Mrinal Sen, Director Of Independent India’s First Banned Film Passes Away
For film buffs across the country, and the world as well, Mrinal Sen is a household name. A legendary filmmaker who made an indelible mark on the country’s cinematic landscape recently passed away on December 30 at the age of 95. From his first feature film, Raat Bhore in 1955 to date, he is known for his hard-hitting socio-political films. Mr Sen has left a legacy unlike any other. In the midst of our current debates regarding free speech and film censorship, it is his name again that stands out for his film Neel Akasher Neechey (1958) as it was the first to be banned in Independent India.
Bhuvan Shome, directed by Mr Sen in 1969 propelled him to national fame, but it was Neel Akasher Neechey that caught people’s eye. Starring Kali Bannerjee, Manju Dey, Bikash Roy and others, the Bengali black-and-white film is based in colonial Calcutta in the last days of British rule. To put it simply, the film explores the lives of a number of characters, namely the bond developed between a Chinese migrant street hawker and a housewife in the turbulent 1930s. The film was banned for two months for its ‘political overtones’ and perceived Communist message by the Nehru regime.
Mr Sen was never one for pure ‘entertainment’ in his films and didn’t shy away from addressing the social and political climate of the time through the lens of humanism. In fact, all his films are reactions, of sorts, to the happenings around him. They are deeply rooted in society and its functioning and yet have a timeless quality that you only truly understand once you watch them. Mr Sen said, “I have continually been chased by my own times. As I am being shaped by my own time, so I go on reshaping time.”
A man of several accolades and awards including being a National Award-winner, Padma Bhushan and Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipient in 2003, Mr Sen’s legacy lives on in his work and the lives of Indian film lovers around the world. Hailed as one of the pioneers of new wave cinema in India for his “cinema of resistance”, we’ve put together a list of Mr Sen’s film for the uninitiated viewers that need to be seen and remembered.
I. Bhuvan Shome (1969)
The Hindi language film Bhuvan Some became the recipient of three National Awards – Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actor. Based on a Bengali story by Balai Chand Mukhopadhya, the film follows Dutt playing a stern Bengali bureaucrat working in the Indian Railways. With zero tolerance for corruption, laziness or incompetence, he is feared by his subordinates. A widower, he lives a monotonous life of solitude until he decides one day to venture our into Gujarat for a bird hunting trip. Stumbling and bumbling in the natural landscape of Saurashtra, he is so far out of his comfort zone and daily ways that it is the beautiful ‘simple rural belle’ played by Suhasini Mulay who comes to his aid. Bhuvan Some, narrated by Amitabh Bachchan, is a journey of self-realisation, but is often better understood through its layers as character studies and a social commentary on the great rural-urban divide.
II. Ek Din Pratidin (1979)
Hailed as Mrinal Sen’s most eloquent commentaries of middle class dilemma in India, more so working women, Ek Din Pratidin describes the events of a day and night in a low-middle-class compound of flats where Chinu, a working woman and sole bread-winner of the family, doesn’t return home after work. The contradictions are aplenty in the ‘moral’ values held by family and neighbours alike. On on hand, Chinu is encouraged out of the home into the working space for financial benefits, and on the other, her straying from set hours for a woman to ‘acceptably’ be out of the house at night raises ire.
III. Akaler Sandhane (1982)
Akaler Sandhane follows a film crew’s venture into rural Bengal to shoot a movie on the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. The story unfolds on three levels – the trials of the crew while filming, a commentary on class divisions and most importantly perhaps is a stark visual of the famine-struck region that continued to struggle in poverty even after the man-made catastrophe.
IV. Khandhar (1984)
Starring Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor and Annu Kapoor, the film is an adaptation of Telenapota Abishkar (Discovering Telenapota) by Premendra Mitra. A young photographer (Shah) travels to a village in ruins along with two friends. Here he meets an ailing blind woman on her death bed and her daughter (Azmi). The woman is awaiting the arrival of a man who promised to wed her young daughter. Unknown to her, he married someone else, something that Azmi and the others were aware of. Shah pretends to be the men for the old woman who passes away peacefully with the knowledge of her daughter’s betrothal. Through it all we watch Shah slowly fall in love with Azmi, who has to ultimately face her true fate.
V. Mrigayaa (1976)
Mrigayaa is seminal film with a stellar performance from a young Mithun Chakraborty. It comments on the social stratification of India, not just between the British and Indians but the social classes within Indian society as well. We see the friction grow between the local tribals and the landowners and moneylenders. It is based on a short story by Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi titled ‘Inaam’.
If you enjoyed this article, we suggest you read:
