Mrinal Sen on his credo

``My films are popular failures at the box office. With every failure, I collapse a little. But I still keep on making films'' -- this was Mrinal Sen, one of the greatest directors of our times, at an interactive session at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The renowned film-maker is quite candid in admitting that every director wants to reach the widest possible audience. ``Those who say that they do not care for their audiences are not telling the truth. It is only a kind of defence mechanism they build within themselves,'' quips Mrinal, who after 26 feature films, 2 documentaries and a number of television films, feels he still is experimenting with the medium.

Here in connection with a retrospective of his films, Mrinal Sen says he has worked out a simple formula for himself: ``My films are popular with the minority. If I can gather the minority spectrum scattered across the world, I would be commanding a wide audience.''

According to the veteran film-maker, ``cinema to a large extent is a technological performance''. However, experimentation and non-conformity are critical to evolve with the medium. ``You cannot always go with what your predecessors have told you''.

However, Mrinal Sen says it was important for people to develop a taste for the kind of films that he makes. ``It is very much like reading a book. You have to get attuned to the structure of the story''. Giving an example, he said he found it quite difficult to read the first few pages of Arundhati Roy's ``God of Small Things''. ``The media hype too contributed to the initial hesitation. But then, it is one of the most delightful books I have read''.

His ``Bhuvan Shome'', released in 1969, marked the advent of the new wave of film-making in India.``Though the new cinema did start in India, there are good film-makers are all over the world,'' he says. ``We have been unnecessarily talked about''.

Known for taking up non-conventional themes, Mrinal Sen says he sometimes even departs from the usual beginning, middle and end approach to a narrative. ``Most of my films are as much made spontaneously as they are carefully planned out. When I confront a set or location, some kind of chemistry operates and sometimes I just do not know what is going to happen''.

Notable among his films of over a three decade period are ``Padatik'', ``Antreen'' and ``Ek Din Pratidin'' in Bangla and ``Bhuvan Shome'' and ``Ek Din Achanak'' in Hindi -- all of which are being screened at the India Habitat Centre as part of the month-long Mrinal Sen retrospective.

In an interaction with the audience before the screening of ``Antreen'' on Tuesday evening, the film-maker justified his decision to cast Dimple Kapadia, a Bollywood star, in the movie. ``I wanted a face which should give me a picture of desolation. If you watch the movie, it becomes physically palpable in Dimple's face,'' he says.

While Mrinal Sen is now working on a new script, he refuses to divulge details about the venture. ``Do you ever ask a writer about his new work of fiction or for that matter, do you ask a scientist about a new experiment that he might have decided to conduct?''

Interestingly, the film-maker is candid enough in admitting that he does not have flair for any other language except Bengali and English. Yet, he has made a film in Oriya and Telugu as well. ``My film in Telugu was based on a story by Munshi Premchand. When Premchand wrote the story, he had an Utttar Pradesh village as a model. My script had a Bengal village as a model and the entire thing was then transplanted in Telengana,'' he observes, ``Though I did not know the language, I was very clear about the theme which was grinding poverty and exploitation''.

Looking back on his four decade long journey into the world of film-making, Mrinal Sen says: ``I see myself as a logical extension of what I was 30 years ago. Things might have changed physically but then the intellectual concerns have remained the same.''

By K. Kannan

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