Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Padatik’, which will play at the Indian Panorama of IFFI, is a warm, empathetic biopic of (and tribute to) Mrinal Sen

This is a man who identifies as a Communist, a man who decides he will make films on his own terms… And Chanchal Chowdhury plays him brilliantly. Mrinal Sen is a hero, but the film has no hero-worship.

In an early scene in Srijit Mukherji’s new film, the actor Korak Samanta (who plays the younger Mrinal Sen) gets into a tram and begins to talk to the camera, thus breaking the fourth wall. He breaks it a little more when he points to the man standing at the doorway of the same tram, who happens to be the director who hired this actor: Srijit Mukherji. This is a technique Mrinal Sen used in his 1971 film Interview, where the protagonist breaks the fourth wall and we even see the camera crew that’s filming him. Interview is the third film in The Calcutta Trilogy, the other two being Calcutta 71 and Padatik, which means foot soldier. That is what Mrinal Sen was: a foot soldier of cinema, who fought guerilla-style from the trenches. Though his films broke many conventions of form, he says: “What you say is more important than the medium.” He admits that his films are a crude pamphlet, not a leatherbound journal.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galattaplus.com/srijit-mukherji-padatik-which-will-play-at-the-indian-panorama-of-iffi-is-a-warm-empathetic-biopic-of-and-tribute-to-mrinal-sen/

You can watch the trailer / video review here:

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