Sankar is the son of Avaya Mukherjee known as Gouri Mukherjee. Sankar's father died while Sankar was still a teenager, as a result of which Sankar became a clerk to the last British barrister of the Calcutta High Court, Noel Frederick Barwell. At the same time he entered in Surendranath College for study. He worked in various field as typewriter cleaner, private tutor, Hawker for the livelihood.
Literary career
Noel Barwell introduced Sankar to literature. After Noel Barwell's sudden death, Sankar, the professional version of his name adopted for the law courts, sought to honor Barwell. "First, I wanted to build a statue. It was not possible. I then wanted to name a road. Even that was not feasible. And then I decided to write a book about him," according to Sankar. That impetus led to his first novel, about Barwell, that according to some critics is perhaps the most stimulating -- "Kato Ajanare". At the same time period in 1962, Sankar conceived Chowringhee on a rainy day at the waterlogged crossing of Central Avenue and Dalhousie - a busy business district in the heart of Kolkata. The novel, set in the opulent hotel he called Shahjahan, was made into a cult movie in 1968. It is wrongly said that Sankar marketed his literary work to Bengali households with the marketing slogan "A bagful of Sankar " and collections of his books were sold in blue packets through this marketing effort. He never did that. He mentioned it clearly in a 2015 . In addition to his literary efforts, Sankar is regarded as a street food expert with two books on this topic. He also is a marketing professional associated with an Indian industrial house.
Chowringhee translated by Arunava Sinha into English and. Translation is pending into Italian. In 2013 the novel has been translated into French by Dr Philippe Benoit, sanskritist and head of Bengali department of Paris National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, published by Gallimard house.
The Middleman translated by Arunava Sinha from "Jana Aranya" into English.
The Great Unknown translated by Soma Das from "Kato ajanare" into English.
Thackeray Mansion translated by Sandipan Deb from "Gharer Madhye Ghar" into English.
Screen adaptations
Many of Sankar's works have been made into films. Some notable ones are - Chowringhee, Jana Aranya and Seemabaddha, out of which the last two were directed by Satyajit Ray.
In 1959 Ritwik Ghatak started making a film Kato Ajanare based on Sankar's first novel.
