Shyam Benegal (1934-2024): The filmmaker who gave voice to the voiceless

One of the foremost oarsmen of the Indian New Wave, reality never escaped from Shyam Benegal’s focus.

A peerless filmmaker who gave voice to the voiceless and documented the idea of India through his rich oeuvre, Shyam Benegal (1934-2024) passed away on Monday (December 23, 2024) in a Mumbai hospital at 90.

One of the foremost oarsmen of the Indian New Wave, reality never escaped from Benegal’s focus. In 1970s when Bollywood was looking for poetic justice through the Angry Young Man, Benegal captured the silent resistance of the marginalised in feudal India with Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975) and Manthan (1976).

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Be it farmers or sex workers, his protagonists questioned the prevailing social order with searing intensity without resorting to hyperbole for the Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner saw cinema as a medium that can reflect the very act of living. Starting as an ad filmmaker, Benegal consistently experimented with form and technique and kept evolving with times. His range of subjects remain unrivalled as Benegal broke every boundary to document the changing contours of Indian society.

Budgets were never a constraint for his vision. Born to a photographer father in Hyderabad, Benegal discovered very early that there is nothing in the human experience that can’t be depicted through the medium. He grew up watching the works of Guru Dutt, his second cousin, but the real inspiration came from Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. Like Ray, his films always found a theatrical release. He believed that the audience always stood for meaningful cinema.

Music was integral to his cinema but not as a decorative device. The strains in Bhumika, Mandi and Sardari Begum scythe through the atavistic mores of society and leave a mark on the conscience. If his early works were rooted in idealism, satire gradually found its way in films like Welcome to Sajjanpur and Well Done Abba.

Drawing from the fountain of literature, he adapted Mahabharat as Kalyug in a corporate family. The film speaks to us even today. Later, he recreated Dharamvir Bharti’s novel into the lyrical Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda. He brought crowd funding to Indian cinema much before it became a fad and made classics like Manthan, Antarnaad and Susman. His touching trilogy woven around Muslim women, Sardari Begum, Mammo and Zubeida brought him back to the top billing in the 1990s.

He forged a strong team of creatives with Govind Nihalani, Shama Zaidi and Vanraj Bhatia to realise vision and introduced us to powerhouse talent like Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajit Kapoor, Salim Ghouse and Rajeshwari Sachdev. All through, he challenged actors to go beyond their comfort zone. Be it Smita Patil and Amol Palekar in Bhumika or Karisma Kapoor in Zubeida, the actors found a new life in Benegal’s hands.

Someone who didn’t wear his ideology on his sleeve, in The Making of Mahatma, he introduced us to Gandhi’s psyche before he became Mahatma and with equal passion documented the life of Subhas Chandra Bose in The Forgotten Hero. His objective gaze came through in Bharat Ek Khoj\, an adaptation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India where he captured the spirit of India. It was his most comprehensive work that has withstood the test of time. Not to forget Samvidhan where he introduced the Constitution to young Indians.

Behind that hard exterior, Benegal carried a gentle soul who would go the extra mile to make his actors feel comfortable. Humble to the core, he would always be ready to take criticism in his stride.

Age didn’t diminish his passion. In 2023, he came up with an engaging biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Alive to the times, as the head of the committee formed to suggest changes in the working of Central Board of Film Certification, he suggested far reaching changes.

A strong advocate of pluralist identity of India, when Aamir Khan spoke about growing intolerance in Indian society, Benegal had said, “You can and you should and you must raise your voice against intolerance. We are constitutionally bound to protect our minorities.”

Published - December 23, 2024 10:52 pm IST