Premendra Mitra


Premendra Mitra was an Indian poet, writer and film director in the Bengali language. He was also a practitioner of Bengali science fiction. His critique of humanity led him to believe that for it to survive, human beings had to "forget their differences and be united".

Life

Premendra Mitra was born in Varanasi, India where his father Gyanendranath Mitra was an employee of the Indian Railways and because of that he had the opportunity to travel to many places in India. Having lost his mother, who died during his childhood, he was brought up by his grandparents in Uttar Pradesh and spent his later life in Calcutta and Dhaka. He was a student of South Suburban School and enrolled for a BA at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta which he left prematurely to study agriculture in Santiniketan with a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, Leonard Elmhirst. Because it did not hold his interest, he returned to education first on an undergraduate course in Dhaka and in 1925 at Asutosh College in Calcutta where he assisted the research of Dinesh Chandra Sen. In particular, his creation of the character of Ghanada won him public recognition.

Poems

Bengali
He was among the pioneers of Bengali science fiction. He started writing Science fictions to make children and preteens familiar with science.

Ghanada (Brother Ghana)

Ghanada is a middle-aged resident of a mess at 72, Banamali Naskar Lane in Kolkata, West Bengal with the four young members Shibu, Shishir, Gour and Sudhir. He claims himself to be full of thrilling experience all over the globe to tackle conspiracies. Also, some of the stories are about Ganado in South America, and Bachanram Das in Agra at Medieval India, his ancestors. First Ghanada story is Mawshaa in 1945.

Mamababu (Maternal Uncle)

Mamababu lived in Burma on account of his service. Original name of this middle-aged man is never stated. His expeditions are written in many novels and short-stories, such as:
This character inspired Sunil Gangopadhyay to write his famous Kakababu series.

Parashor Barma

is a detective but he tries to be a poet. First Parashor story is Goyenda Kobi Parashor in 1932. Some other stories are:
Two Ghanada tales also include Parashar Barma : Parasharey Ghanaday and Ghanada Phirlen''.

Publishers of Mitra's writings

translated several Ghanada tales in a volume called Adventures of Ghanada.
The latest English translation of his Ghanada stories was published by Penguin Books India in 2004.

Filmography

Direction