Title of film : In Search of Famine

Director Name : Mrinal Sen

Cast & crew :

Producer : Dhiresh Kumar Chakraborty

Editor : Gangadhar Naskar

Cast :

  1. 1. Dhritiman Chatterjee
  2. 2. Smita Patil
  3. 3. Dipankar De
  4. 4. Gita Sen

Synopsis : 7 September, 1980. A film crew comes to a village to make a film about a famine, which killed five million Bengalees in 1943. It was a man made famine, a side- product of the war, and the film crew will create the tragedy of those millions who died of starvation. The film documents the convivial life among the film crew and the hazards, problems and tension of film making on location. The actors live a double life, and the villagers, both simple and not-so-simple folk watch their work with wonder and suspicion. But as the film progresses, the recreated past begins to confront the present. The uneasy coexistence of 1943 and 1980 reveals bizarre connection, involving a village woman whose visions add a further dimension of time—that of future. A disturbing situation, indeed, for the “famine-seekers”!

Director Bio : Mrinal Sen (14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and a few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Indian filmmakers, along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Tapan Sinha, Sen played major role in the New Wave cinema of eastern India. Sen has received various national and international honors including eighteen Indian National Film Awards. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan, and the Government of France honored him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, while Russian Government honored him with the Order of Friendship. Sen was also awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award for filmmakers in India. He was one of the few Indian filmmakers having won awards at the big three film festivals viz., Cannes, Venice and the Berlinale. Sen was a self described "private Marxist".

Filmography :

  1. 1. Bhuvan Shome ( 1969 )
  2. 2. Chorus ( 1974 )
  3. 3. Mrigayaa ( 1976 )