Saturday, May 16, 2009

Statesmen: Aparna Sen

36 Chowringhee Lane is considered to be one of the most appreciated movies beyond the borders. The lady who directed the movie was Aparna Sen.

She started her career as an actress at age of sixteen, with Satyajit Ray’s famed saga Teen Kanya. She did some more movies with Ray including highly acclaimed movie Pikoo. With Mrinal Sen, she worked in Akash Kusum. In her acting career she performed in numerous Bangla, Hindi and English movies. But acting was not her destiny.

In ’81, she directed 36 Chowringhee Lane. She got accolades for her directorial debut. She won National Awards and Golden Eagle at Manila. The film was about an Anglo-English teacher living in Calcutta. SShe followed up the success with Paroma, Sati and Yugant. In these movies, she examined and highlighted the state of women in India.

In 2002, she presented her extremely gifted daughter Konkana Sen Sharma in movie Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The movie dealt with two totally different people pretending to be husband and wife in extremely adverse conditions. She won National Award for direction and Konkana grabbed it for her stunning performance. Apart from these, the movie got extremely favorable remarks at different film festivals.

In 2005, she presented a story of schizophrenic patient and her relations with her sister. The movie was 15, Park Avenue. Again, Konkana played the lead role. Her last venture was The Japanese Wife starring Raima Sen and Rahul Bose.

To the world of cinema, she is known as a strong intellectual who has the guts to say spade a spade. She is not one in the league of diplomats. In 1986, she was bestowed upon with Padma Shri for her contribution to Indian Cinema. This reflects what she means to Cinema. She is a blessing while some directors are making mockery of the art.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

2 comments:

Amit Saini said...

Both Mother Daughter duop has created magic in mr n mrs Iyyer. thet was a real trat to watch

sujoy said...

Thanks Amit for readin...

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