnets into Indian literature. Where translations were the norm, he wrote the first original Bengali play and even gave the masterpiece of Bengali epic poem-- 'Meghnadbadh Kabya', inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost. "You may take my word for it, friend Raj, I shall come out like a tremendous comet and no mistake": It was in July 1861 that one of the greatest Bengali poets and the first Bengali dramatist Michael Madhusudan Dutt wrote this in a letter to his friend, Rajnarayan Basu.

However, by this time, Dutt was already at the peak of his literary career, and while it may not have seemed so to him at the time, he was already a veritable comet in the scene of Bengali literature. He was a prominent precursor to Rabindranath Tagore and set the bar very high for future litterateurs in Bengali. This striking product of Bengal Renaissance brought in completely new forms of writing to Bengali literature, transforming the literary styles forever. He challenged the traditional literary systems and with his multilingual knowledge in several Indian and European languages including Bengali, Tamil, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, he was in a good position to bring influences from foreign cultures and styles to Bengali literature.

To Bengali poetry, Michael Madhusudan Dutt brought the forms of sonnet and blank verse, and wrote the first original Bengali epic play, Meghnadbad Kabya, making him the first original Bengali playwright. He had started to write in English but over the years, he realised it was rather futile and shifted back to mastering Bengali, going on to become a stalwart in the language. This return to his roots is another cause of appeal to his readers. Michael Madhusudan Dutt was as experimental in his personal life as in his creative work. He had a certain magnetism and glamour attached to his name because of his 'eccentricities'. He was a passionate man who was generous in romance and friendship. He was also a bad manager of finances and a known spendthrift--- this, coupled with his love for living the 'good life' ensured that he suffered from financial issues frequently in life, gradually leading to a tragic end.

Dutt was born on January 25, 1824 in a village named Sagardari in East Bengal's Jessore district, to a law practioner father, Rajnarayan Dutt, and mother, Jahnabi Devi. He initially studied at home and the village primary school before being admitted to a school in Kolkata. He grew up to enrol in Kolkata's Hindu College, where he studied Bengali, Persian and Sanskrit among other subjects. It was here that he truly began writing and became a part of the vortex of new ideas churning in the prominent college of Renaissance Bengal. He won scholarships and even a gold medal for an essay on women's education. While at college, Madhusudan Dutt got his work published in Literary Gleamer, Jvananvesan, Literary Blossom, Literary Gleamer, Bengal Spectator, Calcutta Library Gazette and Comet.

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