In a recent episode of Unfiltered by Samdish when Padma Shri Shyam Benegal was asked how he would like to be remembered, the legendary filmmaker-screenwriter said that he doesn’t care much about his legacy. Why? Because, there’s a kind of an ‘existential nature’ to that. “As you grow older, it’s quite futile to think like that. The more one lives, the less one knows,” he emphasised. These wise words may fill your mind with awe and bewilderment all at once. Referred to as the very conscience of Indian cinema – who broke the maze of the candied 1960s to make films that were not just more meaningful but also represented the voice of the country – Shyam babu passed away on December 24, aged 90, leaving a lasting impression on generations of filmmakers and the common man alike.
Why he stressed on ‘messaging’ in his films
Born in Hyderabad on 14 December 1934, Shyam Sunder Benegal was fascinated by the camera quite early on in his life, thanks to his photographer father Sridhar B Benegal, who had his roots in Karnataka’s Konkani community. He did his Master’s in Economics from Osmania University, and was instrumental in setting up the Hyderabad Film Society. Benegal began his career with a Gujarati documentary film Gher Betha Ganga, which was released in 1962. It is said that he also pursued copywriting for some time and took interest in mass communication as a possible career path, before full-fledgedly jumping into making films.
Time and again, Benegal had admitted that Satyajit Ray was his guiding light. Not many people know that legendary actor-filmmaker Guru Dutt and Benegal were second cousins. Once he even candidly confessed to being envious of the former because of his success and popularity. In an old interview with Prasar Bharati, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner opened up about one of his other inspirations. He said, “During the inaugural speech of an inter-university youth festival [in the mid-1950s], [the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal] Nehru spoke about the importance of different levels of communication. First, of course, it is the direct conversation between two or more people. But within that, there are many hidden messages… Those conveyed in the subconscious level. When people speak, their body language and manner of speech also come into play. But what he was stressing on was the idea of ‘subliminal message’, and I got quite fascinated by that. It’s something that influences you on an unconscious level. That’s when I decided that whatever film or documentary I am going to make, I’ll keep the concept of subliminal message in mind. That said, while doing so one should also be aware of its effect on the audience. Then on, I made it a point to constantly analyse the messaging in my films. This realisation came to me at the right time.”
Shyam babu’s role in the emergence of ‘New Indian Cinema’
After what’s called the ‘golden era of Indian cinema’, which roughly began in the late 1940s and went on until the 1960s, filmmaking was slowly finding a new horizon. ‘Neorealism’ was nudging the way forward into ‘parallel cinema’ that gave more weightage to ‘progressive social voices’ than the mainstream’s song-and-dance format. By then, Bengali cinema legends – Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and Tapan Sinha, among others – were already making ‘serious content’, reflecting India’s socio-political scenario. A similar wave was also finding prominence in the works of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G Aravindan and Girish Kasaravalli in South India.
At this juncture, Benegal’s first four features – Ankur, which released in 1973 marking the debut of Anant Nag and Shabana Azmi; the 1975 movie Nishant starring Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah; Manthan (1976), inspired by Verghese Kurien ‘milk cooperative movement’, featuring Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri; and Bhumika, the 1977 film starring Smita Patil, Amol Palekar, Anant Nag, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri – made a revolutionary impact on this new movement, particularly in Hindi cinema.
These movies consciously made a departure from the studios in Bombay and rerouted their narrative toward the still-backward villages and the emerging middle-class of towns and cities. In other words, the characters in Benegal’s films were extraordinarily real and relatable. He could masterfully capture the emotions and inner workings of ordinary masses. And not just that. Women were finally becoming a primary voice in Hindi cinema, as filmmakers like Benegal actively translated the echoing slogans of women empowerment to indomitable female characters in their movies. In fact, his 1983 film Mandi – the cast of which, by his own admission, comprised all his ‘favourite’ actors – was a comedic take on the country’s ‘politics and prostitution’.
Shot in Hyderabad, the National Award-winning film was based on Ghulam Abbas’ Urdu short story about a brothel in the heart of a city. The ensemble cast included Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Neena Gupta, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Saeed Jaffrey, Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Pankaj Kapur, Amrish Puri, Ila Arun, KK Raina, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anita Kanwar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Soni Razdan. It’s interesting to note here that many of these ‘new wave’ actors were graduates from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and National School of Drama (NSD).
