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Recently the versatile actress Geeta Sen passed away. Besides acting in the films of her husband Mrinal Sen, she has also acted in Ghatak's NAGARIK and Shyam Benegal's AROHAN. Kolkata DD showed her film CHAALCHITRO recently as a mark of respect.

The Mrinal Sen directed CHALCHITRO (Kaleidoscope, 1981) is a film that has not been screened in India previously as far as I know. It is a film that only a Mrinal Sen would have the courage to make. There is hardly any story so to speak, no attractive heroine features in it to make it pleasing to a viewer. But Mrinal Sen being Mrinal Sen, he has the rare ability to make the mundane the stuff of great cinematic material. Like Jean Luc Godard, MS captures life in everyday Kolkata with its vicissitudes, idiosyncrasies, humaneness and pettiness under the pretext of a storyline - the hunt of a print journalist (Anjan Dutt) for a story/scoop that is saleable. The editor of the newspaper (Utpal Dutt) likens modern life to a stock market - every aspect of it involve a kind of buying and selling. "How many ovens are there in Kolkata?" - runs a question/newsreel footage across the screen. The director also highlights environmental concern with rapid urbanization and use of unclean energy used for cooking during the late seventies. Gita Sen acts as the mother of the protagonist struggling to make ends meet for the family. The lives of several independent families all living under a common roof quibbling and sharing joys and miseries have been depicted aptly.

The film was screened at London and Venice Film festivals. Watching CHALCHITRO recently one felt sad for the demise of THE ACTRESS who brilliantly brought to life the quotidian characters in the films of Mrinal Sen, be it in CHORUS, EK DIN PRATIDIN or KHANDAHAR.

You can relate with this film if you have a middle class background and you have grown up in the bengali culture. Every middle class young man has to compromise with their passion and dream since they have very humble financial background. This seems to be an underrated film as I can see that very few people have watched this film. You must watch this one to appreciate the excellent acting of Anjan Dutta, Gita Sen and Utpal dutta.

Another magnum opus from Sen. Now a days there is a trend that every other bengali film director is telling how he shot the allies of Calcutta so differently that no one has done before. Everyone should keep mum, sit near Sen's feet and learn that from watching this film. After writing this, I can understand how much the statement is wrong for any of Sen's films as he fought against idolism and establishment. However, this title 'Kaleidoscope' makes proper sense to the story when a confused guy tries to get glimpse of city life. And those glimpse will make the picture at the end which is too much satisfying to be unsatisfied about.