The Films of Mrinal Sen - III

The Films of Mrinal Sen - III

Posted by Subhajit Ghosh on Tuesday October 17, @04:52PM

Some notable works and birth of the New wave movement in India. You can read the Part I and Part II also. Despite his restless nature, he has been a resolute filmmaker. Sen made a film in Oriya in 1964 which shows his grasp of the medium and sensitive handling of character and situations.

The Oriya film of Sen "MATIRA MANUSYA" (The Man of Earth) won acclaim, as it was a sensitive study of the breakdown of the joint family system. The film captured the lyrical beauty of the Oriya countryside. The Oriya Actor/Director Prashant Nanda played a central role in it. Had it not been for Mrinal Sen's oriya film MATIRA MANUSYA, which first aroused critical interest in the cinema of the region, it is likely that the picture would had been even more disheartening for Oriya Cinema.

MATIRA MANUSYA which Sen made more than a quarter century ago, ranks among his finest works.It was truly the first striking film in Oriya, made in a style that was part-feature, part-documentary. The narrative underlined the disintegration of a farming family under the pressure of economic and social change combined with shifting personal needs and ambitions. It was a different Sen we came to know in later years, during his" middle period"; a quiet humanist at work, strong in his resolve to understand changing times and its resultant creatures, refusing to sit in judgement. Truly, the withering away of that hallowed institution, the joint family, has rarely been handled with greater maturity and sensitivity in the Indian cinemas.

The tale of two feuding brothers, the elder wanting to stay together and the younger wanting a division of property is the storyline of MATIRA MANISHA. The elder brother's anguish at this ultimately leads to a denouement where the brothers come to a profound realisation. The film evoked a lot of controversy as it didn't stick to the original story. Stylistically, the film oscillated between documentary and fiction, while keeping the narrative intact. Sarat Phajuri, the veteran Oriya actor had a good role in this film. Others in the cast included Sujata, Ram Mania and others. The film had a running time of 125 minutes, camerawork by Sailaja Chaterjee, music by Bhubaneswar Misra, and Gangadhar Naskar handled the editing.

In 1969, a fresh awakening about the efficacy of a simple low-budget, non-star film shot completely on locales was brought to the Hindi Cinema by Mrinal Sen's BHUVAN SHOME, based on Banophool's Bengali novellete about a stiff Railway official thawing under the influence of an innocent village belle. The venture,aided by the Film Finance Corporation under the chairmanship of Mr Himmat Singh, became the forerunner of a series of similarly made films which came to be grouped under the name of "New Cinema Movement". BHUVAN SHOME released mostly through morning shows had a surprisingly good run. It won the President's Gold Medal and one of the Gold Medals for participation at the non-competitive Venice Festival.

Mrinal Sen's BUVAN SHOME in 1969 was Utpal Dutt's first film in Hindi. It was also the first Hindi film directed by Mrinal Sen. Despite the director's contention that the film was popular for the wrong reasons, Dutt's role as the cigar sucking "big bad bureaucrat chastised by a charmer's cheek" , was a hit from the word go. "My father was thankful to Mrinalkaku for casting him in that role", says Vishnupriya, recalling how a good many number of people advised Sen not to cast Dutt in the role. Sen wisely disregarded their advice, and the rest is history".

Trudging through the undulating landscapes of Gujarat in a duck shooting spree with Suhasini Mulay trailing behind him, to the background of sarcasm laced mock-serious commentary by Amitabh Bachchan, Dutt rendered in BHUVAN SHOME a memorable portrayal of the insecurity which reveals itself when the mask of pomposity is rudely torn apart by circumstances beyond one's control.

Sen's "BHUVAN SHOME" was a masterpiece. It dealt with a bureaucrat's life (played inimitably by Utpal Dutta). The film offered a vitality and freshness that was truly mind-boggling. The reformation of the crusty bureaucrat by a young girl was the storyline. It was without the song and dance and usual trappings . Shekar Chaterji & Sadhu Meher essayed convincing roles in it. Sadhu Meher enacts the role of husband of Suhasini in the film. The film was a roaring success, and this film which contrasted rural and urban life beautifully placed Sen at the forefront of filmmakers who seek to chase the truth through their medium. Suhasini Mulay played the female lead. Amitabh Bachchan 's voice was used as Utpal's voice in BHUVAN SHOME.

