Shyam Benegal: A chronicler of India's times, politics and a champion of women's rights
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Celebrated filmmaker and screenwriter Shyam Benegal, who passed away at the age of 90 on Monday evening, was a chronicler of India's times and politics.
Shyam's films and frames were empathetic, rooted to Indian reality and always political. He rewrote the rules of cinema with films such as 'Ankur,' 'Nishant' and 'Bhumika' that blazed an alternate path to mainstream movies.
Benegal, who burst on the scene with his first film 'Ankur' in 1974, was a chronicler of India's times and politics, that rare artiste who worked both in non-fiction and fiction across varied mediums -- films, documentaries, biopics and ambitious TV shows, reports PT. The title of his debut film, translating to seedling, was perhaps prophetic. 'Ankur,' which delves into feudalism and exploitation of women in a small village in India, prepared the ground for a cinema without artifice in an era dominated by superman heroes and loud song and dance routines. It was the first of his more than 25 films that included 'Mandi,' 'Manthan,' 'Junoon,' 'Kalyug' and 'Zubeidaa.'
The remarkable oeuvre boasts the documentary on another great, Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker, and televisions shows, the ambitious 'Bharat Ek Khoj', based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book 'Discovery of India', and 'Samvidhaan', a 10-part serial on the making of the Constitution.
Through his work, which was distinctly different and alternate to mainstream movies as audiences knew till then, Benegal made several stars out of great actors. There was Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Girish Karnad of course. And then there were those stars such as Shashi Kapoor and Rekha who gave arguably their best performances in 'Kalyug.'
The filmmaking was both deeply personal and inherently political. Telling stories of class and caste struggles, feminist concerns, rural distress and community dynamics. The gaze was incisive, the themes serious and the treatment sometimes sombre and other times satirical.
If 'Kalyug' is a modern day retelling of the Mahabharata, Bhumika is a searing profile of a woman film star and her often exploitative relationships, 'Mandi' deals with a brothel and its occupants who deftly navigate the men in their lives and 'Welcome to Sajjanpur' about an aspiring novelist turned letter writer is an outright satire.
Fondly called Shyam Babu by friends and colleagues, Benegal was a pillar of meaningful cinema of the 1970s and 1980s alongside Sai Paranjpye, Govind Nihalani, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, and Kumar Shahani. Benegal disliked the term 'middle cinema'
A champion of women’s liberation
Celebrated filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s movies also touched on the gross discrimination faced by women in Indian society. The movies directed by the auteur portrayed how a male-dominated society suppressed aspirations with extreme cruelty. In 'Mandi,' Benegal took a stand advocating for emancipation of women, which was vital to India’s progress.
'Bhumika' was based on Marathi actor Hansa Vadika’s autobiography Sangtye Aika, which meant 'Listen, and I’ll tell.' Benegal chose Smita Patil to don the role of Usha as the protagonist of Bhumika. 'Mandi' considered one of the finest films of Benegal, has the theme that revolves around sex workers and their plight. Shabana Azmi played the lead role.