Master film-maker Mrinal Sen's stills to make public debut, go in for archiving

Time of India

12-05-2025

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Kolkata: Few are aware that master film-maker
Mrinal Sen
was a skilled photographer too. Ten still photographs that Sen had clicked during his travels in India and abroad will be on display at the
Jibansmriti Archive
on his birth anniversary on May 14.
The photos, now restored, primarily feature Sen's wife, Gita Sen, and son, Kunal, as subjects. Most images shared are from 1962 to 1977, documenting the family's trips to various destinations. One portrait captures Gita and Kunal in Santiniketan, while others showcase the family's visits to Nyon in Switzerland and Heidelberg and Mannheim in Germany. Two landscape photographs present Sen going behind the lens in Paris in 1972 and Beijing in 1977.Arindam Saha Sardar, founder of Jibansmriti Archive, told TOI he learned about the photos from the director's Chicago-based son.
"But the photos had scratches on them. The sharpness was missing, too. We painstakingly used digital technology to restore them. Subsequently, archival prints were taken for each of the photos," Sardar said.He pointed out that an ordinary Canon fixed-lens camera was used by the legendary film-maker to take the photos. "We are incredibly grateful to Kunal-da for sharing the photos with us and giving us the opportunity to digitally correct them so that they can be displayed for those who never knew about this side of Mrinal Sen," he added.Sen's birth anniversary will also see the display of the poster and booklet of his 'Genesis' (1986) and 'Ekdin Achanak' (1989). Another interesting addition to the archive's digital collection is a short family video taken during a trip to Madhupur. In the '60s, Bengali middle-class families followed a trend of going on a 'change' in the winter to places in Bihar. Just before one such winter trip in 1966-67 with his wife, son, brothers and mother-in-law to a small town, called Madhupur, Sen had bought an 8mm movie camera from a foreign tourist in Chennai. Piku, Kunal's pet dog, also went on the trip. "Prior to this trip, Sen had only once used this camera for shooting. On returning, he processed the film at home. Unfortunately, no projector for screening the film in its original format had been available for long. In 2010, Kunal-da transferred the film to the digital format. The condition of this short film is still very bad, but its historical importance remains," Sardar added.