Mrinal Sen (also spelled Mrinal Shen) is a renowned Bengali Indian filmmaker based in Kolkata, India. Along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, he is often considered to be one of the greatest ambassadors of Indian parallel cinema on the global stage. Like the works of Ray and Ghatak, his cinema is known for its artistic depiction of social reality. Although the three directors shared a healthy rivalry, they were ardent admirers of each other's work, and in so doing, they charted the independent trajectory of parallel cinema, as a counterpoint to the mainstream fare of Hindi cinema in India. Happy Birthday Mrinal..