A filmmaker who is generally thought of as a pioneer of the parallel cinema movement in India, Mrinal Sen has made films in Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, and Hindi. Born in Faridpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Mrinal Sen studied physics in Calcutta. Before beginning his film career, he worked as a medical representative, journalist, and in a sound recording studio. A keen autodidact, Mrinal Sen has read widely on films and later published several books on cinema including Views on Cinema (1977) and Cinema, Adhunikata (1992).

Mrinal Sen made his directorial debut in 1956 with the Bengali film Raat Bbore. He followed it up with the successful Neel Akasher Neechey in 1958, an ambitious film that attempted to link the nationalist movement in India to the Chinese struggle against Japanese imperialism. Sen`s reputation as a director was established with the disturbing Baishey Shravan (I960), set in a Bengal village during the 1943 famine, and Akash Kusum (1965). Some of his finest work in Bengali came in his Calcutta trilogy: Interview (1970), Calcutta 71 (1972), and Padatik (1973).

Mrinal Sen`s first Hindi film was the low-budget Bhuvan Shome. A comic tale about a rigid bureaucrat`s reformation by an irreverent village woman, the film brought into focus the rigidity of class and social barriers. The unorthodox style of its visuals and editing had a major influence on the rise of parallel cinema in India. His next film in Hindi, Ek Adhuri Kahani, was about the oppression of factory workers by their middle- and upper-class bosses. In 1976, Mrinal Sen made Mrigaya. Set in the period before Indian independence, the film told a subtle tale of the colonial rules contact with the world of the Santhal tribes.

In the 1980s, Mrinal Sen turned from overtly political narratives to examining the seemingly more conventional theme of middle-class life. However, films such as Ek Din Achanak also reflected a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Mrinal Sen has won several awards, including the National Film Award for the Best Film, four times. He has also won major awards at international film festivals, including the Prix dujury award at Cannes for his film Kharij.

A filmography of Mrinal Sen will include the following films:

Bhuvan Shome, 1969	Genesis, 1986
Ek Adhuri Kahani, 1971	Ek Din Achanak, 1988
Mrigaya, 1976	Antareen, 1993
Khandban, 1983