Mrinal Sen Retrospective begins today at BNM
To mark the 94th birthday of legendary Bangalee film director Mrinal Sen, Chalachchitram Film Society and Bangladesh National Museum (BNM), with assistance from the India-Bangladesh Foundation, have jointly organised a four-day retrospective of his films, starting today.
The event, titled “Phirey Dekha Mrinal Sen” will be inaugurated at the museum's main auditorium at 6pm by Gowher Rizvi, advisor to the prime minister on foreign affairs. Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla will be the special guest at the event, where eminent filmmaker Tanvir Mokammel will be the discussant.
The opening ceremony will feature Sen's film “Ekdin Protidin” (1979). The film, starring Mrinal Sen's wife Gita Sen, Sreela Majumdar, Mamata Shankar and Satya Bandopadhyay among others, is a story of a night filled with anxiety in the life of a middle class family in Kolkata whose only bread-earner fails to return home from office one night.
A total of eight other films directed by Mrinal Sen, along with three documentaries made on him, will be screened at the retrospective. The films directed by Sen to be screened are: “Baishey Sraban” (1960), “Bhuban Shome” (1969), “Interview” (1971), “Kolkata 71” (1972), “Kharij” (1982), “Ekdin Achanok” (1989), “Ontoreen” (1993) and “Amar Bhubon” (2002). The documentaries made on his life and works are: “Portrait of a Filmmaker” (by Ramesh Sharma, 1990), “Always Being Born” (Jayanta Bhattacharya, 2014) and “Mrinal Sen: An Era in Cinema” (Rajdweep Pal, 2016). The films will be screened daily at 4pm and 6pm at the venue, and entry to the screenings are free.
Mrinal Sen, born on May 14, 1923 in Faridpur of present-day Bangladesh, is considered one of the most influential filmmakers of the Indian parallel cinema, along with Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Sen made his feature film debut with “Raat Bhor” (1955) starring the iconic Uttam Kumar much before he became the shining star of Indian cinema. However, it is with “Neel Akasher Neechey” that he caught the eye of the film fraternity, and the subsequent “Baishey Sraban” brought him international recognition. His films have won him numerous National Film Awards in India, as well as multiple awards at major international film festivals – Cannes, Moscow, Berlin, Venice, Chicago and Montreal. He was awarded Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian award) in 1981 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest film honours of India, in 2003.
Comments