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A Tribute

Shyam Benegal

Harsh Thakor

Shyam Benegal, who christened a new era in Hindi cinema with the ‘parallel movement’ in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Monday, December 23, after battling chronic kidney disease. He was 90.

Shyam Benegal ranks amongst the pioneers of the art movement in Hindi cinema. Few directors explored such realms in manifesting feudal or social oppression or displayed mastery at such a scale in exploring characters. The social reality was a concurrent theme in movies of Benegal, who was a product of the mass uprisings of the people. Khalid Mohammad produced the documentary ‘The Master: Shyam Benegal,’ intended to pay tribute to Benegal’s greatness.

Born in Tirumalagiri, now in Telangana, Benegal grew amidst the background of cinema around him. His father was a still photographer who also made short films. He was also a second cousin of film legend Guru Dutt. Benegal did his masters in economics from Hyderabad’s Osmania University. The young Benegal soon moved to Mumbai looking for work and initially thought about assisting Guru Dutt but gave up on that as he had his own ideas.

Next, he took up a job as a copywriter at an advertising agency. After a while, his agency shifted him to the film department noting his potential towards the medium where he began making ad films until becoming a full-time filmmaker. He then made documentaries for the Films Division of India before lighting the first spark of his feature film debut with Ankur.

In the late 1940s Shyam Benegal as a college student in Hyderabad, was a close observer of the Telangana peasant uprising against the oppressive feudal lords. Many of his friends who supported the movement languished in jail, an event that shaped the ideological structure of Benegal’s Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975) and Manthan (1976), which comprised a trilogy. All navigating the transition taking place from the feudal systems that prevailed and continue to do so.

At a time when Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Manmohan Desai were lighting the silver screen with romances and comedies, Benegal invoked a brand of social realism into cinema, illustrating the caste and class defects that were beginning to penetrate and plague the very roots of Indian society.

His filmmaking drew inspiration from Satyajit Ray and Vittorio de Sica, but the creations were entirely his own making.

No director better utilised the mantle of sex to illustrate the expression of power.

Benegal’s career was characterised by high versatility ranging from the dark echelons of tragedy, to the most hilarious films.

Benegal’s films, till his very last explore how power structures triggered the abuse of those marginalised on basis of their class, caste, religion and gender.

In his, almost seven-decade career, Benegal navigated diverse arenas diverse mediums, and diverse issues, ranging from rural distress and feminist concerns to satires and biopics.

His best films were Ankur, Mandi, Nishant, Bhumika and Manthan.

Benegal’s debut film Ankur (1974) manifests the intertwining of caste, class, and gender in both rural and urban settings and the subversions to the power equations. Revolving around the central conflict of a village landlord’s son’s affair with a Dalit woman, the social drama portrayed the plaguing of casteism, uneven balance of power and perils of alcoholism.

A bold critique of feudal oppression, Nishant [1975] explores the abuse of power and the spontaneous revolt. Based on the screenplay by popular playwright Vijay Tendulkar, the movie was an illustrative exploration of feudalism in Telangana. Starring Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Amrish Puri and Anant Nag, the movie held a mirror up to the sexual exploitation of women and the abuse of power by the rural elite.

Manthan (1976) revolves around a young veterinary doctor, who inspired poor villagers being exploited to take control of the dairy products they were selling, which generates a huge national movement. Soul searching to witness the transformation in thought process of the Harijans to integrate with the cooperatives who at first paid a blind eye and lucid illustration of the psyche of Indian villagers and oppressive machinations of the village hierarchy.

Bhumika (1977) is based on the life of an actress who wishes to carve out her independent path but is still exploited by various men at different junctures of her life, presenting a depressing portrayal of the dominance of male abuse in spite of the financial independence and public success of a woman.

Mandi (1983) nullifies prejudices against sex workers and normalises the concept of sex work as any other work without portraying the women either as victims of exploitation, or as ‘prostitutes with hearts of gold,’ Mandi projects them as characters with an agency that arbitrarily choose and enjoy the work they do while labelling self-serving NGO workers and politicians. Narrating a tale of a brothel located in the centre of a city, Benegal produces a grimly satirical exploration of societal hypocrisy and a bold revolt against societal norms.

Other notable films of Benegal were Kalyug, (1981) a modern-day adaptation of the epic Mahabarata, dealing with the inevitable war between two business families; trilogy of Manmo, (1994), Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeida (2008), Well done Abba, (2010) a hilarious drama set against a rural backdrop, and Welcome to Sajnapur (2008) another hilarious drama.

Mammo was based on the Babri Masjid demolition, the Bombay blasts and the subsequent communal riots that broke out. Set in the background amidst days after Partition, Mammo depicted a Muslim family without portraying them as either victims or villains but just as ordinary citizens dealing with life post-partition. One of the most realistic and grounded narratives of the alienation and victimisation of Muslims.

His repertoire encompassed documentaries, films, and epic television shows, including Bharat Ek Khoj, an adaptation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India, and Samvidhaan, a 10-part show on the making of the Constitution.

His biopics include The Making of the Mahatma and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero. The director’s most recent work was the 2023 biographical Mujib: The Making of a Nation.

[Harsh Thakor is a freelance journalist. Thanks, information from Samrath Goyal in Hindustan Times, Frontline and the Hindu.]

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Vol 57, No. 30, Jan 19 - 25, 2025