Anant Nag closes his door after repeatedly
whipping Sadhu Maher in the final scene of ‘Ankur’ . Shabana Azmi is crying
loudly cursing the landlord and taking her injured husband home. We in the
audience are deeply disturbed by the sexual and physical exploitation by the
Landlord Anant Nag. Suddenly we witness
on screen a child picking up a stone and hitting on the windowpane of the
landlord’s house; there is sound of the window glass breaking , the child flees
and the screen turns red! This was in 1974,
Shyam Benegal’s first feature film .
The above climax
scene left me with many questions at age 16 . Later after discussions with my
uncle I understood the subtext of it .
It suggested the awareness against
exploitation and simmering of revolt. I was in the midst of understanding the
New cinema and discovered my ‘Master’ .
I followed him very closely thereafter ; ‘Nishant’ was a progress further of his expression . The idea which
he had floated in the end of ‘Ankur’ he executed in ‘Nishant’ when the
villagers rise to slay the tormenter zamindar whose family had abducted the
Head Master’s wife played by Shabana Azmi . It won the National award for the
best film. With ‘Manthan’ he completed his trilogy . But ‘Manthan’ was a promotional film made on the story of
Verghese Kurian who set up ‘Amul’ and brought about ‘ white revolution’ in
India on the basis of ‘Cooperative movement’. The film was ‘crowd funded’ – the
five lakh farmers contributed of Gujrat
sponsored it by donating Rs 2 each. It was the ability and vision of Shyam
Benegal who made it into a landmark feature film by outstanding performances by
Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah. Recently the film was restored digitally and
shown in Cannes Film Festival and was
applauded with cheers. The film also won
the National award for the best film and best screenplay.
He did not adhere
to only one genre but made a bold shift to direct Samita Patil in ‘ Bhumika’ in
1977, based on the autobiography of the Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar . Deftly
directed the complex story set in the cinema world about the personal and cinematic journey of
the protagonist played by Smita Patil and ably supported by Amol Palekar who
played her husband, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri and others . He had
introduced Smita Patil in the children’s movies ‘Carandas Chor ‘ and ‘Manthan’ but in ‘Bhumika ‘ she makes a
strong impact in the central role. The film won the best film Filmfare award
and Smita Patil received her first National Award for best acting . The
film received National award for the
best screenplay.
His name was
established by then as the most distinguished director and Shashi Kapoor asked
him to direct for his banner. ‘Junoon’ made in 1979 was based on the story of
Ruskin Bond –‘A flight of pigeons’ set in the backdrop of the 1857 First War of
Independence . It was a multi-starrer with Shashi Kapoor leading the cast in
the Pathan’s role Javed who falls in love with Ruth ,the daughter of the
English officer who is slain by the mutineers . The family takes shelter in
Javed’s residence . The historical atmosphere , battle scenes , dramatic and
romantic situations were absorbing and convincing . The performance of
Naseeruddin Shah the revolutionary brother of Javed was distinct and convincing.
The film was well received and got the Filmfare award for the best film and
direction , it won a total of six Filmfare awards . It also received the
National award for the best feature film in Hindi and for cinematography and
Art direction. By now it was established that Shyam Benegal could handle varied
subjects and themes. He directed ‘Kalyug’ in 1981 for Shashi Kapoor banner
again . It was based on the epic ‘Mahabharat’; a modern interpretation set in a
corporate family. Excellent casting, innovative screenplay and brilliant
performances made the film widely popular and a reference material to this
date. Shashi Kapoor played Karna, Anant Nag -Arjun, Kulbhushan Kharbanda –
Bhim, Raj Babbar – Yudhisthir and Rekha was cast as Draupadi. Victor Bannerji
came into limelight in the role of Duryodhan,
unlike the traditional look of
the character he was lean and anguished .
