Shyam Benegal - Sangeeta Datta

Shyam Benegal is from Hyderabad, is Guru Dutt's cousin, was my mentor and guru ML Jaisimha's friend from Mahboob college (there's a lovely letter he wrote to aunty that Vidyuth showed me). His name is synonymous with the New Wave cinema, the kind that I would want to see as a child but was scared to because they showed life as it was and could be. During the pandemic, I corrected this and watched several of his movies - Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, Trikaal. Suraj ka Saatwan Ghoda, Trikaal, Kalyug, Well Done Abba - and others and learned much about the times and circumstances in various parts of India that he chose to depict so well in his movies. He has been awarded the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke award etc. The author, Sangeeta Datta, is a historian, critic, lecturer and film maker, and knows her films so she analyses his films. 

That he was an advertising man and was Creative Head of Lintas, then Chairman of FTII, then moved into filmmaking - he is still making films at 86 - I saw a news item of how he was embarking on a film on Mujibur Rehman yesterday. His desire to create an alternate system bereft of stars where talented actors who did not fit into the commercial film could showcase themselves and contribute gave out several alternate artistes such as Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil and others a new lease of life. His films had a cause, a message, stayed close to reality and discussed contemporary issues in society like casteism, patriarchy, gender bias, communal bias and so on. He used his films to create social awareness.

But it appears from the book that the movies did not reach their audiences as much as they should have and somehow we wonder if the advertising man missed a trick in not promoting his films (as it appears from the book). But every creative work comes with its own story and there is no need for it to be anything else than what is. I find great inspiration in his conviction in his art, in the fact that he is still making films. His collaborations with creative artists - Girish Karnad, Satyadev Dube, Govind Nihalani, apart from the many wonderful artistes from FTII, NSD and so on is another feature of his work. They were all interested in bringing out great work - not simply to take credit

Several of his films are now on my list - Arohan, Anugraham, Susman, Hari Bhair, his docudrama on Pochampally, a documentary on Satyajit Ray. A very interesting book that revealed much about him. I would have liked to know more about how he approached his work, how he picked up his skill and honed it but maybe that's covered in other interviews and literature. Thanks Abhinay for giving me this book to read.