Book Review: Kunal Sen's Bondhu
Photo courtesy: Samata Biswas
Samata Biswas writes about Kunal Sen's memoir of his father, Mrinal Sen-- the quintessential chronicler of Calcutta.
What not to read in a hospital: Kunal Sen's memories of his father, Mrinal Sen, Bondhu
This hospital stay is two times more difficult than last year, because unlike last year I am neither in a feverish daze, nor safely away from the phone, a phone that shows people eating drinking and making merry. Of course, I hate the occasion that creates this merriment, still... But, I made myself read Kunal Sen's Bondhu and the sadness engulfed me many times more.
Kunal Sen remembers the life and work of his extremely well-known father, Mrinal Sen, who he used to call, sometimes in secret, at other times boldly, Bondhu, friend. Most of the book are reflections on Mrinal 's life and relationships, with coworkers, other film makers, wife, friends-- his need for constant stimulation, anecdotes, people, admiration-- tracing the journey from a shared family home in Park Circus to the first one room rented terrace flat in Ashwini ]Dutta Lane, to the one bedroom flat in Manoharpukur Road, the two bedrooms in Beltala Road and finally on Padmapukur Road.
From an undernourished mother largely overshadowed by his eccentric genius of a father, Kunal Sen casts a sympathetic, but not an uncritical eye back into the charismatic life of Mrinal Sen-- through early friends, filmmaking decisions, political beliefs, international exposure, self absorption and gradual, all-encompassing loneliness. Perhaps because he sits down to write this in his 68th year, Kunal Sen ends almost every chapter with a note of sadness, of regret at his father spending the last fifteen years of his life bereft of friends, acquaintances, conversations, stimulations-- doubly tragic for a man (and in so many senses he was a quintessential Bengali man) who was always being born, running to prevent the next fall! Always short of money, always reinventing his filmmaking practice and subjects, willing to latch on to anecdotes and build connections that would lead to brilliant conversations-- Kunal Sen cannot let go those last fifteen years, when Mrinal 's comprehension and articulation dimmed perceptibly.
What a life he recounts! From IPTA to a superflop film that none remembers, from early career friends lost to popular cinema to making films in Bengali, Odiya, Telugu and Hindi, from shooting in his own flat to finishing post production in Europe, from running away from money lenders (with Ritwik Ghatak in toe) to being on the jury at Cannes, a life lived with great gusto, bonhomie and in the present moment.
It's also a life lived in snatches -- between addas and arguments, without a table to write on or an inherited cultural capital enabling easy access to cosmopolitan crossings, a refusal to archive oneself or one's work, a refusal to accept the passage of time and departures.
Bondhu in Bangla means friend. This is what Kunal used to call his father since early childhood. He found validation upon watching Apur Sangsar, where Apu tells his son that he is his friend. It's only natural that the exceptional Satyajit Ray would have multiple mentions in the memoir, mostly for their unfortunate estrangement, but also, late in life, the mutual recognition of a shared loneliness. In many ways, and not merely because of well known Bengali intellectuals who were at one point of time or the other, part of Mrinal's circle-- this is a book about Calcutta
From a post partition city of refugees, to a city of the confident march of capital, a city of the homeless, the hopeful, the destitute, and most importantly, the lower middle-class, the subject of all of Mrinal Sen's Calcutta films. From the tram to the Maidan, the Aurora Studios to the New Theatres Studio, from the factions within Bangla film industry to the heady days of the Naxalite movement, the book also tracks the making of this metropolis, through the life of one of its most fervent lovers.
I guess in another state of mind, on another place I will remember this book as an exceptional tribute to a maverick filmmaker
But today, here, it exists primarily as the story of an eccentric genius-- whose mind and surroundings, including his beloved son, couldn't keep up with him.
Samata Biswas is an Assistant Professor at the Sanskrit College and University.
Email: samata.scu@gmail.com
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