Kunal Sen’s memoir Bondhu is a memorial to his father, the distinguished film-maker Mrinal Sen (1923-2018). This is his first book. He has a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Chicago and later worked with Encyclopaedia Britannica. At the age of fifty-five he decided to give himself to painting.
It is hard to write about one’s parents and harder indeed to write about them objectively. Kunal Sen manages to balance detachment and affection to deliver a beautiful, sun-dappled work of mellow prose. Although the subject of the book is his father, the mother’s presence is equally unforgettable.