- Mrinal Sen
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Mrinal Sen
মৃনাল সেন
Mrinal SenBorn May 14, 1923
Faridpur, East Bengal, British IndiaAwards Moscow Film Festival - Silver Prize
1975 Chorus
1979 Parashuram
Karlovy Vary Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
1977 Oka Oori Katha
Berlin Film Festival - Interfilm Award
1979 Parashuram
1981 Akaler Sandhane
Berlin Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize
1981 Akaler Sandhane
Cannes Film Festival - Jury Prize
1983 Kharij
Valladolid Film Festival - Golden Spike
1983 Kharij
Chicago Film Festival - Best Film
1984 Khandhar
Montreal Film Festival - Special Prize of the Jury
1984 Khandhar
Venice Film Festival - Honorable Mention
1989 Ek Din Achanak
Cairo Film Festival - Best Director
2002 Aamaar BhuvanMrinal Sen (Bengali: মৃনাল সেন, also spelled Mrinal Shen) is a Bengali Indian filmmaker.[1] He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the University of Calcutta. As a student, he got involved with the cultural wing of the Communist party . Although he never became a member of the party, his association with the socialist Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA ) brought him close to a number of like-minded culturally associated people.
Contents
Early life
His interest in films started after he stumbled upon a book on film aesthetics. However his interest remained mostly intellectual, and he was forced to take up the job of a medical representative, which took him away from Calcutta. This did not last very long, and he came back to the city and eventually took a job of an audio technician in a Calcutta film studio, which eventually launched his film career.
His directorial debut
Mrinal Sen made his first feature film, Raatbhor, in 1955. It had iconic Uttam Kumar who wasn't a star then.The movie was a let-down. His next film, Neel Akasher Neechey (Under the Blue Sky), earned him local recognition, while his third film, Baishey Shravan (the day when rabindranath tagore died) was his first film that gave him international exposure.
Sen and New Cinema in India
After making five more films, he made a film with a shoe-string budget provided by the Government of India. This film, Bhuvan Shome (Mr. Shome), finally launched him as a major filmmaker, both nationally and internationally. Bhuvan Shome also initiated the "New Cinema" film movement in India.[2]
Social context and its political influence
The films that he made next were overtly political, and earned him the reputation as a Marxist artist.[3] 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 to Mahaprithibi, Kolkata features prominently. He has shown Kolkata as a character, and as an inspiration. He has beautifully woven the people, value system, class difference and the roads of the city into his movies and coming of age for Kolkata, his El-Dorado.[4]
Experimentation, recognition and acclaim
During this period, he won a large number of international awards. It could be argued that although his films show the development of ideas from existentialism, surrealism, Marxism, German expressionism, French Nouvelle Vague and Italian neorealism, in their stylistic nuances, these films often parallel the cinema of Woody Allen.[citation needed] Like Allen's cinema, Sen's cinema for the most, do not provide a happy ending or a definitive conclusion (unlike many of the films of Sen's better known contemporary Satyajit Ray). In many of Sen's later films, the audience becomes a participant in the process of the development of the plot. The director invites and provokes the audience into a shared process of forming multiple conclusions, that are at the same time unique and different. The director does not play the role of god, his audience does. It is not really surprising that unlike Allen who has a steady niche audience in the Western literati and aficionados, Sen's experimentation with parallel cinema had significantly cost him much of a devoted audience composing of largely the Calcutta based westernized intelligentsia.
In 1982, he was a member of the jury at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.[5]
Mrinal Sen never stopped experimenting with his medium. In his later films he tried to move away from the narrative structure and worked with very thin story lines. After a long gap of eight years, at the age of eighty, he made his latest film, Aamaar Bhuvan, in 2002.
During his career, Mrinal Sen's film have received awards from almost all major film festivals, including (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Montreal, Chicago, and Cairo). Retrospectives of his films have been shown in almost all major cities of the world. He has also received a number of honorary doctorate degrees (D.Litt Honoris Causa) from various universities. Mrinal Sen was also elected as the president of the International Federation of the Film Societies. He received the Taj Enlighten Tareef Award which is given for a lifetime contribution to the world of cinema in 2008. He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th edition of the Osian's Cinefest Film Festival 2008.
