Description
Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes look at the life of filmmaker Mrinal Sen through the eyes of his son Kunal, who grew up immersed in the world of Indian cinema. “No one remembers when and why I started calling my father Bondhu. It was a strange way to address a father, as the word means ‘friend’ in Bengali. . . . As I got older, I became very self-conscious about such an odd name . . . and yet I cannot explain why I could not switch to the more acceptable Baba or something similar.”
Just as Kunal Sen, son of actor Gita Sen and filmmaker Mrinal Sen, was approaching adolescence, his father’s cinematic celebrity was reaching new heights. In this memoir, Kunal reflects on growing up in a middle-class household in South Calcutta, where his father’s Marxist beliefs and unrelenting urge “to be challenged and contradicted” often collided with the practical challenges of making a living. Through it all, what emerges is a picture of a family’s unyielding commitment to the craft of cinema, the risks each of its members took, and their endearing sense of humor. Celebrating Mrinal Sen’s birth centenary in 2023,
Bondhu takes us on an intimate journey of a son attempting to reconcile his father’s public and private selves.
Table of ContentsPart 1. Bondhu
First Bonding
Early Friends
My Bondhu
My Ma
Our Homes
The Lighter Side
Our Encounters with Religion
The Revolutionary Years
Part 2. Filmmaker
Preparations
The Economics of Aesthetics
Unknown Tongues
Casting for Freshness
Casting for Experience
The Crew
Music
My Friends, His Colleagues
Part 3. Father
The Story Collector
To Those Who Knew Him
As a Father
A Seedling in a Forest
The Last Few Years
His Legacy
