Ek Din Achanak (Hindi: एक दिन अचानक; English: Suddenly, One Day) is a 1989 art film directed by Mrinal Sen, based on the 1977 Bengali-language novel Beej by Ramapada Chowdhury.[1]
| Ek Din Achanak | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of the film | |
| Directed by | Mrinal Sen |
| Written by | Ramapada Chowdhury (story) Mrinal Sen (screenplay) |
| Starring | Shriram Lagoo Shabana Azmi Anil Chatterjee Aparna Sen Roopa Ganguly |
| Cinematography | K. K. Mahajan |
| Music by | Jyotishka Dasgupta |
Release date |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
Synopsis
editOne evening, in the midst of torrential rains, a professor (Shreeram Lagoo) goes out for a walk and fails to return. As the evening stretches into days and the days into weeks with no sign of him, his family struggles to regain their footing and to understand what might have caused him to leave. Slowly they return to their daily activities. The professor's son Amit "Amu"(Arjun Chakraborty) establishes his fledgling business; his younger daughter Seema (Roopa Ganguly) resumes her studies at college; and his elder daughter, Neeta (Shabana Azmi), the backbone of the family, returns to her office job.
Behind the facade of normalcy, though, the family is deeply wounded. Amit enjoys success in his business but is bitter and dour. Seema passes with 'First Division' in College. Neeta has a very patient and supportive boyfriend Alok (Anjan Dutt), but the relationship is stuck in a holding pattern. And their mother (Uttara Baokar) suffers debilitating depression. Their hesitant attempts to piece together the professor's state of mind before his disappearance raise more questions than they answer: Was he having an affair with a former student (Aparna Sen)? Was his academic career crumbling? Was he a plagiarist?[2]
Cast
edit- Shabana Azmi - Neeta
- Shriram Lagoo - Professor Shashank Ray (Neeta's father)
- Aparna Sen - Aparna (Student)
- Uttara Baokar - Sudha (Neeta's Mother)
- Roopa Ganguly - Seema (Neeta's sister)
- Arjun Chakraborty - Amit "Amu" (Neeta's brother)
- Manohar Singh - Neeta's uncle
- Anjan Dutt - Alok (Neeta's boyfriend)
- Lily Chakravarty - Neighbour
- Anil Chatterjee - Arunbabu
Awards
edit- 1989: National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress: Uttara Baokar
- 1989: Venice Film Festival: OCIC Award - Honorable Mention: Mrinal Sen
References
edit- ^ Gulzar; Govind Nihalani; Saibal Chatterjee (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema. Popular Prakashan. p. 337. ISBN 81-7991-066-0.
- ^ Ek din Achanak