Dadasaheb Phalke Award-winning film director Mrinal Sen passed away on December 30 after a prolonged battle with age-related ailments. He was 95. The auteur, who has won multiple National Film awards, was known for his artistic depiction of social reality.

Sen was the last surviving member of the ‘trinity’ from Bengal - the others being Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak - who gave birth to the parallel (or new wave) cinema in India by starting and cradling the domestic film society movement in one of the coffee houses of Kolkata. The troika gave a new direction to the idea of filmmaking in India with their intellect, spontaneity, knowledge of world cinema and deep understanding of the nuances of the medium that made the world look up in wonder and respect their creations.

Sen, who believed cinema was not merely a medium of entertainment but could be used to enlighten and educate the masses, was an accidental filmmaker. His interest in filmmaking was piqued after he stumbled upon a book on film aesthetics.

Born on May 14, 1923, in Faridpur (now in Bangladesh), Sen made his first Bengali film Rat Bhore (The Dawn) in 1953, but it was his second directorial effort Neel Akasher Niche (Under the Blue Sky) that received acclaim for its lyricism and humane qualities.

Sen followed up with Baishey Shravan (Wedding Day), which earned him plaudits from critics beyond Indian shores. In 1969, he worked on a small budget provided by the Union government to direct Bhuvan Shome (Mr Shome) - regarded as an important milestone in new wave cinema.

His Kolkata trilogy - Interview, Calcutta 71 and Padatik - is considered to be a masterpiece for depicting the social and political upheaval in the city of the 1970s.

Some of his critically acclaimed films include Ek Adhuri Kahani (An Unfinished Story, 1971), Chorus (1974), Mrigayaa (in Hindi - The Royal Hunt, 1976), Oka Oori Katha (in Odia - The Outsiders, 1977), Ek Din Pratidin (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn, 1979), Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine, 1980), Chalchitra (The Kaleidoscope, 1981), Kharij (The Case is Closed, 1982), Khandhar (The Ruins, 1983), Genesis (1986) and Ek Din Achanak (Suddenly, One Day, 1989). His last film Aamaar Bhuvan (This, My Land) came out in 2002.

Sen has left behind a rich repertoire of 27 feature films, 14 shorts and four documentaries after a stellar career spanning six decades.

He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1981, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005, the French government’s Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et lettres (Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2001, and Order of Friendship from the Russian government in the same year. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2003.

Sen’s autobiography Always Being Born was released in 2004.