FILMING INDIA
Mrinal Sen, the great film maker
of Calcutta is the pioneer of parallel cinema
movement in India .
His first film was Raat Bhore (the Dawn) which was released in the year 1956.
His third cinema Baishey Sharavan (wedding day) made him world famous film
director. He gave a new sense of direction to the Indian cinema. Sen was
influenced by the Italian neo-realistic cinema and also Satyajit Ray, the great
film producer of India .
He has been awarded ‘Padma Bhushan as well as the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the
highest honour given to a film maker in India . His autobiography is titled
“Always Being Born”. Mrinal Sen is a Bengali and a product.
In his interview with Ramin
Jahanbegloo, Mrinal Sen opens his mind and reveals how he became a film maker.
He says that he is a film maker by accident. In the 1940s Mrinal Sen was a
voracious reader and used to go to the National Library in Calcutta and spent his time reading books and
books. At that time he was not interested in film world. But one day he
accidentally came across a book on cinema on its aesthetics and sociology. It
was a foreign book and its
author
was Rudolf Arnheim. This book captivated his heart and soul and began to enjoy
many good films through Calcutta Film Society. Then he started writing on the
aesthetics of cinema, on its philosophy and social importance. He was attracted
to Soviet cinema, neo-realistic Italian cinema etc. Finally he made his first
film ‘Raat Bhor’.
.
His second film ‘Nil Akasher
Niche’ won the appreciation of not only the film goers but also Jawaharlal
Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who enjoyed the political content of
the film. It was about a Chinese hawker selling opium and cheena silk in the
streets of Calcutta .
The film dated to 1930s when the militarist Japan attacked China and our
national poet Tagore condemned the
attack. His next film ‘Akash Kusum’ was praised by many critics for its
technical quality and there was a debate between Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray on
the film which appeared in an English newspaper.
In the interview Mrinal Sen talked about his
three films better known as Calcutta
trilogy. They are: Interview, Calcutta-71 and Padatik. These films show the
political statement and critical analysis of Mrinal Sen of the contradictions
and paradoxes of Indian society.
He is essentially a product of Calcutta ,
it was the city that dragged him to make films and Calcutta is the breeding ground of all his
films. He finds Calcutta Calcutta
people. These two films so shocked the viewers of the city that they mobbed
Mrinal Sen and wanted to know what happened to the working girl and also the
missing professor in ‘Ekdin Achanak’. This positive response of the people was
that Mrinal Sen wanted and for this purpose alone that he made those films. He
told them “Sorry I don’t know what happened to the working girl. I made this film for you to disturb your
mind. Only then these social problems could be solved”
Mrinal Sen made “Genesis” in
1986. The story of the film is about the growth, development and decay of
civilization. This film was interpreted by a critic through a parable. Two
birds are flying with a single worm for both of them. A hunter follows them,
but does not shoot. A man asks the hunter why he does not shoot the birds. The
hunter replies that he knows the birds will fight and be killed each other and
he gets the worm. This is the way the rich always exploits the poor.
Mrinal Sen became famous as a film
director with the release of Bhuvan Shome in 1969. It is the story of an
“honest” Indian bureaucrat in the Indian Railways. Buvan Shome is brought up in
British education and tradition. He seemed to be a strict disciplinarian but he
is corrupted at the end of the film. He meets a corrupt ticket collector in a
railway station and wishes to correct him. But after receiving his hospitality
and the gifts at his house, Bhuvan Shome forgives his corruption and he is
promoted to a bigger station where he can make more money. The film is a satire
on bureaucracy.
“Padatik” is the film of a young
extremist who escapes from police custody and the political party gives him
shelter. But he questions the leadership. Although he is loyal to the party, he
thinks that the leadership is corrupted. This re-examination of the left extremist
movement makes the film highly controversial.
Calcutta-71 is a film of many
stories of poverty and exploitation. The film begins with a family suffering
from poverty and flood in the monsoon of Calcutta .
They suffer silently without much protest. In the last episode of the film the
young protagonist protests against poverty and exploitation and gets killed. In
this film Mrinal Sen shows the horror and ugliness of poverty.
Kjt/13-03-2015
No comments:
Post a Comment