Master storyteller who merged reality with fiction

Thiruvananthapuram: Swayamvaram, which marked the beginning of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s unparalleled journey in the world of cinema, have had its share of criticism as well. Many found the opening scene – with no dialogue for over five minutes as the soundtrack was limited to that of engine and bell in a moving bus – disagreeable. However, veteran auteur Mrinal Sen, unlike the majority, was all praise for the very scene.

“There was so much criticism about that scene due to lack of dialogues and there was Mrinal Sen telling me he loved that scene. He kept talking about it when it was screened at National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai,” Adoor, who went on to have a very close relationship+ with Sen, recalls.

Apart from his Left leanings, Adoor was the binding force between Sen and Kerala. They used to call on each other when either of them was in Kerala or

Bengal

. When Adoor showed his film Nizhalkuthu, Sen made sure that he writes at length about the movie in the foreword of his autobiography ‘Always being born’ which was all set to go into print.

“Two years ago, I met his wife, an ailing Gita Sen, at their small apartment in Kolkata. She held my hand and said ‘we are family’,” Adoor fondly remembers.

Although their style of filmmaking was different, they shared a close bond, feels Joshy Joseph, filmmaker and close associate of Sen. He had created a political space for himself through his films in Bengali cinema, dominated by Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak.

“He developed a distinctive style of filmmaking by blending footage of real time events and fiction. When there was uprooting of statues in Bengal, Sen would shoot it with his own camera and later use it in his films. We may not be able to find true successors of his style, but the manner in which real footage merge with fiction in some of the new generation movies could be considered a tribute to his style,’’ observes Joseph.

“When Nandigram protests were happening, there was a huge rally against the Left regime on a Wednesday. The next day, there was a counter-rally by CPM. Sen was present at both the events. I wrote a scathing article for a daily titled ‘Mrinal Sen on Ash Wednesday, Mrinal Sen on Maundy Thursday and Sen on Good Friday; which is real?’ When I met him later, he smiled at me and said he had read that article,” says Joseph.

As film societies in the state opened up avenues of parallel cinema, enthusiasts found themselves equally immersed in the world of new wave unravelled by Ray as well as Sen’s movies simmering with politics; a factor which tagged him as a populist filmmaker. “He was known for politically-committed cinema,” says Bina Paul, vice-chairperson, Kerala State Chalachithra Academy. When IFFK instituted Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, there was no better choice than Sen. He had plans to make a film on Kayyur struggle, which did not materialise.