Mrinal Sen

Mrinal Sen entered the world of arts through the Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1943. He made his first filmRaat Bhor in 1956. Deeply influenced by the leftist ideology, most of his films dealt with social and political themes. His second filmNeel Akasher Neecheywas banned by the Government for two months in 1958. In most of hisfilms, he has discussed in depth, the complexities of the middle-classurban life in Bengal. He has also made films in Oriya, Telugu andHindi.

Mrinal Sen won the National award for Best Film fourtimes. His films were screened in a number of International filmfestivals and also won several awards. He has served as a jury memberat the Cannes International Film Festival.

Notable Films:

Neel Akasher Neechey - 1958 - Bengali
(Under the Blue Sky)

Set in 1930s, the film tells the story of an honest Chinese hawker,Wang Lu, who sells silk in Calcutta's streets while refusing to getinvolved in the opium trade run by his fellow countrymen. He feels asisterly affection towards Basanti engaged in a political group, thewife of a lawyer. Basanti is arrested and imprisoned causing Wang Lu toget involved with her political group. He later returns to China tojoin the resistance movement against the Japanese invasion of China in1931.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Kali Bannerjee, Manju Dey, Bikash Roy, Smriti Biswas
Cinematography: Sailaja Chatterjee
Music: Hemanta Mukherjee

Akash Kusum - 1965 - Bengali
(Up in the Clouds)

Ajay Sarkar, a lower middle-class man pretends to be a successfulbusinessman in order to win the hand of Monica, a girl from an affluentfamily. Finally, he is exposed as a con man. His business goes wrongand his romance comes to an end.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Aparna Sen, Soumitra Chatterjee
Cinematography: Sailaja Chatterjee
Music: Sudhin Dasgupta

Bhuvan Shome - 1969 - Hindi

Bhuvan Shome is a lonely widower, a proud old manand a strict disciplinarian. Thoroughly unenchanted in life, he seeksescape in a holiday. While duck-shooting in Gujarat, Bhuvan Shomerealises that the rejuvenation adventure would hurl him into a world soapart that he would find it the most joyful experience in his life. Hisnew world consists of simple & uninitiated village folks, abullock-cart drive, a marauding buffalo and Gouri. In Gouri, BhuvanShome finds a fresh, throbbing pulse in a dying world. And suddenlyeverything lights up, perhaps heightening his sense of isolation, inhis newfound joy.

The success of Bhuvan Shome in Hindi triggered a new movement in the New Wave cinema in Hindi.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Utpal Dutt, Suhasini Mulay, Sadhu Meher
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: Vijaya Raghava Rao

Interview - 1970 - Bengali

The first of Mrinal Sen's Calcutta trilogy, speaks more explicitlyabout politics. Even after the colonial rule in India ended, thecolonial symbols remained as status symbols. Ranjit cannot get amiddle-class job just because he cannot get hold of a suit. Frustrated,he destroys a Western looking mannequin in a shop window, the symbol ofaspirations and out-of-reach for the middle-class reality. Thenarrative is in a humorous way, as the mishaps and his frustrationaccumulate over a single day.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Ranjit Mullick, Karuna Bannerjee, Shekhar Chatterjee
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: Vijay Raghava Rao

Calcutta '71 - 1972 - Bengali

The second of Mrinal Sen's Calcutta trilogy,Calcutta '71recounts three famous Bengali stories by three Bengali authors.Together with two contemporary episodes, each presents an aspect ofpoverty and exploitation: an angry young man on trial in 1971, arainstorm in a slum in 1933, a lower-middle-class family during the1943 famine, teenage smugglers in 1953 and a middle-class group in aposh hotel in 1971. The events are linked by an imaginary figure who,by 1971, has gained an insight into the dynamics of history and urgesaction for change.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Ranjith Mullick, Utpal Dutt, Geeta Sen, Madhabi Mukherjee
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: Ananda Shankar

Padatik - 1973 - Bengali
(The Guerrilla Fighter)

