Born a 100 years ago on this day, Mrinal Sen’s politically bold and rebellious cinema remains fresh

By contrast, Ritwik Ghatak’s powerful films delved into themes of displacement and homeland and captured the aspirations and hopes of post-Partition Bengali society. Enter Mrinal Sen. One of the most influential Bengali masters — whose birth centenary today deserves to be celebrated with the same enthusiasm as his contemporary Ray’s was in 2021 — Sen is the conjurer of politically bold and rebellious films that challenged conventional mainstream philosophies. His films explored the lives, thoughts, and beliefs of both the working class and bourgeois, as well as revolutionaries.

Despite being labeled as a political filmmaker, perhaps due to his iconic Calcutta trilogy (Padatik, Interview and Calcutta 71), which he made during the early 1970s amidst great social and political turmoil in his hometown, Mrinal-da — as he was affectionately addressed by family and fans — remains best known in the Hindi speaking regions of India for Bhuvan Shome. Sen’s first official hit and probably his most cherished film, Bhuvan Shome, made in 1969, is a comic adventure featuring a youngish looking Utpal Dutt and an even more youngish looking Suhasini Mulay. Dutt plays the titular character who is a regular civil servant. Based on a story by novelist Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay, Bhuvan Shome depicts the transformation of its titular protagonist from a vain man consumed by self-importance to someone who begins to see the world through a fresh perspective after visiting a Gujarati village on a hunting holiday and meeting Gouri, portrayed by Mulay. It seems like a story of a change of heart but in one interview, Mrinal Sen crucially described the film as a satirical take on the prevailing social morality. It is fair to say that Bhuvan Shome has achieved a cult following among Hindi cinema viewers, partly because of the unexpected presence (or, shall we say, the unexpected absence?) of Amitabh Bachchan in the film. It is said that the future superstar of Bollywood provided a voiceover for the Mrinal-da movie for a meagre sum of Rs 300 — which means that it’s quite possible that the world heard Amitabh Bachchan’s voice before seeing him on screen in his acting debut, Saat Hindustani (release date: November 7, 1969).

Bachchan was just one of the many Bollywood stars Sen would go on to collaborate with. Most famously, he introduced the raw and explosive Mithun Chakraborty in Mrigayaa (1976). Chakraborty picked up a National Award for his maiden act, so did Mrinal-da. In Padatik (1973), he cast Garewal as a communist sympathizer who provides shelter to a political activist played by Dhritiman Chatterjee. Sen referred to himself as a “private Marxist,” and Padatik reflects his astute political observations and a penchant for experimentation with form and technique. He went on to direct several different generation of powerhouse actresses such as Smita Patil in Akaler Shandhaney (1980), Shabana Azmi in Ek Din Achanak (1989), Dimple Kapadia in Antareen (1993) and finally, Nandita Das in Aamar Bhuvan (2002). Between 1986-87 he helmed the popular TV series Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas which was later restored by the filmmaker’s son Kunal Sen. Kunal, who used to call his father ‘Bondhu’ and has even penned a memoir bearing that title, has been spearheading Mrinal Sen’s centenary celebrations from Kolkata of late. At one such celebratory event recently, he remarked that his father fell in love with Kolkata as a 17-year-old. Sen was born in Faridpur in 1923 and moved to the mahanagar to attend university. Throughout his career as a filmmaker, he remained a devoted admirer and explorer of Kolkata, a relationship that was apparent in his films.

Made in 2002 after a long hiatus, Aamar Bhuvan was his last directorial venture. Yet, he hadn’t retired from the movies, as he doggedly insisted in media interviews. Nandita Das, a protege of Sen, penned a tribute for Scroll.in following his passing at the age of 95 in 2018 in which she described him as her “friend, philosopher and guide in a way few have been,” adding that “a true tribute to him would be to continue asking the hard questions that prick our conscience and tell stories of “ordinary’ people who are increasingly becoming invisible.”

Undoubtedly, the left-leaning Sen was a champion of the less privileged and their struggles. Even as big-budget productions came to dominate the Bengali film industry, he never lost his faith in the power of small-budget cinema. He was among the few filmmakers who continued to experiment and pushed the boundaries of his craft. Today, his cinema is recognized as an essential part of the new cinema movement in Bengal, also known as parallel cinema, which had a profound impact on the Hindi film industry’s own experimentation with the New Wave back in the 1970s and 80s. In the end, Mrinal-da is joined by his illustrious counterparts Ray and Ghatak in yet another way — together, they are the founding fathers of realism in Indian cinema and hence, enshrined in movie history.