MRINAL SEN, Early Years (2)

He studied chemistry at the Scottish Church College, which, he says, was "a hotbed of the radical students, movement". "Since the Scottish Church was a Protestant college, Prof. Mohit Choudhury would teach us the Bible," Sen recalls. "I love the Bible to this day. I treat it as a piece of beautiful literature rather than a religious tract," he adds. "There was a time when I was steeped into reading on a wide horizon of subjects and authors. As member of the Imperial Library (which later became the National Library), I read Firdaus, Fitzgeral, Nietzsche, Marx.

During 1937 - 1938, the International Brigade was created after the Spanish Civil War. The greatest of writers of all time formed a part of it. Stephen Spender and Hemingway were two of them. I chanced upon a long poem in this paper penned by Pablo Neruda who was then being chased by the police. It was titled, Fugitive from somewhere in America. Ralph Fox who died in the Spanish War at 36 fascinated me greatly.

During that time, I had seen a film of P.C.Barua and these experiences inspired me to write an article entitiled CINEMA AND THE PEOPLE.

Since the Communist Party of India was banned at the time, Sen,s political association were mainly underground. He became an enthusiastic and active participant in the activities of the Indian People,s Theatre Association (IPTA), founded around that time, a cultural organisation aimed at raising political consciousness among the masses against the British rule through theatre. Since the IPTA was known to be the cultural arm of the Communist Party of India. His involvemente with the IPTA brought him in close touch with the masses and also with artists who shared his political ideology and social philosophy. "I was deeply impressed that art could do so much for the people, that it could creat a certain climate." he reminisces.

"I wil not say whether I was more or less of a Marxist earlier. But I definitely know that I have moved from where I stood years ago. I have changed with age and experience. I have seen a lot, lost a lot, gained a lot and learnt a lot. I have a dialogue with myself and I carry it over to my art. Cinema is evolving all the time and evolving quite rapidly. The advantage in technology has a strong bearing on it. It changes the dimensions of the art. I too, have changed with time."

Interestingly, Mrinal-da, has never been a member of the Communist Party of India, in fact, he broke away from it in 1964. "I go my own way. I go by my conscience. I do not have to go by the mandates of the Party." he once said.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 left a deep impression on the Mrinal, just 20 years old. This impression has remained with him throughout his life. BAISHEY SRAVAN, was his way of purging himself of the traumatic memories of the time. The famine saw 5 million people starve to death in Bengal. "I cannot remember a single day when I did not have to step over 7 or more dead bodies, just lying there.... They just starved and dropped dead," he says. The riots in Calcutta on August 16, 1946, which took a heavy toll of innocent lives, also disturbed him deeply. These historical events and the city of Calcutta found expression, reflection, questioning and interpretation in many of his films.

Sen met and fell in love with Geeta, a theatre actress and have a son, Kunal. Sen says, "I was born of Bengali parents, I married a Bengali, and we live in a Bengali milieu. But there is hardly anything any longer which could be called truly Bengali or truly India or purely German. We live in a kind of bastard culture, which is great for me. I feel that, sooner or later, we would arrive at a stage where to find a cultural identity, to find cultural roots, will be an exercise in futility."

After studying sound recording at Aurora studios along with his experience in theatre inspired his very first full length feature film, RAAT BHOR, in 1956.

His journey through his own cinema too, has been marked more by diversity than by uniformity, even by stagnancy at times, when he stopped making films for 8 years. This, however, is precisely what makes him and his films so much the subject of debate, discussion and argument.

Shoma Chatterjee