National Award-winning Bengali filmmaker Anjan Das, best known for films like Saanjhbatir Rupkathara, Achin Pakhi and Faltu, passed away today, family sources said.
Das, who was in his sixties, died at a hospital where he was being treated for liver cancer.
His 2006 film Faltu which featured Soumitra Chatterjee and Indrani Halder had won the National Award for the best feature film on welfare. A poignant tale on refugees, it was based on Syed Mustafa Siraj's story Ranir Ghater Brittanto.
Most of his films were adapted from literature.
The director had won international critical acclaim with his 2001 film Saanjhbatir Rupkathara (Strokes and Silhouettes), a celluloid adaptation of poet Joy Goswami's first
novel.
It was showcased at several international film festivals like Montreal, London, Rome, Rotterdam, Edmonton, Madrid, Singapore among others.
His 2004 film
Iti Srikanta (
Yours truly, Srikanta) had bagged the National Award for Best Audiography.
Jara Brishtitey Bhije Chilo (
Drenched in the ...rain), based on a poem by Goswami, had won the special director's award at Almaty, Kazakhstan besides fetching the jury special award for the director in Spain.
In 2010 his film
Achin Pakhi was screened at the Cairo International Film Festival 2010.
His other films include
Banshiwala,
Bedeni and
Ajana Batash.
Having started his career with 1976 unsuccessful film
Sainik, he changed tracks to make documentaries only to return to cinema few years later.
Image: A scene from Saanjhbatir Rupkathara