The news of the passing away of the renowned film director/ producer Shyam Benegal (1934-1924) who is considered by many as the father of the Parallel cinema in India has triggered off many fond memories of the time we spent together.
It was some time in 2001 when he came to the North-Western university USA for six weeks as the Visiting Professor of cinema. During his stay, we invited him to dinner at our official residence, a penthouse on the19th floor at South Michigan avenue, Chicago quite a few times and tried to introduce him to a cross section of the friends of India. He once quipped,” every time we come to your place, we meet new people.” I told him disarmingly:” that’s my job. Every time we invite a new set of people, in a small way, we expand the circle of the friends of India.” He enjoyed his assignment which he termed as “paid holidays”. He was given a service apt where he was put up with his wife and talked about Cinema at the university for around 3 hours only. He told me that he had plenty of free time to write or renew scripts during his short stay in Chicago.
From Chicago, I was transferred to Nairobi in 2003 to serve as India’s High Commissioner to Kenya. In 2004, Shyam Benegal graciously agreed to be an examiner for a few days at Kenya’s School of films which had umbilical cord with the family of the world-famous Kenyan TV Journalist Mohd Amin who put the Ethiopian famine on the world stage with his reporting in spite of having lost his arm in a bomb explosion. Benegal took his responsibility as an Examiner seriously and gave grades very objectively. It was an experience of a life time for the young Kenyan film makers as well students to exchange views with the Indian Maestro.
I organised a festival of Indian films at Santiago university in Chile in 1976 which was to open with film Ankur (the seedling ) which was the debut film both for Shyam Benegal and the lead heroine Shabana Azmi, it was one of the 9 Indian films with subtitles in Spanish.
Though both Shyam and Shabana had won the National awards for this film ,I had tough time in convincing my own Ambassador to let the festival open with ANKUR. He was strongly against the screening of the films as he felt it reflected the prevailing poverty, caste discrimination and sexual exploitation in rural India.
Benegal who began his career as a copy writer and did some advertising campaigns for Hindustan Lever was a prolific film director who made more than two dozen highly acclaimed feature films on diverse subjects and also directed several biopics on National Icons and some documentaries. He disliked the reference to himself as an Iconic director of parallel cinema.
He made films on socially relevant subjects with utmost sensitivity and delved in complex interplay of forces in the society as they existed and flagged peoples’/ individual’s struggle to address problems through portrayal of multilayered characters.
He shunned polemic, bravado and ideological preferences and let his characters convey their stories through their authentic and believable performances. What we see in his films is a slice of real life without hyperbolic drama so the characters stay with us and their problems touch our hearts and impact the way we look at the society.
Some of his acclaimed films would include: Ankur, Manthan, Nishant, Bhumika, Junoon, Kalyug, Mandi, Suraj Ka Satava Ghoda, Sardari Begum, Zubeida, Mammo. Each of these films offers a compelling story, an appealing scipt and fine performances by the lead actors. In Junoon, Kalyug ,a modern-day adaptation of Mahabharat, and Zubeida inspired by the real-life story the dividing lines between the Mainstream cinema & the parallel cinema have been blurred. Both Junon & Kalyug received critical appreciation at international film festivals but burnt holes in the pockets of Shashi Kapoor; he couldn’t recover from his debts thereafter.
He directed feature films on Mahatama Gandhi (Making of the Mahatma) and Neta Ji Subhash Chandar Bose, the forgotten hero.
His first documentary was on Satyajit Ray. He also directed a documentary on Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru along with Yuri Aldokhin and a biopic on Sardar Patel. Thus, he is the only film director of India who has directed films on Gandhi, Nehru & Patel & Neta Ji Subhash Chandra Bose. Till last year, he was busy with his film: Mujib: The Making of a Nation; he won’t have imagined that Sheikh Hasina will be thrown out next year.
Several actors featured in Benegal films won several national awards and became Superstars of the Parallel Cinema. Perhaps no other film director can claim to have directed so many National award winners. The list includes Shabana Azmi (5 National awards), Naseeruddin Shah (3 national awards) Smita Patil (2 National awards) Om Puri (2 National award).
He was honoured with a Padma Bhushan award in 1991. He is believed to have won 18 National awards besides the Dada Saheb Phalke awards in 2005 which is considered equivalent to an Oscar award in India.
He once admitted that he was in awe when he made the documentary on Satyajit Ray. There are several film directors in Bollywood who have been inspired by Benegal for his commitment to make films as authentic and realistic as possible and don’t shy away from exposing the seamy side of our society with the hope that things will get better.
He was one of the tallest film directors of independent India who brought cinema closest to the rea life in our society.
