Shankar's real name is
Mani Shankar Mukherjee. Sankar is a very popular writer in the Bengali language. He grew up in Howrah district of West Bengal, India.
Shankar's father died while Shankar was still a teenager, as a result of which Shankar became a clerk to the last British barrister of the Calcutta High Court, Noel Frederick Barwell. The experience of working under Mr. Barwell provided the material for his first book Koto Ojanare (
কত অজানারে), translated as
The Great Unknown.
During 1962, Shankar conceived the idea of writing the novel
Chowringhee on a rainy day at the waterlogged crossing of Central Avenue and Dalhousie - a busy business district in the heart of Kolkata.
Many of Shankar's works have been made into films. Some notable ones are -
Chowringhee, Jana Aranya (
জন-অরণ্য, translated as
The Middleman) and Seemabaddha (
সীমাবদ্ধ, out of which the last two were directed by
Satyajit Ray.