Shyam Benegal: Prolific arthouse auteur whose lens captured the many realities of India

MUMBAI: His lens empathetic, rooted to the Indian reality and always political, Shyam Benegal was the arthouse pioneer who rewrote the rules of cinema with films such as “Ankur”, “Nishant” and “Bhumika” that blazed an alternate path to mainstream movies.

The pioneer of parallel cinema, one of India’s greatest directors whose work found an audience in the most discerning of global film circles, died in a Mumbai hospital on Monday evening. It was just nine days after he celebrated his 90th birthday.

Benegal, who burst on the scene with his first film “Ankur” in 1974, was a chronicler of India’s times and politics, that rare artiste who worked both in non-fiction and fiction across varied mediums -- films, documentaries, biopics and ambitious TV shows.

The title of his debut film, translating to seedling, was perhaps prophetic. “Ankur”, which delves into caste struggles and feudalism in a small village in India, was the first of his more than 25 films that included “Mandi”, “Manthan”, “Junoon”, “Kalyug” and “Zubeidaa”.

The remarkable oeuvre boasts the documentary on another great, “Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker”, and televisions shows, the ambitious "Bharat Ek Khoj", based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book "Discovery of India", and "Samvidhaan", a 10-part serial on the making of the Constitution.

Through his work, which was distinctly different and alternate to mainstream movies as audiences knew till then, Benegal made several stars out of great actors. There was Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Girish Karnad of course. And then there were those stars such as Shashi Kapoor and Rekha who gave arguably their best performances in “Kalyug” and “Vijeta”.

The filmmaking was both deeply personal and inherently political. Telling stories of class and caste struggles, feminist concerns, rural distress and community dynamics. The gaze was incisive, the themes serious and the treatment sometimes sombre and other times satirical.

If “Kalyug” is a modern day retelling of the Mahabharata, “Bhumika” is a searing profile of a woman filmstar and her often exploitative relationships, “Mandi” deals with a brothel and its occupants who deftly navigate the men in their lives and “Welcome to Sajjanpur” about an aspiring novelist turned letter writer is an outright satire.

Fondly called Shyam Babu by friends and colleagues, Benegal was a pillar of meaningful cinema of the 1970s and 1980s alongside Sai Paranjpye, Govind Nihalani, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, and Kumar Shahani.

Benegal disliked the term "middle cinema" used to bracket his films and preferred that his work be called "new or alternate cinema".

"I don’t remember who said this: ‘Every social act of yours is also a political act whether you like it or not’,” he told PTI in 2022.

"One has to be as objective as possible and the second point is to be sympathetic. If you are not objective, you are already colouring the story with your subjectivity. Sympathy is necessary. When I say sympathy, I mean empathy so you can be one with the subject," Benegal said.

His was the cinema of and by the erudite, attracting some of the most talented in the business.

The late playwright Vijay Tendulkar wrote the screenplay “Manthan”, a film on the milk cooperative movement in Anand, Gujarat, made with Rs 2 funding from five lakh farmers, and “Nishant”, set in a feudal family. The late music composer Vanraj Bhatia, cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the great theatre director Satyadev Dubey worked with him in multiple films. Girish Karnad wrote the screenplay for “Bhumika” and Ruskin Bond for “Junoon”.

Benegal was understated about his achievements.

“There are people who have done wonderful things. There’s nothing unique in what one has done. You do what you think you want to do. That’s not unique. Climbing Mount Everest is unique,” he said.

Interestingly, Mahatma Gandhi was the one personality Benegal explored in all his complexities and significance. In "The Making of the Mahatma", Rajit Kapoor portrayed Gandhi during his South African years. Gandhi appeared in two episodes of "Bharat Ek Khoj" and was played by Neeraj Kabi in 10-part series "Samvidhaan". In his biopic on Netaji, 2005's " Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero", the role of Gandhi was enacted by Surendra Rajan.

"It is very difficult to judge or ascertain this but I do believe Gandhi's influence has been very profound on Indians. It may not necessarily show on the surface but somewhere it has to do with the idea of compassion and a sense of humanity,” he had once said.

The beginnings of the extraordinary career in the moving visual began in advertising.

And it was probably in his genes. Born in Tirumalagiri, now in Telangana, Benegal grew up with 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. He planned to take up teaching but decided against it. 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 copywriter at an advertising agency. After a while, his agency shifted him to the film department sensing his inclination 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 making his feature film debut with "Ankur".

He was a much awarded filmmaker. Benegal received many National Awards in his career. He got the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. Benegal also served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 2006 to 2012.

Unwell with chronic kidney disease and notwithstanding his 90 years, Benegal was unwilling to call it a day.

“I’m working on two to three projects; they are all different from one another. It’s difficult to say which one I will make. They are all for the big screen,” Benegal told PTI just last week on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

It was possibly his last interview.