The film BHUVAN SHOME was shot extensively in GUJARAT on a shoe-string budget sanctioned by the Govt. It was also the first time that a Bengali actor (Utpal Dutta) got the Best Actor National award acting in a Hindi film. What is interesting is that the more renowned Satyajit Ray found none of the freshness that others did in Sen's BHUVAN SHOME except the character of Suhasini Mulay. Utpal Dutta played the title role with conviction enacting a whole gamut of emotions effortlessly from sensitivity to buffoonery. The sequence where Suhasini Mulay runs to see the flight of a group of birds symbolishes her innocence and purity, of someone who has grown up in the loving arms of nature. The film elicited a number of remarkable perfomances. Shekar Chaterji gave by far the best perfomance of his cinematic career in BHUVAN SHOME. Sadhu Meher, who plays a Railway Station master had quite a few memorable lines such as the one when he says "Bara Station Tow Bara Kamaiye" (If it is a big Railway Station, then it means big income"). This film, suggests Pundits, could well have been the precursor to the new wave unleashed by Shyam Benegal and gang a few years later.

BHUVAN SHOME is a true representative of the bureaucratic traditions of the Raj. A senior Officer in the Railways in the late forties and raised in colonial mores, he is strict, self-righteous and completely lacking in the human failing of laughter. A stern disciplinarian, he sacked his own son for "gross negligence of duty" when he was found to be guilty of a minor misdemeanour. But being a dedicated civil servant is a tiresome job,and bored with his routine, Shome decides to take a duck-shooting holiday. He plans to go to a remote shoreline of Gujarat where there would be oppurtunities for bird watching as well. As if to atone for his weakness in seeking a holiday, he issues order at the last minute to sack Jadav Patel, a young ticket collector, for accepting a bribe. For the middle-aged,lonely widower, his sudden entry into a carefree new world is fraught with discomfort. Accustomed to the dreary confines of his office, Shome treads warily in his new environment. He bears the hazards of a speedy bullock-cart drive with fortitude, listens perforce to the homely philosophy of its driver, makes an undignified dash for a tree faced by a marauding buffalo, and meets Gauri - casual, graceful, vivacious -- a cheeky young village belle who worms her way into his heart. He soon finds out that by some absurd coincidence she is the wife of Jadav Patel, the heinous acceptor of bribes. But her youthful exuberance, her novel approach to weighty moral issues, her mischievous smile, all combine to become the first humanizing influence in Shome's life. When he returns, Bhuvan Shome has changed beyond repair. Alone in his office room, he suddenly indulges in most uncharacteristic boisterousness. Though the slowly settling snowstorm of boring official documents that Shome has flung around his desk and the sense of liberation he has achieved from his first irrational act remains hidden behind the four walls of his room, Jadav Patel's inexplicable reprieve becomes a nine day's wonder in the railways.

1969 was an important year in the annals of the Indian Film Industry. In the wake of the commercial success of BHUVAN SHOME FFC declares its policy to finance low-budget offbeat films.

Sen is an innovator when it comes to exploring the man-woman relationship. Other Indian directors ( with the notable exception of Tapan Sinha's AADMI AUR AURAT) have dealt with this relationship from only two angles : the ROMANTIC and the SEXUAL. But Sen went beyond this and showed that there exists relationship besides these in reality. The relationship between the hawker and the wife in NEEL AKASER NEECHEY doesn't conform to the two standard relationship.It went beyond that. Similarly in BHUVAN SHOME how the Bureaucrat changes owing to the little girl is another man-woman relationship not conforming to the two standard relationship. Even in PADATIK ( The Guerilla Fighter ), given all the stock situations the boy and the girl share a moment of deep empathy.

Satyajit Ray had summed up BHUVAN SHOME in the following words : "Big bad bureaucrat reformed by village belle".

The success of BHUVAN SHOME at the box-office showed that it was possible to make a meaningful film with experiments upto certain limits with paying propositions.

In a meeting later organised to pay homage to the late Utpal Dutta, Mrinal Sen recalled his experience of working with Utpal Dutt in BHUVAN SHOME, where the actor spoke fluent Hindi inspite of not being conversant with the language. He confessed that there were many sequences in the film where Utpal Dutt played the role of a Bureaucrat who comes under the influence of a village girl for which he was indebted to the actor. He also said that controversy was part of the work that Utpal Dutt did on the stage -- and he thrived on it for the right reasons.