Indian author Mani Shankar Mukherjee, who wrote under the pen name Sankar and was one of the most popular writers ever in the Bengali language, died February 20. He was 92.
Scroll reported that Sankar "loved telling long-drawn-out stories. And despite writing a string of hugely popular novels that have gone on to gain critical acclaim as well, he never made up any of them. Deprived of the chance of a formal, sheltered education by the early death of his father, and compelled to earn a living as a teenager to support his family, Sankar pounded the pavements of Calcutta in search of work, met, spoke to, and observed countless individuals, and spun all that he heard into the stories that regaled generations of readers."
His best known work is Chowringhee (1962). Other books include Jana Aranya (The Middleman); Seemabaddha (Limited); Asha Akankha (Unlimited); and Nagar Nandini (The Daughter of the City). In 2021, Sankar received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his autobiographical book Eka Eka Ekashi.
Sankar "laid bare the inner conflicts of the white-collar worker in search of success, revealing an internal moral landscape in a way few other writers did. Without intellectualizing them, he exposed the inevitable contradiction between the pursuit of success and adherence to moral standards," Scroll wrote.
Chowringhee was adapted into a hit Bengali film in 1968 and attained cult status, the Telegraph reported. It was translated into multiple Indian and foreign languages, expanding Sankar's readership far beyond Bengal. Legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray adapted two of Sankar's novels--Seemabaddha and Jana Aranya--as part of his Calcutta trilogy in the 1970s.
Ray "had personally called the young writer after reading Seemabaddha in a Puja annual, asking him not to sell the film rights before informing him. The resulting films brought Shankar's sharply observed corporate and middle-class narratives to national and international audiences... winning accolades at international festivals," the Telegraph noted. Sankar's novel Man Samman was also adapted into the Hindi film Sheesha by Basu Chatterjee,.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee praised Sankar on social media as "one of the brightest stars in Bengali literature.... Through his pen, the untold stories of the struggles of ordinary people came vividly to life. His profound research and works on Swami Vivekananda, in particular, remain an invaluable treasure for us. His demise is an irreparable loss to our cultural world."