''Akaler Shandhaney'' (; "In Search of Famine") is a 1982

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

-language film directed by

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen ( ; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was a Bengali film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, and a few Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu language films. Regarded as on ...

Plot

In September 1980, a film crew comes to a village to make a film about a famine, which killed five million Bangalis in 1943. It was a man-made famine, a side-product of the war, and the film crew will create the tragedy of the millions who died of starvation. The film documents the convivial life among the film crew and the hazards, problems and tension of filmmaking on location. The actors live a double life, and the villagers, both simple and not-so-simple, flock to watch their work with wonder and suspicion. But as the film progresses, the recreated past begins to confront the present. The uneasy coexistence of 1943 and 1980 reveals a bizarre connection, involving a village woman whose visions add a further dimension of time—that of the future. A disturbing situation, indeed, for the "famine-seekers"!

Cast

Dhritiman Chatterjee Dhritiman Chatterjee is an Indian actor. He began his acting career in 1970 as the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's (''The Adversary''). Most of his acting work has been in India's "parallel", or independent, cinema with filmmakers such as Satyaj ...

Smita Patil Smita Patil (17 October 1955 – 13 December 1986) was an Indian actress who primarily worked in Hindi and Marathi language, Marathi films. Regarded among the greatest and finest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she was known for her ...

*Gita Sen *

Rajen Tarafdar Rajen Tarafdar (7 July 1917 – 23 November 1987) was an Indian film director, actor, and screenwriter. He was the recipient of two National Awards and two BFJA Awards. He graduated from the Government College of Art & Craft in Calcutta ...

*Sreela Mazumder *Radhamohan Bhattachariya *Jayanta Chowdhury *

Dipankar De Dipankar Dey is an Indian actor in the Bengali film industry. He has worked in movies as a hero, villain and character artist. He starred in Ray's ''Seemabaddha'' (''Company Limited, 1971''), '' Jana Aranya'' (''The Middleman'', 1976), '' G ...

*Jochhan Dastidar

Awards

* 1981 –

National Film Award for Best Feature Film The National Film Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in I ...

* 1981 –

National Film Award for Best Direction The National Film Award for Best Direction is an honour presented annually at India's National Film Awards ceremony by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Bro ...

(

) * 1981 –

National Film Award for Best Screenplay The National Film Award for Best Screenplay is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with ...

(Mrinal Sen) * 1981 –

National Film Award for Best Editing The National Film Award for Best Editing is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lo ...

(Gangadhar Naskar) * 1981 –

31st Berlin International Film Festival The 31st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1981. The Golden Bear was awarded to '' Deprisa, deprisa'' directed by Carlos Saura. The retrospective was dedicated to British film producer Michael Balcon, as ...

– Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize.

References

External links

* 1980 films Bengali-language Indian films Films directed by Mrinal Sen Films whose director won the Best Director National Film Award Best Feature Film National Film Award winners Films about famine Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing National Award Films scored by Salil Chowdhury Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay National Film Award 1980s Bengali-language films Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winners {{1980s-Bengali-film-stub