THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV 29  :   IFFK will commemorate the centenary celebrations of Mrinal Sen by screening five films of the celebrated filmmaker during the festival to be held here from December 8 to 15.

Films include Bhuvan Shome, Calcutta 71, Akaler Sandhane, Padatik, Ek Din Pratidin.
Recipient of three national awards, Bhuvan Shome (1969), 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 India.

Akaler Sandhane(1980) winning four National awards and Silver Bear at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, follows a film crew’s venture into rural Bengal to shoot a movie on the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. The story unfolds a stark visual of the famine-struck region that continued to struggle in poverty.

Padatik [The Gurrilla Fighter] (1973) follows a young revolutionary who escapes police custody. He seeks refuge in a divorcee’s apartment. Being in solitary confinement, he indulges in self-critical introspection and starts questioning the ideological path he has.

Hailed as Mrinal Sen’s most eloquent commentary on middle-class dilemmas in India, Ek Din Pratidin (1979) [And Quiet Rolls the Dawn] secured three National awards The film describes the events of a day and night in a low-middle-class working woman, the sole breadwinner of the family, who doesn’t return home after work.
Between the deepening crisis arising out of economic and moral constraints prevalent in society, the film speaks of hope, of strength hidden behind despair.(UNI)