IFFK will honour the centenary of filmmaker Mrinal Sen by screening five of his films

Five of the films directed by Mrinal Sen will be screened as part of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) commemorating his centennial. At the event, the renowned director's films Bhuvan Shome, Calcutta 71, Akaler Sandhane, Padatik, and Ek Din Pratidin will be presented. 

A severe Bengali bureaucrat leading a boring life of loneliness until he decides to travel is the story in Bhuvan Shome (1969), which won three National Awards. The movie explores self-realization and offers societal criticism of the widening gap between rural and urban areas. 

Calcutta 71 (1972), a grim reflection on poverty, natural disasters, and political unrest in the nation, connects four stories by showing individuals fighting for their lives.

The 1980 film Akaler Sandhane, which took home four National Awards and the Silver Bear at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, is about a film team that goes into rural Bengal to document the 1943 Bengal famine for a film project. The tale offers a startling picture of the famine-stricken area, which is still plagued by poverty decades later.

The 1973 film Padatik - The Guerrilla Fighter, a young revolutionary flees police prison and takes sanctuary in the apartment of a divorced woman. While in isolation, he engages in self-reflection and begins to doubt his current ideological direction.

Ek Din Pratidin (1979) (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn) won three National Awards and was hailed as Mrinal Sen's most insightful statement on middle-class struggles in the nation. The movie follows the day-to-day activities of a working lady from the lower middle class who is the family's only provider and doesn't come home after work. 

Amidst the escalating catastrophe stemming from societal moral and economic limitations, the movie highlights the resilience that lies behind hopelessness.