The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will commemorate the centenary of filmmaker Mrinal Sen by screening five of his films.
The celebrated filmmaker’s Bhuvan Shome, Calcutta 71, Akaler Sandhane, Padatik, and Ek Din Pratidin will be screened at the fete.
Bhuvan Shome (1969), that received three National Awards, follows a stern Bengali bureaucrat who lives a monotonous life of solitude until he decides to travel. The film is a journey of self-realisation and a social commentary on the great rural-urban divide.
Linking together four stories, Calcutta 71 (1972) depicts people struggling for survival in a gritty meditation on poverty, natural disaster, and political strife in the country.
Akaler Sandhane (1980), which won four National Awards and the Silver Bear at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, follows a film crew that ventures into rural Bengal to shoot a movie on the Bengal famine of 1943. The story presents a stark visual of the famine-struck region that continues to struggle with poverty decades later.
Padatik (1973)[The Guerrilla Fighter] follows a young revolutionary who escapes police custody and seeks refuge in a divorcee’s apartment. In solitary confinement, he indulges in introspection and starts questioning the ideological path he is on.
Hailed as Mrinal Sen’s most eloquent commentary on middle-class dilemmas in the country, Ek Din Pratidin (1979) [And Quiet Rolls the Dawn] secured three National Awards.
The film describes the events of a day and night in the life a lower-middle-class working woman, the sole breadwinner of the family, who does not return home after work.
Between the deepening crisis arising out of economic and moral constraints in society, the film speaks of hope and the strength hidden behind despair.
