Kolkata, Dec 31: Dadasaheb Phalke award-winning film director Mrinal Sen, the last of the triumvirate of directing icons, including Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, passed away on Sunday. He was 95.
Sen took his last breath at his residence at 10.30 am after a prolonged battle with age-related ailments, family source said.
“Sen passed away today around 10.30 am due to age-related ailments,” a family member said.
At around 2:45pm Sen’s mortal remains were taken from his residence at Padmapukur in Bhawanipore area to Peace World mortuary.
According to a family member, the last rites of the filmmaker will be performed on January 2, Wednesday, after his son Kunal Sen, who lives in the US, arrives here tomorrow.
The family wants to keep the cremation a low key affair, the source added.
Sen, who has won multiple national awards, was known for his artistic depiction of social reality.
The auteur, who started the “new wave of Indian cinema” with “Bhuvan Shome”, was one of the most acclaimed filmmakers to bring recognition to country’s film industry on international platforms.
His 1982 Bengali film “Kharij” won the jury prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.
In a tribute to Sen, the Cannes Festival in 2010 screened his restored masterpiece “Kandahar” (“The Ruins”) in their ‘Cannes Classic’ section, after it was restored frame by frame at the National Film Archives at Pune.
In a career spanning for more than six decades, Sen was one of the greatest ambassadors of parallel cinema directing films in both Bengali and Hindi.
His trilogy – “Interview”, “Calcutta 71” and “Padatik” – is considered to be a masterpiece for depicting the social and political upheaval in Kolkata in the ’70s.
Mrinal Sen, a Padma Bhushan and Dadasaheb Phalke awardee, along with his contemporaries Ray and Ghatak paved the way for parallel cinema in the country with gems like ‘Mrigayaa’, ‘Ek Din Achanak’, ‘Padatik’ and ‘Akaler Sandhane’.
Sen was born on May 14, 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh. He did his post graduation from the University of Calcutta.
As a student, he was influenced by Marxist ideology and was associated with the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India. Although he never became a member of the party, but he was a part of the Indian Peoples Theatre Association.
He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2003.
Sen’s last film as a director “Aamaar Bhuvan” (“This, My Land”) released in 2002.
