Shyam Benegal had become a tradition during his lifetime
By Prabha 24 Dec, 2024
Shyam Benegal is no more. Recently, while crossing the 90th milestone of his life, surrounded by his friends and loved ones, Shyam Babu had the same smile on his face that used to highlight his personality, which used to give more height to his Himalayan personality in the film world. He was ill but still, in response to questions, he was talking about the subject matter of new films, and his fans were praying that his health improves and Shyam Benegal presents one more film to this country, world and society….
1974 Manthan. What was the film? It was a heart-touching story of the feudal system prevalent in Indian society, the caste system and the pain of the exploited lower class. But the idiom was completely new. There were no stars in the film, there were only talented actors who had no pre-defined image. There was no fake village built in the studio. The realism that we saw in Satyajit Ray’s early films in Indian cinema was a confluence of revolutionary films and other artistic trends emerging from Italian Neo Realism and then French New Wave Cinema. This was the same idiom that later defined the Indian New Wave or Parallel Cinema. For the Indian audience, this film was one of those few films that later changed the standards of good cinema in Hindi. We also got to see the same mood and attitude in his next two films – Nishant and Manthan. This movie was an attempt to awaken a dull and sleepy society. It had the sigh of a woman, the cry of a society exploited by casteism, the inspiration to rebel against all and an honest attempt to confront the most untouched, moderately educated urban middle class.
Recently, the 50th anniversary of Manthan was celebrated. Made with donations from two crore farmers of Gujarat, this movie was the timeless story of the formation of a milk cooperative there, whose live and true characters were to be portrayed on the silver screen. It was the story of the birth of Amul. A song from this movie, ‘Mero Gaam’, sung by Vanraj Bhatia and sung by Preeti Sagar, is still the introductory song of the cooperative movement.
When I interviewed him in 1989, I was remembering so many milestones that Sham Babu’s cinema had established by then. Pictures of such big artists were flashing before my eyes who had the status of superstars even while being in this cinema. During the making of the documentary, Shabana Azmi told how Shyam Benegal gave her a break after talking to other new and famous actresses. The film was very well received and it was the first film to win Shabana Azmi a National Award.
Shyam Babu’s films have produced a long list of names who changed the face of Hindi parallel cinema and commercial cinema. Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Smita Patil, Sadhu Mehar, Anant Nag, Amol Palekar, Rajit Kapoor, KK Raina, Neena Gupta, and so many other names are mentioned in Shyam Benegal’s story. We also saw Govind Nihalani who was shooting Shyam Babu’s style of work on the sets of Bharat Ek Khoj. Govind was the cinematographer of his early films. Then when he started making films himself, he was replaced by Ashok Mehta who proved to be an unbreakable bridge between parallel cinema and commercial cinema, while Nitish Roy had taken up the responsibility of art. These people emerged in cinema as a bridge through which the exchange of idioms continued between commercial and parallel cinema. Filmmakers like Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, Basu Chatterjee and Basu Bhattacharya created a whole breed of artistic filmmakers. Girish Kasaravalli, Gautam Ghosh, Utpalendu Chakraborty, Ashok Ahuja, Govind Nihalani, Syed Mirza, Kundan Shah, Aziz Mirza, Aparna Sen, Kalpana Lajmi and Ramesh Sharma himself emerged as the products of this cinema. This cinema from India also made its place in the world’s renowned film festivals.
Benegal never got bound to any boundaries, although his brand was reflected in each of his films, whether it was a love story stuck in the war of 1857 produced by Shashi Kapoor or Trikaal, made on Goa getting freedom from Portugal. Shyam himself kept saying that for him the characters of the story influenced him more than the plot. In Kalyug, he took the characters of Mahabharata and wove them in a modern perspective.
Women characters were at the core of Shyam Benegal’s cinema, whether it was his early films or his later ones.
Smita Patil’s acting ability was at its peak in the role based on actress Hansa Wadkar. Shyam Benegal made many technical efforts to depict different times in this film, which were also used by later filmmakers. But even the technical upheavals never let his grip on the script loosen. In Mammo’s Farida Jalal and Sardari Begum’s Kiran Kher, Benegal told the story of women living in two different worlds.
Benegal did not like to sit idle… he was always surrounded by cameras, lights, actors and actresses. This was also a reason why he worked extensively on television as well. It was impossible to depict Pandit Nehru’s masterpiece, Discovery of India, in such detail and to cover 5000 years old civilization in a one, two, two and a half hour film. Bharat Ek Khoj was made in different parts like an epic. The story was prepared in such a way that along with the style of cinema, India’s rich classical and folk traditions were used brilliantly. Sutradhar was used in the theatre style, while the thrilling story of Dushasan’s killing was narrated in the style of Kathakali. The resolution of Shri Krishna and mother Gandhari was depicted based on Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug.
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The list of Shyam Benegal’s films is very long. But this expansion was never confined to any limits. Whatever subjects were on the screen of social consciousness, or he wanted to introduce this new generation, Benegal’s cinema kept doing this work in different periods, be it television or cinema. A new generation which lacked the patience to read books, Benegal introduced them to world literature through his TV serials. Every episode of Katha Sagar, artistically converting Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Maupassant, O Henry, Somerset Maugham, Lu Shun into natural Hindi is a big achievement of Shyam Benegal’s career.
After 1989, I never came across Shyam Benegal. But while being in the media, I got others to interview him many times. Shyam Benegal not only had a good grasp on almost every subject but could also speak fluently. Be it the subject of cinema or social upheaval, Shyam Babu would enhance the story, and I would remember those days – the laughter was the same, but time had started leaving its mark on the face, which would become even more prominent in the mid shot of the TV monitor.
Shyam Benegal, born in 1934, had a father who owned a photography shop. He had a 16mm camera with which he used to make films while playing with his 10 children. Yes, the great filmmaker Guru Dutt was like an elder brother to him, who had a deep impact on his childhood. The Telangana farmers’ movement in 1948 drew attention to social concerns for the first time, the echo of which was seen in cinema later. He came to Mumbai to write ad copy and tried his hand at a lot of ad films, creating a unique way of seeing and presenting his point in a cinematic way.
Shyam Benegal left this world on 23 December. But Shyam Benegal’s influence is so deep and has influenced Indian cinema to such an extent that his personality cannot end with the death of his body. Shyam Benegal will have a direct or indirect influence on many generations of filmmakers to come. Because Shyam Benegal had become a tradition during his lifetime itself