The final of the Calcutta trilogy,Padatikis set during the 1960s, after the Moscow-Beijing split and theNaxalite rising in India. A political activist, escaped from policecustody is sheltered by an upper-class woman who stays alone in acomfortable flat after leaving her husband. This isolated life giveshim an opportunity to re-asses the political situation in Bengal.Eventually he leaves the flat to meet his ailing mother.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Simi Garewal, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Bijon Bhattacharya
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: Ananda Shankar

Ek Din Pratidin - 1979 - Bengali
(And Quiet Rolls the Day)

Hrishikesh Sen Gupta, with his wife and five children, lives on hiseldest daughter Chinu's earnings. Chinu also pays for the education ofthe four younger children. One evening she does not return from theoffice. The family grows increasingly worried as the time passes andrealises how dependent they are on her labour.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Satya Bannerjee, Geeta Sen, Mamata Shankar
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: B V Karanth

Khandhar - 1983 - Hindi
(The Ruins)

Khandahar was Mrinal Sen's major departure from his politicalcinema of 1970s. Three friends take a couple of days off and run awayfrom the mad hurry of city life to enjoy themselves in the silence ofthe ruins, which once was a huge mansion of a feudal estate. In themidst of desolation lives a family of two, a mother and her daughter,heirs to a portion of the derelict mansion. The mother is sick,paralysed, and blind, surviving on a hope that a distant nephew of herswill one day come and, as promised, marry the daughter. But the fact isotherwise: the young man is now with his wife and a child living,perhaps, a settled life in the city. The daughter knows the truth butkeeps it to herself. Two days and a half are enough to build a cruelstory when, having been thrown into a peculiar situation, the visitorsand the daughter are forced to go through a nerve breaking exercise,acting a dreadful play and giving an impression to the ailing and blindmother that the photographer among the visitors is the one who oncepromised to come and marry the daughter.

After two days and a half, the three friends prepare to leave the ruinsand go back to the city. Just before they leave, the photographer andthe girl have a short meeting which excites a brief dialog and a muteunderstanding. Soon after the photographer is back at his post in hisstudio and the girl is left to terrifying loneliness and to her motherwho now will know the whole truth. And life goes on.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Gita Sen, Pankaj Kapoor, Sreela Mazumder, Rajen Tarafdar, Annu Kapoor
Cinematographer: K K Mahajan
Music: Bhaskar Chandavharkar

Ek Din Achanak - 1988 - Hindi
(Suddenly One Day)

A retired professor suddenly disappears one day. The film develops asthe memories of a wife, children and friends, who wait for him formonths.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Shriram Lagoo, Uttara Baokar, Shabana Azmi, Aparna Sen
Cinematography: K K Mahajan
Music: Jyotishka Dasgupta

Antareen- 1993 - Bengali

A love story about a young writer in search of inspiration in an old country mansion,Antareenis a cinematic adoption of Sadat Hassan Manto's story. The young writerstrikes up a telephonic relationship with an anonymous female caller.These conversations provide the writer with material for his fiction.In the end, the two protagonists meet each other in a traincompartment.

Direction & Screenplay: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Anjan Dutt, Dimple Kapadia, Deepti Roy
Cinematography: Shashi Anand
Music: Shashi Anand

Filmography:

• Raatbhor (1955)
• Neel Akasher Neechey (1959)
• Baishey Sravan (1960)
• Punascha (1961)
• Abasheshe (1963)
• Pratinidhi (1964)
• Akash Kusum (1965)
• Matira Manisa (1966 - Oriya)
• Bhuvan Shome (1969 - Hindi)
• Ichhapuran (1970)
• Interview (1970)
• Ek Adhuri Kahani (1971- Hindi)
• Kolkata 71 (1972)
• Padatik (1973)
• Chorus (1974)
• Mrigaya (1976)
• Oka Uri Katha (1977 - Telegu)
• Parasuram (1978)
• Ek Din Pratidin (1979)
• Akaler Sandhane (1980)
• Chalchitra (1981)
• Kharij (1982)
• Khandahar(1983 - Hindi)
• Genesis (1986 - Hindi)
• Ek din Achanak(1989 - Hindi)
• Mahaprithibi (1991)
• Antareen (1993 - Hindi)

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