Awards
National awards
Best Director
1969 Bhuvan Shome
1979 Ek Din Pratidin
1980 Akaler Sandhane
1984 Khandhar
Best Screenplay
1974 Padatik
1983 Akaler Sandhane
1984 KharijCritics Award for Best Film
1976 Mrigayaa
Best Screenplay
1984 KhandharInternational awards
Moscow International Film Festival - Silver Prize
1975 Chorus
1979 ParashuramKarlovy Vary International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
1977 Oka Oori KathaBerlin International Film Festival
Interfilm Award
1979 Parashuram
1981 Akaler Sandhane
Grand Jury Prize[6]
1981 Akaler SandhaneCannes Film Festival - Jury Prize
1983 KharijValladolid International Film Festival - Golden Spike
1983 KharijChicago International Film Festival - Gold Hugo
1984 KhandharMontreal World Film Festival - Special Prize of the Jury
1984 KhandharVenice Film Festival - Honorable Mention
1989 Ek Din AchanakCairo International Film Festival - Silver Pyramid for Best Director
2002 Aamaar BhuvanState honours
He is also the recipient of many state-awarded honors.
- In 1981, the Government of India awarded him with the Padma Bhushan.
- In 1985, President François Mitterrand, the President of France awarded him the Commandeur de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters), the highest civilian honour conferred by that country, in recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields.[7]
- In 2005, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honor given to an Indian filmmaker was awarded to him by the Government of India.
- He was made an Honorary Member of the Indian Parliament from 1998 to 2003.
- In 2000, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian federation honored him with the Order of Friendship.
Trivia
- He is a friend of Gabriel García Márquez and had often been invited as a judge in international film festivals.
- In 2004, Mrinal Sen completed his autobiographical book, Always Being Born.
http://www.buybooksonline24x7.com/product_details.asp?pid=812910198X http://www.buybooksonline24x7.com/product_details.asp?pid=9788172238353
Quotations
- As you walk into the world, after having been groomed by a film institute, I sincerely wish you a very tough time.
- All film makers have to be social scientists.
- You have to see a lot of things...You just have to keep improvising...In Akaler Sandhane,almost 60% of the final script is improvised.
- You have to fight for everything...Usually all film makers say they are realists when they really are fantasizing all the time.
- I like it when my film is appreciated. If it is liked by the masses, it becomes commercially viable. If it doesn't, you either collapse like I do or you say that "I don't care'". That is a defence mechanism.
- A film has to be an experience that has to be felt, it cannot be merely be argued over.
Filmography[8]
Feature Films
- Raatbhor (The Dawn) (1955)
- Neel Akasher Neechey (Under the Blue Sky) (1958)
- Baishey Sravan (Wedding Day) (1960)
- Punascha (Over Again) (1961)
- Abasheshe (And at Last) (1963)
- Pratinidhi (The Representative) (1964)
- Akash Kusum (Up in the Clouds) (1965)
- Matira Manisha (Man of the Soil) (1966)
- Bhuvan Shome (Mr. Bhuvan Shome) (1969)
- Interview (1971 film) (1971)
- Ek Adhuri Kahani (An Unfinished Story) (1971)
- Calcutta 71 (1972)
- Padatik (The Guerilla Fighter) (1973)
- Chorus (1974 film) (1974)
- Mrigayaa (The Royal Hunt) (1976)
- Oka Oori Katha (The Outsiders) (1977)
- Parasuram (The Man With the Axe) (1978)
- Ek Din Pratidin (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn) (1979)
- Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine) (1980)
- Chalchitra (The Kaleidoscope) (1981)
- Kharij (The Case is Closed) (1982)
- Khandhar (The Ruins) (1983)
- Genesis (1986)
- Ek Din Achanak (Suddenly, One Day) (1989)
- Mahaprithivi (World Within, World Without)(1991)
- Antareen (The Confined)(1993)
- Aamaar Bhuvan (This, My Land)(2002)
Short Films
- Ichhapuran (The Wish Fulfillment) (1970)
- Tasveer Apni Apni (Portrait of an Average Man) (1984)
- Aparajit (Unvanquished) (1986–87)
- Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas (Sometimes Far, Sometimes Near) (1986–87)
- Swamvar (The Courtship) (1986–87)
- Aina (The Mirror) (1986–87)
- Ravivar (Sunday) (1986–87)
- Aajkaal (These Days) (1986–87)
- Do Bahene (Two Sisters) (1986–87)
- Jit (Win) (1986–87)
- Saalgira (Anniversary) (1986–87)
- Shawl (1986–87)
- Ajnabi (The Stranger) (1986–87)
- Das Saal Baad (Ten Years Later) (1986–87)
Documentaries
- Moving Perspectives (1967)
- Tripura Prasanga (1982)
- City Life - Calcutta My El Dorado (1989)
- And the Show Goes On - Indian Chapter (1999)
Films on Mrinal Sen
- Ten Days in Calcutta - A Portrait of Mrinal Sen (Directed by Reinhard Hauff) (1984)
- With Mrinal Sen (Directed by Sanjay Bhattacharya and Rahul Bose) (1989)
- Portrait of a Filmmaker (Directed by Romesh Sharma) (1999)
References
- ^ "Memories from Mrinalda". Rediff. Rediff.com. February 1, 2005. http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/feb/02mrinal.htm. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
- ^ Vasudev, Aruna (1986). The New Indian Cinema. Macmillan India. ISBN 0333909283.
- ^ Thorval, Yves (2000). Cinemas of India. Macmillan India. pp. 280–282. ISBN 0333934105.
- ^ "Mrinal Sen movies and Kolkata". http://www.gomolo.in/features/article.aspx?ArticleID=249.
- ^ "Berlinale 1982: Juries". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1982/04_jury_1982/04_Jury_1982.html. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
- ^ "Berlinale 1981: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1981/03_preistr_ger_1981/03_Preistraeger_1981.html. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- ^ The International Who's Who 2004
- ^ "Mrinal Sen". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0784019/. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
External links
- Important Source of Information-1
- Important Source of Information-2
- Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Mrinal Sen
- Profile at Calcuttaweb
- Mrinal Sen at the Internet Movie Database
- From Mid-Day
- Rediff.com article
- The Mrinal Sen webpage
Awards for Mrinal Sen Dadasaheb Phalke Award 1969–1980 Devika Rani Chaudhuri Roerich (1969) · B. N. Sircar (1970) · Prithviraj Kapoor (1971) · Pankaj Mullick (1972) · Ruby Myers (1973) · Bommireddy Narasimha Reddy (1974) · Dhirendranath Ganguly (1975) · Kanan Devi (1976) · Nitin Bose (1977) · Rai Chand Boral (1978) · Sohrab Modi (1979) · Paidi Jairaj (1980)
1981–2000 Naushad Ali (1981) · L. V. Prasad (1982) · Durga Khote (1983) · Satyajit Ray (1984) · V. Shantaram (1985) · Bommireddy Nagi Reddy (1986) · Raj Kapoor (1987) · Ashok Kumar (1988) · Lata Mangeshkar (1989) · Akkineni Nageswara Rao (1990) · Bhalji Pendharkar (1991) · Bhupen Hazarika (1992) · Majrooh Sultanpuri (1993) · Dilip Kumar (1994) · Rajkumar (1995) · Sivaji Ganesan (1996) · Pradeep (1997) · B. R. Chopra (1998) · Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1999) · Asha Bhosle (2000)
2001–present Yash Chopra (2001) · Dev Anand (2002) · Mrinal Sen (2003) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2004) · Shyam Benegal (2005) · Tapan Sinha (2006) · Manna Dey (2007) · V. K. Murthy (2008) · D. Ramanaidu (2009) · K. Balachander (2010)
National Film Award for Best Direction 1968–1980 Satyajit Ray (1968) · Satyajit Ray (1969) · Mrinal Sen (1970) · Satyajit Ray (1971) · Girish Karnad and B. V. Karanth (1972) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1973) · Mani Kaul (1974) · Satyajit Ray (1975) · Satyajit Ray (1976) · P. Lankesh (1977) · G. Aravindan (1978) · G. Aravindan (1979) · Mrinal Sen (1980)
1981–2000 Mrinal Sen (1981) · Aparna Sen (1982) · Utpalendu Chakrabarty (1983) · Mrinal Sen (1984) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1985) · Shyam Benegal (1986) · G. Aravindan (1987) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1988) · Shaji N. Karun (1989) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1990) · Tapan Sinha (1991) · Satyajit Ray (1992) · Gautam Ghose (1993) · T. V. Chandran (1994) · Jahnu Barua (1995) · Saeed Akhtar Mirza (1996) · Agathiyan (1997) · Jayaraj (1998) · Rajivnath (1999) · Buddhadeb Dasgupta (2000)
2001–present Rituparno Ghosh (2001) · B. Lenin (2002) · Aparna Sen (2003) · Gautam Ghose (2004) · Buddhadeb Dasgupta (2005) · Rahul Dholakia (2006) · Madhur Bhandarkar (2007) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2008) · Bala (2009) · Rituparno Ghosh (2010) · Vetrimaaran (2011)
