A book about a friend: Remembering Mrinal Sen
Join the South Asia Instiute for the special book launch of "Bondhu: My Father, My Friend" by Kunal Sen on Saturday, June 8 (2:00 pm to 5:00 pm).
This will be followed by a conversation with author and historian Dipesh Chakrabarty and a screening of "Ek Din Pratidin" by Mrinal Sen (SAI SCREENINGS).
About the book
Bondhu: My Father, My Friend is an intimate and refreshingly honest portrayal of Mrinal Sen by his son Kunal. Written in a non-linear style, the book is the first nontechnical book written by Kunal Sen, and was published during the centenary celebrations of Mrinal Sen, one of the most prominent names in Indian Cinema.
Here are a few review excerpts –
In a riveting debut, the Chicago-based author offers an intimate portrait of his father at home and in the world. -- Kunal Ray, The Hindu
Bondhu is a deeply felt chronicle of Mrinal Sen as well as his wife, the actor Gita Sen. Kunal Sen takes readers back to his parents’ formative years, the hardscrabble circumstances in which Sen made some of his most well-known films, and the cultural-political milieu in which Sen worked. Kunal Sen includes numerous anecdotes that shed a rare light on his father’s private self. – Nandini Ramnath, Scroll.in
Kunal Sen’s book Bondhu, on his father, the late, distinguished filmmaker Mrinal Sen (May 14, 1923-December 30, 2018, whom, wonderfully, he calls Bondhu, friend, rather than Baba, father), is punctuated with a refreshing honesty and candour that are not the hallmarks of books on celebrities in your family. These often wallow in hagiography, but Kunal Sen’s Bondhu is a marvellous and frank tribute, celebrating Mrinal Sen’s birth centenary year. – Meenakshi Shedde, Mid-day
Kunal, son of Geeta and Mrinal Sen has penned an evocative account of his father in a memoir, Bondhu, published in 2023. Intimate yet distant, personal but a critique, Kunal painted Mrinal Sen’s private persona with care and insight. – Amitava Nag, Silhouette Magazine
‘Bondhu’ would not be like a spring wind over river water—fleeting yet comforting—had it resorted to material archives. It is a son’s memory weaved into an endearing meandering song. – Priyanka Basu, King’s College, London
Kunal Sen's book on his memories of Mrinal Sen, Bondhu, is filled with hilarious, endearing, heartwrenching honesty. He paints a father who is an eccentric, irresponsible, bumbling adult. A man who always ran, fell and ran again. – Anjan Dutt, Actor, Musician, Filmmaker
For me, Bondhu is one of the best books I have read in years, not only this year: gentle, meditative, and deeply moving about the nature of our relationships with parents, family, aging, death -- Sohini Chattopadhyay, Writer, Film Critic, Author
Biography:
Kunal Sen grew up in Calcutta during a period of political volatility in the exciting environment of a filmmaker father and an actress mother and a living room squirming with creative people of all kinds. Within all this chaos, his main passion drifted towards science and technology.
After completing graduate studies in Physics, he shifted to Computer Science and moved to Chicago to obtain a Ph.D degree in Artificial Intelligence. During the next thirty years, Kunal designed electronic medical systems, wrote technical books, and ran the technology teams at Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, and is currently the Global Chief Information Officer of the group.
For the last fourteen years, Kunal has also been pursuing an active art practice from his studio in Chicago. His work has been shown in many exhibitions throughout the country. His practice combines electronic technology with traditional painting and sculpting to create conceptual pieces that explore the interaction between technology, science, philosophy, and humanity.
In 2023 he wrote his first nontechnical book Bondhu: My Father, My Friend about his memories and experiences of his father, the filmmaker Mrinal Sen.
