Legendary Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen, known for his contribution to Bengali parallel cinema, died at his residence in Bhawanipur on Sunday. He was 95. "Sen passed away today around 10.30 am due to age-related ailments," a family member said. Sen is survived by his son Kunal Sen
Sen along with Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak was among the pioneers of parallel cinema in India and reshaped the profile of cinema in the country, starting with film Bhuvan Shome.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee called his death "a great loss to the film industry".
Apart from winning National Awards, in 2005, he received the country's highest film honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He was also awarded Padma Bhushan – India's third highest civilian award – in 1983.
He has several National Film Awards to his credit. Some of his noted movies include like Bhuban Shome (Hindi, 1969), Mrigaya (Hindi, 1976), Oka Oori Katha (Tamil, 1977), Akaler Sandhane (Bengali, 1980), Kharij (Bengali, 1982) and Khandahar (Hindi, 1983).
Mrinal Sen was born on May 14th, 1923, in Faridpur, now in Bangladesh. He moved to Kolkata to study physics, but was drawn to film-making after reading a book on film aesthetics.
CPI Secretary General Sitaram Yechury also remembered the filmmaker for his humanistic narrative in a tweet.
Bengali film industry also mourned the loss of the illustrious director. Parambrata Chatterjee tweeted, "End of an era… an epoch… legends never die… bhalo thakben (stay well)." Prosenjit Chatterjee said, "At the end of the year receiving news like demise of the legend Mrinal Sen saddens and shocks us. Mrinal jethu gave a new perspective to Indian Cinema. It's a huge loss for all of us. May his soul rest in peace."