He thereafter
embarked on portraying varied and complex subjects as well dwelling into
history, communities and other social subjects . His depth of exploration could
be judged from his English film on Mahatma Gandhi ‘The Making Of Mahatma’ which
had Rajit Kapoor in the title role . Shot much in South Africa it captures
Gandhi’s early experiments in social mobilization and its success and
confidence which made him return to India and fight for freedom . South Africa
was Gandhi’s training ground. He kept making
films till 2010 regularly ‘Well done Abba’ was made that year . After a long
gap of many years he directed a movie on Mujibur Rehman in 2023. Prior to that
in 2005 he directed a biography on Subhash Chandra Bose which had impressive
dramatic moments and performances but did not live up-to expectations as the
canvas was very wide and the war scenes required finesse.
He has perhaps a
unique distinction of making films to promote a certain cause aligned to the
Government policy and yet these films are so rich in cinematic aspect and
creativity that the element of educational purpose remains subdued yet makes it
impact as if it were integral to the
story . The first such film was ‘Manthan’ which has been discussed above . In
1987 he directed Shabana Azmi and Om Puri in ‘Susman’ in which Om Puri played
the role of a silk saree weaver and Shabana Azmi played his wife whereas Neena
Gupta is portrayed as an art and craft promoter. The film depicts the laborious yet
creative life of a weaver which is
exploited by the people with money . The third such film was ‘Hari Bhari’
promoted by the Health department and story was woven around a joint Muslim
family in rural India and relevance of
family planning .
However his seminal work is ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’
for Doordarshan in 1988. This was a 53 episode
series dramatizing and narrating the history of India as written by the
India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his famous book
‘Discovery Of India’ written in jail during the Quit India movement . Roshan
Seth plays the role of Nehru and appears
on screen in between to narrate the story further a sort of traditional
‘Sutradhar’ a ploy very well employed by the Director. Another uniqueness of
the series was the loud recitation of ‘Vedic Shloks’ in the beginning of the episodes which created
a remarkable atmosphere and filled the audience with expectations . This
project gave opportunity to a large number of theatre artists in challenging and grand roles of historical
figures , many were National School Drama graduates and looking for an opening
. Presence of Naseeruddin Shah as Shivaji and Om Puri as
Aurangzeb gave the series much respect and following . This remains a much profitable History lesson for citizens
and children as well . He also made a 10
part documentary on the Constitution of India titled ‘Samvidhan’ for Rajya
Sabha TV in 2014 and is a popular instructional film. Later in life he was
visiting various International universities as a visiting Professor of Cinema.
He leaves behind a large body of work consisting of 23 feature
films and numerous documentaries. . His
documentary on ‘Nehru’ and ‘Satyajit Ray’ was much appreciated and awarded
too. What makes him Master class was
his tremendous ability to make his artists perform , this was said by Satyajit
Ray also . He identified acting talent and gave them opportunity . There is a
School of Shyam Benegal Actors- Naseeruddin Shah , Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil,
Kulbhushan Kharbanda , Rajit Kapoor, Girish Karnad, Sadhu Meher, Anant Nag,
Supriya Pathak , Rajeswari Sachdev. The
performances which established as well as new artists gave in his films was
different. Large number of the artists received many awards and appreciation
and career openings through his cinema. The above was possible on account of
the scripts he prepared in collaboration with his writers from the very
beginning – Satyadev Dubey, Shama Zaidi, Vijay Tendulkar, Khalid Mohammad,
Ashok Mishra , Girish Karnad , and
others. He also mentored other artists under him the most prominent was Govind
Nilhani who was his Cinematographer and made similar but hard hitting cinema
–‘Aakrosh’ , ‘Ardh Satya’ and ‘Tamas’ stand out. Shayam Benegal’s long list of
18 National award and Dada Saheb Phalke Award is testimony to his talent. The
wide media coverage which his death news received is proof of his tremendous
contribution .
We had forgotten
Shyam Benegal; his death shook us with a
jolt from our slumber and realize his
immense contribution over last 50 years . His cinema stands as a clear mirror
specially to the present cinema makers who have pushed cinema to its nadir–
‘Animal’, ‘ Pathan’ , ‘Jawan’ , ‘Singham’ . Cinema can always be made with
commitment and one survives with the limited commercial earnings . This was the
ideology of Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee and Shyam Benegal.
Their cinema shall remain our saviour.
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एक टिप्पणी भेजें