Revisiting Mrinal Sen's 1971 Iconic film 'Interview'
Words by Shanin Ahmed Khan
Welcome to the Brown History Newsletter. If you’re enjoying this labour of love, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your contribution would help pay the writers and illustrators and support this weekly publication. If you like to submit a writing piece, please send me a pitch by email at brownhistory1947@gmail.com. Check out our Shop and our Podcast. You can also follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Revisiting Mrinal Sen's 1971 Iconic film 'Interview' by Shanin Ahmed Khan
Has there been a director from the 20th century whose films are so liberating and attune to the present of Bengal than Mrinal Sen? Mrinal Sen is one of the founding fathers of Indian Parallel Cinema, next to Indian contemporaries like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak who made films alternative to mainstream Indian movies of their time. His films blended the philosophical with the political, the latter of whose views were much controversial and bold for his time, depicting subjects such as relations between social hierarchies, indirect effects of colonialism, urban alienation and of course, cinema. Perhaps the strongest example of his prominent filmography is his 1971 masterpiece titled “Interview”. “Interview” is a film whose story can be outlined in just a few words; a man struggles to find a suit to wear for his job interview. A premise of such simplicity is a microcosm about our invisible change after decolonization of British rule, representing an economic insecurity that we Bengalis accommodate to this day. Such audacity, anger and vision with sheer hatred and angst seeping from its scenes, that forces the hopeful out of hopelessness and cry out a revolution, all while pushing the limits of what cinema as an expression can be: the angriest film.
The story’s hero is played by Ranjit Mallick in what would be his debut as an actor, whose character also happens to be named Ranjit Mallick. A dawn-to-dusk documentation of Ranjit, we watch all the events exponentially leading to his doom, as he strives to get hold of his only suit to wear for his job interview at a foreign company. Ranjit is a personable young man of potential from a middle-class family, who takes care of his sister and mother, played by renowned actress Karuna Banerjee, who had earlier appeared in “Pather Panchali”. Being offered a respectable job in a foreign firm, all Ranjit needs to do is to turn up for his interview wearing a western style suit to make a good impression, but his unfortunate luck wills otherwise. It turns out his only suit is infested and the city laundry is on strike that morning for mistreatment of its labor.
Set in the urban backgrounds of Calcutta in the early 1970s, Sen provides a most intimate presentation of his city. From British architecture of the past, its bruised monuments, statues and tall pillars, the camera afterwards immerses the viewer amidst the city’s bustling population; in local fish markets and public buses. The frames are suffocated in cigarette clouds, with the stench of tobacco radiating from the screen, while the sweat of the busy populace seeps from each scene. With unconventional editing and quick-cutting, Sen presents a stylish and kaleidoscopic vision of 70s black-and-white Calcutta. Fragments of the city’s billboards, posters and clothes shape the film to look like a pulpy fashion magazine or a comic strip.