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iView Author:

Nirad B. Bhattacharjee
(Mumbai, India)

EMAIL:

k niradbaran [At]gmail [Dot]com

Always Being Born

The Indian new wave started almost a decade later than the Italian new wave with Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali‘.

This film ignited the imagination of a wave of budding filmmakers. Two other Bengali directors followed Ray and soon they became the famous new wave Bengal trio – the other two were Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.

Ray was the most feted of the three and received almost all-important recognitions including the Lifetime Achievement Academy award. Ghatak has been acknowledged as the eccentric genius – the one who broke all possible rules of the film book to create his masterpieces. Posthumously his work became the cynosure of all film institute students. Mrinal Sen, however is the least acknowledged of the three. He has been decorated with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and been on the jury of all the top film festivals around the world. But otherwise, his work has been pushed to the footnotes.

It is surprising considering Mrinal Sen was the one who pushed every envelope possible. True that his films are non-conformist works and that is because he explored the craft the most. He merged fiction with non-fiction, married film craft to the craft of documentary filmmaking and explored various narrative styles & structures, when everybody else were happy paving the trodden path. Consequently he bore the burnt. His films bombed, critics spewed fire and audiences hurled abuses at his face. He did not go and hide somewhere else when brickbats came his way. Instead he used to bury his ego, go up to the audiences to interact and debate. That is the mettle this giant of a man is made up of.

I read his autobiography, ‘Always Being Born‘ a year back or so and the essence of this courageous filmmaker have since remained with me as a source of inspiration. His entry into the film world has been dramatic. He was a successful Medical Representative working in Central India. During one of his tours to Jhansi, he went up to an isolated road and vent out his frustrations at the top of his voice, then went back to his hotel room, stood naked in front of the mirror and chided himself at not being a man enough to take risks. Three days later he submitted his resignation letter and came back to Calcutta. His first film, ‘Raat Bhor’ (Night’s End) released in 1955 vanished into oblivion and it is with his two subsequent films, ‘Neel Akasher Nichey‘(Under the blue sky) and ‘Baishey Shravan‘(The Wedding Day) that he was able to make his mark.

His watershed film, ‘Bhuvan Shome‘(Mister Shome) released in 1969, came into being under some strange circumstances. On his way to Pune from Calcutta, he had some hours on his hand to spend in Bombay. He decided to spend some time with his old friend, filmmaker Arun kaul. The unexpected happened. Once he arrived there, Arun kaul asked him to write a comprehensive outline for a film. Mrinal Sen protested saying he had only four hours to catch his train to Pune. Without blinking, Arun Kaul led him to his room, made sure that there was a constant supply of tea, went out and locked the door so that Mrinal Sen can’t come out before he completes the draft. And so was born ‘Bhuvan Shome‘, a satire on the bureaucracy and a gem of a film.

Like all great filmmakers, freedom of expression was paramount for Mrinal Sen. The day emergency was unleashed in India, the filmmaker went to one of his editor friend’s office, pulled up a broken chair and starting barraging him with questions as if this editor friend was responsible for the curbing of freedom. To his utter dismay, Mrinal Sen’s friend defended the promulgation of emergency. The filmmaker was furious and left vowing never to return. The idiosyncrasy of this great man can be gauged from the fact that he stopped talking to this friend of his for almost a year just because of the emergency. This was his way of protest.

It was during the period of emergency, that his film, ‘Chorus‘, a political satire was chosen as an official entry to the Berlin Film Festival. After the screening, during the question answer session, a young woman stood up and told Mrinal Da what she felt. Hidden behind the satire, she added, that ‘Chorus‘ was a militant film and was some sort of a statement against the state of emergency in India. Taken aback for some moments, Mrinal Da regained his composure and replied, “I am glad that you call mine a militant film. And true, much to my countrymen’s discomfort, emergency has just been imposed in India. But to be honest, I am not aware of the legality of emergency. So, I do not know when, at what point, I cross the boundary of law. Under the circumstances, I prefer to keep mum and not answer your question. Sorry, no answer from me, not a word. Got my answer? Have you? I shall not answer. I hope I am clear.” So much was conveyed without actually saying anything and instantly there were cheers and applause.

During the course of his career, he also had some interesting interactions with the other two stalwarts – Ray and Ghatak. The one with Ray was in the public domain. It all emanated from a film Sen made, ‘Ek Din Pratidin‘. The story is about a girl who doesn’t return home one night from work. She also happens to be the sole provider for the family. The fears and prejudices of the family members are explored through the film. The film ends with the girl turning up in the morning and life returning back to normalcy for the family. The filmmaker doesn’t provide any reasons for her absence. After the film was released, a huge debate ensued amongst critics and cinegoers alike. It pricked the Bengali middle class ‘bhadralok’ morality and opinions flew from every direction. Satyajit Ray joined this debate and he took his opinions to the public domain of newspapers. He took a dig at Sen by saying that never before the maker of the film showed ignorance about characters authored by him. His point of argument was that how could a filmmaker not know the whereabouts of his character during the course of his film. Mrinal Da adds that he felt like being reprimanded by someone with a distinctly superior tone. As a retort to Ray’s comments, Sen cites Samuel backett’s answer to a question pertaining to ‘Waiting for Godot‘. When asked why Godot did not appear even once in his play, the playwright replied, “Had I known it, I would have said it in my play”.

This incident provides an insight into the kind of barbs and brickbats Mrinal Sen endured during his career.

Mrinal Sen was not spared by the third of the trio – Ghatak. Sometime before his death, having just been released from a hospital, Ritwik Ghatak made his way to Mrinal Sen’s home. He was hungry and conveyed so to Mrs. Gita Sen (Actress and Mrinal Sen’s wife). According to Mrinal Sen, this thin frail man, months away from his death had a huge appetite and had his fill. Once done, he passed a remark to Mrs. Sen in which he said,, ‘You know Gita, Mrinal is a wonderful man but his ‘Bhuvan Shome’….phew’.

Most of his films were rooted in Calcutta and primarily probed its middle class society. In his own idiosyncratic manner, he pays his homage to this great city in his autobiography by consistently calling it, ‘my city’ instead of Calcutta or Kolkata.

Mrinal Sen has had an eventful life and his autobiography conveys it lucidly. Written in a completely non-linear fashion like most of his films were, it is a great read and very inspiring.

Now in his mid eighties, I heard he is still very active and alert. His last film was ‘Amar Bhuvan‘. I had read somewhere that he wanted to make one more film and this time with Dilip Kumar. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have these two collaborate to top up their super rich repertoire?

This following quote of Mrinal Sen from his address to FTII Pune students during their convocation completely sums up this filmmaker’s life, films and approach. He said and I quote, “. …Remember, when you touch your multifaceted medium, you touch man. As you serve your medium, you serve your conscience too. And as you walk into the world, you take chances or you play safe. By taking chances, you achieve or perish. Or, playing safe, you just survive. The choice is yours. Till the time you choose, I wish you a very tough time.”

P.S. I think it would be wonderful to invite this man to the PFC writers panel.