Mrinal Sen Biography: Birthday, Early Life, Career, Death, Facts

Mrinal Sen Biography: Mrinal Sen, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century, initiated the New Cinema movement in Bengal and, subsequently, India with his visceral, dark, and provocative films. Sen’s films had garnered national and international acclaim, but he was detested by many for his strict morals.

Mrinal Sen Biography

Early years

Born in Bangladesh on 14 May 1923, Sen aspired to pursue physics as a child, though he also had an interest in film. In one of his most recent interviews, he recalls Charlie Chaplin as one of his earliest influences.

“I had no interest in films, but I was required to watch them. The Kid (1921), starring Charlie Chaplin, was one of the earliest films I ever watched. At the time, I was eight or nine years old. I absolutely adored it! I chuckled repeatedly. Then I saw all of Chaplin at a festival in Venice where my film Calcutta 71 was being shown. “As Chaplin was receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, I wanted to tell him that his films made me wise,” he had said.

Sean relocated to Kolkata when he was a teen. During his college years in the late 1930s, he joined the CPI’s cultural arm and was thus exposed to the worlds of theatre and film.

His interest in film and filmmaking was not piqued, however, until he stumbled across a book on film aesthetics many years later. Sen accepted a job as a medical representative outside of Kolkata in order to support himself. In the 1940s, he returned to Kolkata to pursue his ambition of becoming a film director.

Career

His first two films, Raat Bhore (1955) and Neel Akasher Neechey (1958), were unsuccessful. This was also the first film to be prohibited in independent India due to its profoundly political undertones.

1960s Baishey Shravan was the film that placed Sen on the international map. The narrative was set during World War II, when West Bengal was experiencing one of the world’s worst famines. The film depicted an impoverished couple struggling to survive without sustenance.

The 1969 release of Sen’s Bhuvan Shome, which gained him three national awards for best director, best actor (Utpal Dutt), and best film, made him a force to be reckoned with.

Sen, like so many Bengali filmmakers, has devoted many of his films to Calcutta (now Kolkata). His famous Calcutta trilogy — Interview (1971), Calcutta 71 (1972), and Padatik (1973) — are regarded as some of the best films ever made about the city because they avoided stereotypical depictions of it. Instead, they compelled the audience to consider issues such as destitution, famine, and unemployment that plagued the ‘City of Joy’.

Sen also produced critically acclaimed films in Odiya and Telugu (Oka Oori Katha). After viewing Oka Oori Katha, Ray acknowledged that he was envious of Sen because he was the superior filmmaker.

Sen also produced a number of documentaries and short films that had permanent spots at the majority of international film festivals. He received much criticism for his unabashedly Marxist films, but he was also awarded a Padma Bhushan, multiple national awards, the Nehru Soviet Land Award, the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, multiple honorary degrees, and was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a member.

Death

Sen had suffered from age-related maladies for decades. He passed away on December 30, 2018 at his residence in Bhawanipore, Kolkata, at the age of 95.[11] The underlying cause was a cardiac attack.

Facts

• Sen had joined the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) cultural branch, but he never joined the party. He understood how politics was stripping all cultural activities of their purpose.Sen’s debut film, Raat Bhor, premiered in 1955. It was Uttam Kumar’s début film, but it was unsuccessful at the box office. His next film, Neel Akasher Neechey (1959), brought him fame.
• His 1960 film Baishe Srabon was based on the tragic death of a child in a stampede during Rabindranath Tagore’s cremation. Tagore died on Baishe Srabon (the 22nd day of the Hindu month of Shravan). This film brought Sen international recognition.
• Punascha (1961) was awarded Sen’s first prize. The film, starring the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Soumitra Chatterjee, won the National Award for Best Bengali Film. Calcutta-71 (1972), another of Sen’s masterworks, depicts the social and political turmoil Bengal had been experiencing from pre-Independence to the present. Akaler Sandhane earned the most National Awards for Sen in 1980. The film received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing. At the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, it also earned the Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize.
• Sen was the first to introduce an experimental film to India. His unconventional camera movement, episodic narratives, newsreel montages, discontinuities, and even slogans were something the Indian audience had never seen before. He has been dubbed ‘Maverick Maestro’ due to his innovative filmmaking and youthfulness.
• Mrinal Sen had introduced a number of unfamiliar characters to the screen. Mrigaya, released in 1976, marked the debut of legendary actor Mithun Chakrabarty.