Friday 16 May 2008

A staggering raft in Turbulent waters

Coupled with leftist sentiments the modern prodigy,Mrinal Sen has given us one of the most soul searching and thought provoking movies.In the league of Ray and Ghatak,Mrinal Sen is always considered one of the best directors ever.

Mrinal Sen is regarded as one of the pioneers of Parallel cinema in Indian Film Industry.Started with Bhuvan Some, the simplicity of his movie making style reflected. Starring Enigmatic Utpal Dutt and charismatic Suhasini Mulay in the lead role, the movie was a critically acclaimed hit.

With the advent of Naxalite turbulence in Bengal,Sen directed movies like Padatik and Calcutta-76.Those movies wedged the exact plight and mindset of people that time.He made movies with on versatile subjects with each movie used to carry a message,From the famine struck wife of the poor farmer in ‘Akaler Sandhaney’ to ‘Lonely mysterious girl’ of Antareen, sen had portrayed each of his characters in subtle shades.

My favourite of his films would be Mahaprithibi,the movie again based on the Naxalite Movement.It tells the story of a Person who left his family in dire straits during the movement and went to Germany, and what happens after he comes back, aptly played by dynamic Victor Banerjee.

Always tagged with the ideas of Marxism,Surrealism ,Italian Neorealism etc,Sen’s movies seldom have a happy ending or precisely it did not have a definitive finale .

On His 85th Birthday i pay my tributes and salutations to this great man.