National Film Award for Best Screenplay 1967–1980 Satyajit Ray (1967) · S. L. Puram Sadanandan (1968) · Pandit Anand Kumar (1969) · Puttanna Kanagal (1970) · Satyajit Ray (1971) · Tapan Sinha (1972) · Gulzar (1973) · Mrinal Sen and Ashish Burman (1974) · Satyajit Ray (1975) · no award (1976) · Vijay Tendulkar (1977) · Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal, Girish Karnad (1978) · T. S. Ranga and T. S. Nagabharana (1979) · Sai Paranjpye (1980)
1981–2000 Mrinal Sen (1981) · K. Balachander (1982) · Mrinal Sen (1983) · G V Iyer (1984) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1985) · Bhabendra Nath Saikia (1986) · Budhdhadeb Dasgupta (1987) · Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1988) · Arundhati Roy (1989) · M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1990) · K. S. Sethumadhavan (1991) · M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1992) · M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1993) · Satyajit Ray (1994) · M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1995) · Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Ashok Mishra (1996) · Agathiyan (1997) · Rituparno Ghosh (1998) · Ashok Mishra (1999) · Madampu Kunjukuttan (2000)
2001–2009 Bharathiraja (2001) · Neelakanta (2002) · Aparna Sen (2003) · Gautam Ghose (2004) · Manoj Tyagi and Nina Arora (2005) · Prakash Jha, Manoj Tyagi and Shridhar Raghavan (2006) · Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (2007) · Feroz Abbas Khan (2008) · Sachin Kundalkar (2009)
2010–present P. F. Mathews and Harikrishna (Original Screenplay); Gopal Krishan Pai and Girish Kasaravalli (Adapted Screenplay); Pandiraj (Dialogues) (2010) · Vetrimaaran (Original Screenplay); Anant Mahadevan and Sanjay Pawar (Adapted Screenplay); Sanjay Pawar (Dialogues) (2011)
Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay 1969 – 1980 Nabendu Ghosh (1969) · Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1970) Vijay Anand (1971) · Basu Chatterjee (1972) · Arvind Mukherjee (1973) · Salim-Javed (1974) · Shama Zaidi & Kaifi Azmi (1975) · Salim-Javed (1976) · Basu Chatterjee (1977) · Lekh Tandon, Vrajendra Kaur & Madhusudan Kalekar (1978) · Kamleshwar (1979) · Girish Karnad & B.V. Karanth (1980)
1981 – 2000 Vijay Tendular (1981) · K. Balachander (1982) · Salim-Javed (1983) · Vijay Tendular (1984) · Mrinal Sen (1985) · Goutam Ghose & Partha Banerjee (1986) · no award (1987) · no award (1988) · Nasir Hussain (1989) · Shiv Kumar Subramaniam (1990) · Basu Chatterjee (1991) · Tapan Sinha (1992) · Aziz Mirza & Manoj Lalwani (1993) · Robin Bhatt, Javed Siddiqui & Akash Khurana (1994) · Sooraj R. Barjatya (1995) · Aditya Chopra (1996) · Rajkumar Santoshi (1997) · Subhash Ghai (1998) · Karan Johar (1999) · John Matthew Matthan (2000) ·
2001 – present Honey Irani & Ravi Kapoor (2001) · Farhan Akhtar (2002) · Mani Ratnam (2003) · Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra & Lajan Joseph (2004) · Mani Ratnam (2005) · Nina Arora & Manoj Tyagi (2006) · Jaideep Sahni (2007) · Anurag Basu (2008) · Yogendra Vinayak Joshi & Upendra Sidhaye (2009) · Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra & Abhijat Joshi (2010) · Anurag Kashyap & Vikramaditya Motwane (2011)
Categories:- Indian autobiographers
- Bengali film directors
- Indian film directors
- People from Kolkata
- Scottish Church College, Calcutta alumni
- University of Calcutta alumni
- 1923 births
- Living people
- Recipients of the Padma Bhushan
- Faridpur District
- Kolkata culture
- Indian memoirists
- Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients
- Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha
- Recipients of the Order of Friendship
- Indian people of Bangladeshi descent
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