Why is IFFI ignoring Mrinal Sen?

Cinephiles expected a retrospective of the filmmaker in his centenary year, but all they are getting is one film. Ranjan Das Gupta wonders why the master didn’t make it to the festival in Goa

The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) by the information and broadcasting ministry is only two days away. The festival is only screening one film by the legendary filmmaker Mrinal Sen, when one would have expected a retrospective segment given it’s his centenary year. Sen’s ‘Chorus’, a social drama will be screened in the restored classic section. Many connoisseurs of cinema are questioning this decision. They see it as a political vendetta as Sen was a filmmaker with leftist leanings.

Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Sen were among the firsts to bring international fame to Indian cinema.  None from the present generation come anywhere near to them. It is astonishing how a stalwart like Sen has been neglected by IFFI. The art of filmmaking is guided by social conscience and not political nearness to any ruling party. All throughout his illustrious career Sen directed anti-establishment films which won national and international acclaim.

Ranjit Mallick: Ranjit Mallick in 'Interview

Sen first became aware of the politics in his films when then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru admired his ‘Neel Akasher Niche’ in the mid-50s. He followed a strong leftist path opposite to Nehruvian socialism. He had confessed to close associates he would never toe the line of Congress. In his 1960 film ‘Baishey Sravana’, inspired by the day Rabindranath Tagore died, Sen explored the tragedy of poverty-stricken Bengalis with finesse. Likewise, ‘Akash Kusum’ (1965) did not glorify the upper class and was rooted in the realities of the Bengali middle-class.

With ‘Bhuvan Shome’, a protest saga against Indian feudal idiosyncrasies, Sen changed the concept of popular Hindi cinema. ‘Bhuvan Shome’ still remains a living document of cinematic language that highlighted everything from social development to primitive communism and slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism. 

Mrinal Sen

The 70s and 80s were decades when Sen rose to prominence — only Ray and Ghatak had achieved such fame earlier. The turbulent early 70s marked by the Naxalite movement in Bengal inspired Sen’s introspection. A village woman (Gita Sen) crying “Gouranga Gouranga Re” in ‘Calcutta 71’ as she waits for her teenage son to return home still moves the viewers deeply. Ranjit’s (Ranjit Mullick) concern for the people of his city in ‘Interview’ (1971) is a testament for Sen’s vision of a classless society. Similarly, ‘Padatik’ pointed out flaws in extreme leftism.

Sen disliked being called a political filmmaker. He felt the label limited his range as a filmmaker. The tribal protest in ‘Mrigayaa’ (1976), the agony of a family as the eldest daughter (Mamata Shankar) does not return home in ‘Ekdin Praditin’ and a film unit’s journey amid a famine in ‘Akaler Sandhane’ are fine examples of how Sen excelled just as well in other genres. The interplay of light and colours in ‘Khandhar’ (1984) is another instance of his cinematic genius.

Sen was against lamp lighting ceremonies to inaugurate film festivals as he abhorred rituals. No wonder the ‘Passion of Joan of Arc’, a silent film that challenged institutional hypocrisies, inspired the revolutionary in him. Similarly he admired the undercurrent of Fabian socialism in ‘My Fair Lady’, loosely based on George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’.

He was a Rajya Sabha member with no biased views against Bengal’s ruling party, the Left Front. He believed great artistes should never be compared. Though he was influenced by Goddard’s jump cuts, Sen also valued minute details of John Ford’s ‘How Green Was My Valley’ (1947) and David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957). 

It is then baffling to see the IFFI authorities neglect the maestro.