Mrinal Sen, the filmmaker who won Indias highest film honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, has died. He was 95 and passed from natural causes at his home in Kolkata.
Sen is known for his contributions to Bengali parallel cinema, a movement originating in West Bengal that took a serious approach to filmmaking, rejecting mainstream Indian commercial cinema and its dance-and-song routines.
The movement was known for serious content, realism and the sociopolitical climate of the 1950s and early 1960s.
Sen was born on May 14, 1923, in Faridpur, now in Bangladesh. He originally moved to Kolkata to study physics, but turned in a different direction toward filmmaking. His feature debut was in 1955. Raat Bhore starred Uttam Kumar.
Sen went on to direct such films as Neel Akasher Neechey, Baishey Sravan, Bhuvan Shome and Akaler Sandhane.
In 1983, Sen received the Padma Bhushan, Indias third-highest civilian award. In 2005, he received the countrys highest film honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
India President Ram Nath Kovind called his death a loss to world cinema.
Sad to learn of the passing of acclaimed film-maker Mrinal Sen. From Bhuvan Shome to the Calcutta trilogy, his penetrating and sensitive portrayal of social realities made him a fine chronicler of our times. A loss to Bengal, to India and to the world of cinema #PresidentKovind
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) December 30, 2018
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