Career
He was also noted for his performance in literary face-offs known as Kavigan. Born Hensman Anthony, the sobriquet Firingee (The foreigner of European origin) was used colloquially as a reference to his Portuguese origins. Although not much is known of his early life, Anthony arrived in Bengal sometime in early 19th century and subsequently came to settle in Farashdanga, in the town of Chandannagar in West Bengal.
Eventually, Anthony came to learn the language and composed a number of noted religious songs in devotion to the Goddesses Kali and Durga.
Anthony is also noted for his literary face-offs in Kavigans, or Bard"s duels, with a number of noted Bengali composers including Bhola Moira, Ram Basu and Thakur Singha. Anthony also helped construct a temple to Goddess Kali in the Bowbazar locality of North Calcutta known as "Firinghi Kalibari".
lieutenant should be noted that contrary to the movie portrayal where a pregnant Saudamini is burnt to death, it is highly probably that both Anthony and Saudamini lived past middle age and died of natural causes. The first reference to Anthony Firingee is a novel by Madan Bandopadhay titled "Kabiyal Anthony Firingee".
A 1967 Bengali film by Director Sunil Bannerjee celebrated the life and works of Anthony, and had noted Bengali actor Uttam Kumar in the title role.
A 2014 adaptation by director Srijit Mukherji titled Jaatishwar featured the life of Anthony from a retrospective view but with a modern-day context.