July 13, 2017

Special screening of documentary on Amartya Sen

At the special screening of Argumentative Indian at Nandan-III

13 July, 2017: On Monday (July 10) evening I attended the special screening of documentary film by Suman Ghosh, Argumentative Indian, at Nandan III. The special screening event was organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation. The hour long film was on Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna, Prof Amartya Sen.

With Soumitra Chatterjee, Amartya Sen and Suman Ghosh

The event was attended by Guest of Honour Soumitra Chatterjee and eminent Kolkatans including Dhrittiman Chatterjee, Barun Chanda, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Nandana Dev Sen, John Makinson, Sugata Bose, Krishna Bose, Suvaprasanna, Srijato, Jawhar Sircar, Alexey Adamkin and other artistes and directors.

The documentary, An Argumentative Indian, traces the life and work of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, one of the greatest living economists and philosophers of the world, and explores the intellectual giant’s formative years of life and its influence on his views of the world – past and present.

With John Makinson, Nandana Dev Sen and Nabaneeta Dev Sen

Director Suman Ghosh has filmed the documentary for the past 15 years and the film is structured as a free flowing conversation between Professor Sen and his student and Cornell economics professor, Kaushik Basu. Through the conversation, the narrative took us from his childhood days in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, to his college in Calcutta and his academic career in the USA and UK, where he was the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University.

With Amartya Sen and industrialist H M Bangur at the dinner

The screening was followed by a discussion and question and answer session. I left early in order make arrangements for a dinner later at night that was hosted by industrialist H M Bangur at his Alipore residence in honour of the Nobel laureate.

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