Mrinal Sen (/mrɪˈnɑːl/ Bengali pronunciation: [/mriːˈnal/]; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and a few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Indian filmmakers, along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Tapan Sinha, Sen played a major role in India's parallel cinema movement, which offered a realistic, socially aware counterpoint to splashy Bollywood films, as well as in the country's New Wave cinema. He also served as the President of FTII from 1984 to 1986.
Sen received various national and international honors including eighteen Indian National Film Awards. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan, and the Government of France honored him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, while Russian Government honored him with the Order of Friendship. Sen was also awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award for filmmakers in India.
He was one of the few Indian filmmakers to have won awards at the big three film festivals viz., Cannes, Venice and the Berlinale. Sen was a self described "private Marxist".
Early life
Mrinal was born into a Hindu family in Faridpur district, East Bengal—now Bangladesh. His father, Dineshchandra Sen, was a lawyer who supported Indian freedom fighters. His mother was Saraju Sen.
In the early 1940s, Mrinal moved to Kolkata to study physics at Scottish Church College. Like many middle-class students of the time, he was drawn to student politics, public theatre, and the struggle to find work. After Partition in 1947, his family settled in Kolkata permanently.
A voracious reader, he spent hours at the National Library of India (then the Imperial Library), reading books amid the political unrest of the time. In the evenings, he worked as a private tutor. One day, he came across Rudolf Arnheim's Film as Art, followed by Vladimir Nilsen's The Cinema as a Graphic Art—books that profoundly influenced his journey into filmmaking.
He became involved with the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), backed by the Communist Party of India. He and his friends—Ritwik Ghatak, Salil Chowdhury, Tapan Sinha, and occasionally Bijan Bhattacharya—spent hours in adda, a Bengali tradition of intense, freewheeling discussions on art, politics, and life. Their favorite meeting place was a restaurant near Basusree Cinema hall, where, in 1955, they first watched Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
Around this time, Mrinal met Geeta Shome (née Sen), whom he married in 1953. As a token of his affection, the first gift he gave her was Notes from the Gallows by Julius Fučík.
Influence
Mrinal Sen directed Bhuvan Shome (Mr. Shome, 1969), which initiated the "New Wave Cinema Movement" in India.
Film craft, social context and its political influence
The films that he made next were essentially political, and earned him the reputation as a Marxist artist. This was also the time of large-scale political unrest throughout India. Particularly in and around Calcutta, this period underwent what is now known as the Naxalite movement. This phase was immediately followed by a series of films where he shifted his focus, and instead of looking for enemies outside, he looked for the enemy within his own middle-class society. This was arguably his most creative phase.
Depiction of Kolkata
In many Mrinal Sen movies from Punascha (1961) to Mahaprithivi (1992), Kolkata features prominently. He has shown Kolkata as a character and as an inspiration. He has woven the people, value system, class differences, and the roads of the city into his movies and coming-of-age for Kolkata, it is his El Dorado.
Recognition
In 1982, he was a member of the jury at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. In 1983 he was a member of the jury at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1997, Sen became a member of the jury at the 20th Moscow International Film Festival.
On 24 July 2012, Sen was not invited to the function organised by Government of West Bengal to felicitate film personalities from the state. As per reports, his political views are believed to be the reason for his omission from the function.
Death
Sen had age-related ailments for many years. He died on 30 December 2018 at the age of 95 at his home in Bhawanipore, Kolkata. The cause was a heart attack.He passed away at 10:30 a.m.
Awards
National Film Awards
Best Feature Film
1969: Bhuvan Shome
1974: Chorus
1976: Mrigayaa
1980: Akaler Sandhane
Second Best Feature Film
1972: Calcutta 71
1980: Kharij
Best Direction
1969: Bhuvan Shome
1979: Ek Din Pratidin
1980: Akaler Sandhane
1984: Khandhar
Best Screenplay
1974: Padatik
1983: Akaler Sandhane
1984: Kharij
Special Mention
1978: Parashuram
Best Regional Film Awards
Best Feature Film in Bengali
1961: Punascha
1965: Akash Kusum
1993: Antareen
Best Feature Film in Santali
1977: Oka Oori Katha
Filmfare Awards
Critics Award for Best Film 1976 Mrigayaa Best Screenplay 1984 Khandhar Best Director - Bengali 1982 Akaler Shandhaney Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 Bengali Cinema
International awards
4th International Film Festival of India - Jury Prize - Bhuvan Shome - 1969
Moscow International Film Festival - Silver Prize – Parashuram 1975 Chorus – 1979
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize 1977 Oka Oori Katha
Berlin International Film Festival Interfilm Award 1979 Parashuram 1981 Akaler Sandhane Grand Jury Prize 1981 Akaler Sandhane
Cannes Film Festival - Jury Prize 1983 Kharij
Valladolid International Film Festival - Golden Spike 1983 Kharij
Chicago International Film Festival - Gold Hugo 1984 Khandhar
Montreal World Film Festival - Special Prize of the Jury 1984 Khandhar
Venice Film Festival - OCIC Award - Honorable Mention 1989 Ek Din Achanak