Aparna Sen

• Directed many films based on a variety of topics
• Leading women characters from different backgrounds
• Focuses on pure and hidden human emotions
• Beautiful music
• Art house films

Aparna Sen is an Indian director, screenwriter, actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has won many accolades including 9 National Film Awards and 9 international film festival awards. She has even won the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, from the Indian government in 1987. She started acting at the age of 15 with the movie, Teen Kanya, in 1987. Sen became a leading actress in Bengali cinema with the films Aranyer Din Rati, Ekhoni and many other films as well. She started directing films since 1981 in which her first film, 36 Chowringhee Lane, won a National Award for Best Director.

Despite Sen never leaning how to direct films, many of her films are critically acclaimed and successful. There are so many taboo topics that society hides but Sen brings light to them through her film making. Sen focuses on pure and hidden emotions within humans. She brings these emotions out in her strong and impactful women characters. The relatability of these characters and their emotions are what made her films very successfully.

Her style of storytelling blends with that general philosophy quite seamlessly. Take the example of women’s identity. I think there is no other director who has represented Indian women of different strata so convincingly — whether it is the Anglo-Indian portrayal by Jennifer Kapoor in 36 Chowringhee Lane, the Tamil Brahmin portrayed by Konkona Sensharma in Mr and Mrs Iyer or the character of a north Calcutta housewife portrayed by herself in Paromitar Ekdin. The point that I want to hone in is that it is not necessary to portray the other sex in a lesser light or depth in order to espouse woman’s identity. Again, her humanism always takes the front seat in her stories - Suman Ghosh for The Telegraph