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A staunch Marxist, Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen uses film to promote his agenda. Before becoming a director, Sen studied physics at a Calcutta university and was a freelance journalist. He also sold medicine and worked in a film studio as a sound technician. It was after joining the Communist-linked Indian People's Theatre Association in the 1940s that Sen became interested in Marxism and filmmaking. He made his directorial debut with the pro-communist Raat Bhore (The Dawn) in 1956. More features followed, but it was not until his 1969 comedy Bhuvan Shome that Sen became nationally popular. At the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, Sen's Kharij (The Case Is Closed) (1982) was awarded the Jury Prize.