When it comes to women-centered films, one cannot not mention Benegal’s ‘Muslim Women Trilogy’ that included Mammo (1994) with with Farida Jalal, Rajit Kapur and Surekha Sikri in the lead; 1996’s Sardari Begum featuring Kiron Kher, Amrish Puri, Rajit Kapur and Rajeshwari Sachdev; and Zubeidaa, which released in 2001, starring Karisma Kapoor, Rekha and Manoj Bajpayee.
The ‘New Indian Cinema’ was at its peak in the 1970s until the mid-1980s. Among Benegal’s other acclaimed films released during this period were Kondura (1978), Junoon (1979), Kalyug (1981), Arohan (1982) and Trikaal (1985). Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda, a film that apparently took a ‘subversive’ dig at the so-called Devdas syndrome, is yet another gem from his phenomenal oeuvre. Released in 1992, the National Award-winning movie stars Rajit Kapur, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Pallavi Joshi, Neena Gupta and Amrish Puri.
Social documentaries and short films
Almost simultaneously and until much later, he also made a slew of documentaries, spotlighting the various social and cultural milieu of the nation. Among the prominent ones are A Child of the Streets, Indian Youth: An Exploration, Quest for a Nation, Tala and Rhythm, Steel: A Whole New Way of Life, Power to the People, Notes on the Green Revolution, The Quiet Revolution, Learning Modules for Rural Children, Tata Steel: Seventy Five Years of the Indian Steel Industry, Sangathan and A Quilt of Many Cultures: South India. Along the way, he also made a few short films – namely Poovanam, Flower Garden and Hero.
Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj
Speaking about why he decided on adapting Nehru’s The Discovery of India for television, Benegal once told DD News, “I have been reading and re-reading this book several times since my childhood. Not only is this book about the history of India, but it also beautifully explains the confluence of the country’s many cultures… Signifying the value of ‘unity in diversity’.” One of Doordarshan’s most iconic shows, Bharat Ek Khoj is a 53-part series that first aired in 1988. Roshan Seth played Nehru, while the show was narrated by Om Puri. The other shows directed by Benegal include Yatra, Katha Sagar, Amaravati ki Kathayein, Sankranti and Samvidhaan (which was released on Rajya Sabha TV in 2014).
Penchant for epic biographical films
A titan of Indian parallel cinema, Benegal was equally revered for his penchant for churning out epic biographical films. In fact, his last directorial was also a biopic, which was released in 2023. As the title suggests, Mujib: The Making of a Nation chronicles the life of the late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the ‘founding father’ and first president of Bangladesh. The movie was jointly produced by the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation and the National Film Development Corporation of India.
It is often reported that during the formative years of his career, the legend was deeply influenced by India’s towering political and cultural figures, most prominently the first prime minister of independent India. In 1984, Benegal made a documentary film on him, along with co-director Yuri Aldokhin. Narrated by Saeed Jaffrey, the film featured archive footage of Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. Before that, in 1982, he had directed Satyajit Ray, with Victor Banerjee, Smita Patil and Om Puri as part of the cast. The Making of the Mahatma – starring Rajit Kapur and Pallavi Joshi – was released in 1996. Featuring Sachin Khedekar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapur, Arif Zakaria and Divya Dutta, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero hit the cinemas in 2004.
Even the plot of Bhumika replicates the life of Hansa Wadkar, a Marathi actress from the 1940s. Meanwhile, Sardari Begum is also said to be inspired by the real-life story of a thumri singer and courtesan who was killed during a riot in Delhi. And Zubeidaa, of course, is based on the life of Zubeida Begum, an ill-fated actress who was married to Jodhpur’s Hanwant Singh – the last ruler of Marwar.
The power of independent cinema on the fringes
At his tragic passing earlier this week in Mumbai, it’s only natural that the great Benegal’s admirers reflect on the veteran filmmaker, his illustrious body of work and how that reshaped the ‘Indian New Wave’. The determination with which he dealt with combustible subject matters – mainly feudalism, oppressive caste system and feminism – in his landmark films also germinated a new wave of thinking in the country. Quite willfully he ditched the Bollywood lustre of mainstream cinema to tell stories that resonated with the psyche of the nation. One such example is the film Hari-Bhari: Fertility (2000), which primarily focussed on ‘female reproductive rights’. Back in 1987, he directed Susman that threw light on the ‘struggle of rural handloom weavers in the wake of rapid industrialisation’.
While Benegal admitted that he ‘always made the kind of films that he wanted to make’, speaking about the prospects of a thriving independent film industry in India, he once told the BBC, “Although I am not terribly sanguine about that, but just like the rest of the world, there will always be a certain kind of cinema which is vanguard. I see that as being an effort around the fringes of the mainstream. But that’s a very important fringe, because this is where evolution takes place.”
