Auteur Mrinal Sen’s Hindi short films posted by son on YouTube

Kunal Sen, son of acclaimed director Mrinal Sen, has decided to post on YouTube one of the 12 short films made by his father as part of a Doordarshan series telecast in the late 80s.He converted a low-resolution VHS copy of the film to a format that can be viewed on YouTube.


PTI | Kolkata | Updated: 21-07-2021 18:56 IST | Created: 21-07-2021 18:56 IST
Auteur Mrinal Sen’s Hindi short films posted by son on YouTube
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Kunal Sen, son of acclaimed director Mrinal Sen, has decided to post on YouTube one of the 12 short films made by his father as part of a Doordarshan series telecast in the late 80s.

He converted a low-resolution VHS copy of the film to a format that can be viewed on YouTube. The original magnetic tapes were in the custody of Calcutta Doordarshan.

"Unfortunately soon after the initial telecast, someone decided to reuse those tapes to record some other programme and they were apparently lost," he wrote on Facebook. Sen, who lives in the United States, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday, he was posting on YouTube 'Das Saal Baad' with Aparna Sen and Girish Karnad in the cast. ''During 1986-87 my father made a series of 12 short films for Indian TV. The series was called 'Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas'. Each episode was an independent short film, about 22 minutes in length.

''Since we were not living in Calcutta then, my father sent me a low-resolution VHS copy of some of these short films. Here's one of them. It is called 'Das Saal Baad', with Aparna Sen and Girish Karnad,'' he wrote on Facebook. A low-resolution VHS format of eight to nine of these shorts is available with him.

Sen informed in social media he had been sent VHS copies of some of the 12 short films directed by his late father so that those interested could watch them as there had been no word from Doordarshan on the status of these films. Referring to the copyright issue, Sen said ''I am not sure if I am infringing copyright laws. If someone can convince me that I am, then I promise to take it down. Until then, I am putting it up on YouTube so that those who are interested can watch some of these films.'' He said one unique aspect of the series is that ''most of them deal with man-woman relationship, a subject that the filmmaker "rarely focused on.'' 'Das Saal Baad' focused on an estranged couple meeting after 10 years. The other short films in the series are 'Aajnabi', 'Shawl', 'Saalgira', 'Aajkal', 'Aina', 'Ravivar', 'Jit', 'Swayamvar', 'Kabhi Door Kabhi Paas' and 'Aparajit'.

A Doordarshan Kendra Kolkata official said, the DD authorities will look into the issue and try to see if the tapes are still available and in what condition. "We will also try to find out a way to convert the magnetic tapes into a new format," the official said. The series had been commissioned by an ad agency and funded by a shoe major. A large number of Mrinal Sen's fans and film enthusiasts expressed happiness over his son's decision and said ''Ieft to Doordarshan the priceless works would never have seen the light of day.'' PTI SUS MM MM

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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