Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen dies at 95
He was a winner of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award and had also received the Padma Bhushan.
Noted Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen died of age-related ailments at his house in Kolkata’s Bhawanipore on Sunday morning, ABP Ananda reported. He was 95 and is survived by his son Kunal. His wife Gita Sen died in 2017.
Mrinal Sen was born in 1923 in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh, and finished his schooling there. He studied physics in Kolkata and was involved with the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India during his student days. He left Kolkata for a while to work as a medical representative, but returned to begin his film career as an audio technician in a movie studio.
Sen, who was honoured with the Padma Bhushan and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, produced critically acclaimed films such as Bhuvan Shome, Mrigayaa, Padatik and Akash Kusum. His movies focused on social realities, bringing to the screen political unrest of the times. Along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, Sen is considered one of the greatest Bengali fimmakers.
A number of noted personalities from the worlds of films and politics paid tribute to Sen.