Mrigayaa
​
​(The Royal Hunt)

Nothing is common between the two men to ever meet and understand each other; neither the origin of the British administration of imperial time nor the primitive culture of the tribal from the jungle in central India. Nothing is common but the sharing of a common passion: hunting.

To both of them a big game is a game, a prey a prey; this is probably why Ghinua, the young hunter and a loving husband, reacts like a terrible “hunter” when the usurer-landlord steals his wife. He slays him as the wild pigs have to be slain when they destroy harvest, or a tiger when he lifts a child. An avenged man, he brings his trophy, the head of the most mischievous game in his area, to the only man who will understand him, the English sahib, the other hunter.


Neither Ghinua nor his village will ever understand why the Imperial justice takes his life when a big award is given to the traitor who has killed Shalpu – one who was for them all a revolutionary hero.  ​

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Language: Hindi (1976, Colour)
Director: Mrinal Sen
Screenplay: Mtinal Sen
Producer: Uday Bhaskar International
Story: Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi
Camera: K.K. Mahajan
Music: Salil Chowdhury
Cast: Mithun Chakraborty
          Mamata Shankar
           Sajal Roy Chowdhury
           Jnanesh Mukherjee
           Robin Wright
Awards & Nominations:
     National Award - Best Film
     National Award - Best Actor (Mithun Chakraborty)
     Moscow International Film Festival: Official Selection
​     Filmfare Award - Best Film (critics)
​

​Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Shankar. For both of them, it was their first film. Mrinal Sen met Mithun at the Poona Film Institute, during one of his visits, when Mithun was a student there.

Mithun Chakraborty and Robert Wright. In real life Robert Wright was the top executive at the Tollygunge Club of Calcutta.

Sadhu Meher, who started his acting career in Bhuvan Shome.

Sajal Roy Chowdhury and Sadhu Meher.

Mithun and the captured deer. The deer unfortunately died right after the shooting, probably out of shock and fear.

Mamata Shankar is the daughter of the famous dancers Uday and Amala Shanker, and is the niece of Ravi Shankar. Her brother, Ananda Shankar composed music for many of Sen's films.

Mrigaya was mostly shot in a tribal village near Massanjore.

Mrinal Sen and Sadhu Meher

Mithun Chakraborty accepting his Best Actor award from the President on India

Mrinal Sen and Arun Kaul, who was involved with many of Mrinal's films. Bhuvan Shome's initial draft was written in a day in Arun Kaul's apartment in Bombay.

The telegram that informed the acceptance of the film in Moscow Film Festival

Poster, designed by Abhijit Gupta