He believed that he was yet to deliver his best film

Imet Mrinal Sen at his Kolkata residence to seek his blessings on my birthday on December 26. “Very happy birthday, Ranjan. You have turned 58? But you do not look so old. So, how do you feel now?” he asked me and blessed me as he had done for the past two-and-a-half decades. I asked Mrinal da whether he remembered he wrote the script for Ajoy Kar’s film, Kanch Kata Hirey, (1965). Mrinal da smiled and said that was five decades ago. He said Kar approached him as he never wrote scripts himself. So, he obliged him as he really liked him as a filmmaker and cinematographer. “Ajoy Kar made an excellent film with my script,’’ said Mrinal da.

Talking about his films, Mrinal da said he never called any of them his best work. He said he was yet to deliver his best film. “In each of my films, I have touched upon contemporary social issues and harted on a political note, which is Leftist. I always believed in the Leftist ideology,’’ said Mrinal da.

Mrinal da said that I had many times asked him whether Smita Patil or Shabana Azmi was a greater actress. “Today, I will tell you… it was Smita by all means. Though I have worked more with Shabana [three films], working with Smita in Akaler Shandhaney was an experience I always cherish,’’ he said. “The least of effort was put behind her while facing the camera. Shabana Azmi rarely came out of her method mould of acting.”

Mrinal da spoke about choosing Dimple Kapadia for Antareen (1994) based on a Saadat Hasan Manto story – the Confined. After the shooting, Kapadia was upset with him as he dubbed her voice for the film... “But I bear no grudge against Dimple. Her eyes, during the telephonic conversation scenes with Anjan Dutt, were oceans of emotions. She never twitched an eyebrow and did have real tears in one of the scenes,’’ said Mrinal da.

Mrinal da also spoke about his annoyance with Naseeruddin Shah for saying Balraj Sahni “was not near to greatness”. He had a heated debate with Naseer during the shooting of Khandhar (1984) and convinced him that if there was no Balraj Sahni, there would not have been a Naseeruddin Shah.

Among the actors Mrinal da worked with, he discovered a lot of potential in Simi Grewal, Madhabi Mukherjee, and Pankaj Kapoor. “I must say the best work of Pankaj Kapoor was in Tapas Sinha’s Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990),’’ said Mrinal da. Cannes, for him, was like a second home. “I have been a jury member at almost every international film festival but I never chaired the National Awards’ jury.”

For Mrinal da, cinema was a collage of montages and his idol was Sir Charles Chaplin. “I will end by telling you that Indian cinema, to me, consists of three names [Satyajit] Ray, Ray, and Ray,” he concluded.

I dreaded the day I would have to write about Mrinal da in past tense... A man of many words, and even more actions... Today there is a vacuum that no one can fill. NANDITA DAS, Actor-filmmaker

He was my neighbour and we would often visit each other’s places... The loss of his wife affected him most, however, he tried and maintained his jovial self... BUDDHADEB DASGUPTA, Filmmaker