Archive · 8 Aug 2026
Two Bengali films give historic Tagore date new meaning
Baishe Sravan is a special day for Bengali people.
It remembers Rabindranath Tagore, a famous poet and Nobel Prize winner, who died on that day.
People celebrate his life with songs and poetry.
Two movie directors used this special date for their films.
Mrinal Sen made a movie in 1960 about a terrible famine in Bengal in 1943.
The movie shows how hunger can make even loving people act selfishly.
Srijit Mukherji made a very different movie in 2011.
It is a mystery about a killer who leaves poems at the crime scenes.
Beneath the suspense, the movie is about literature, loneliness, and how a city remembers its past.
Both films use the historic date to tell deep stories about people in difficult times.
Baishe Sravan, the 22nd day of the Bengali month of Sravan, marks the death anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Mrinal Sen's 1960 film Baishey Shravana tells the story of the 1943 Bengal Famine through one ordinary couple, Priyanath and Malati.
The film shows hunger eroding empathy and morality, ending with Priyanath making a devastatingly selfish decision.
Srijit Mukherji's 2011 thriller Baishe Srabon follows a serial-killer investigation in which the murderer leaves poems at every crime scene.
The thriller features Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, and Goutam Ghose, exploring literature, loneliness, and a city reconciling with its cultural past.
- Who
- Filmmakers Mrinal Sen and Srijit Mukherji, along with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose death anniversary the date marks.
- What
- Two Bengali films, Baishey Shravana (1960) and Baishe Srabon (2011), that borrow the date Baishe Sravan to explore the fragility of human values in extraordinary times.
- When
- Baishe Sravan falls on the 22nd day of the Bengali month of Sravan; the two films were released in 1960 and 2011.
- Where
- Bengal, India, including the setting of the 1943 Bengal Famine in Baishey Shravana.
- Why
- To give the historic date, traditionally associated with Tagore's memory, a new cinematic meaning by telling stories of a society in flux.
- Date significance
- Death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore (22nd day of Bengali month Sravan)
- Film 1
- Baishey Shravana (1960), directed by Mrinal Sen
- Film 1 subject
- The 1943 Bengal Famine
- Film 1 leads
- Gyanesh Mukherjee (Priyanath) and Madhabi Mukherjee (Malati)
- Film 2
- Baishe Srabon (2011), directed by Srijit Mukherji
- Film 2 genre
- Serial-killer thriller powered by poetry
- Film 2 cast
- Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Goutam Ghose