✒️ Sagnik Bhaduri
Culture,depending on the social sector, plays and has played a prominent role in shaping any form of art.Augusto Boal,the eminent theatre academician in his acclaimed treatise ,the, “Theatre of the Oppressed” wrote that any art form reflects society ,as elucidated by Marx and Plato,in accordance to the perspective of the dominant social sector. This has been the norm for each and every civilisation for eons. However ,not all hope is lost as the marginalised too have their own mode of artistic resistance . Similarly, in the Indian scene, it was at the behest of stalwarts-the likes of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen ,Ritwik Ghatak, Govind Nihalani ,Adoor Gopalakrishnan amongst others from the diverse corners of India who gave birth to the Indian New Wave where the medium of film began to shatter off conventions in order to function as the pedagogy of the oppressed. An artist who nurtured this further was the towering Shyam Benegal who , aged 90, left for his heavenly abode on 23rd December,2024.
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| At the shooting of Nishant Pic Courtsey: FB page |
Revisiting his worksBenegal deeply impacted the New Indian Wave’s dialectics of rebellion via his diverse contributions which involved a scathing indictment towards the perilous politics of caste,patriarchy,feudalism and dogmatism,all of which existed alongside the modernity that was approaching a nation which was grappling with its newly attained autonomy from its colonial masters and the vestiges of a dastardly past marred by the British imperialism and feudal politics of stratified social estates through his Uprising/Rural trilogy-Ankur/The Seedling(1974),Nishant/Night’s End (1975) and Manthan/The Churning (1976). While “Ankur(1974)” and “Nishant(1976)” were an acerbic social commentary on the plight of rural India and its milieu portrayed through poignant performances by Shabana Azmi , Smita Patil ,Naseeruddin Shah ,Om Puri,Anant Nag,Mohan Agashe,Sadhu Meher amongst others, the two aforementioned films employed an intersectional approach to depict a decaying patriarchal order where women and dalits are shunned to the lowest rungs of the hierarchy and are constantly deluded by religion and blind faith.Whilst the last film in the trilogy i.e. “Manthan/The Churning(1976)” was a sensitive and humane examination on the White Revolution’s advent which was the brainchild of Dr. Verghese Kurien.The unique thing about “Manthan” is that it was the first Indian crowdfunded film by the farmers of the state of Gujarat with each of them depositing a meagre amount of 2 rupees.Therefore,it was made by the people and for the people. Even though,owing to the divergence of perspectives ,many deemed the film to be a work of aesthetic propaganda in favour of the erstwhile government -the Indian National Congress(INC).
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| Three greatest fimmaker in one frame. Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and Satyajit Ray |
However, as sung by the inimitable Bob Dylan- "You are right from your side.I am right from mine. We’re both just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind.Thus, “Manthan” rather than following a typical filmic approach explored the many realities of rural India through a pantheon of perspectives -be it the idealistic city bred veterinary specialist Dr. Manohar Rao (essayed effortlessly by the multifaceted Girish Karnad) or the bubbly Bindu,a dalit woman abandoned by her husband and a single mother of a newborn(reprised in an austere manner by the gifted Smita Patil) or the disillusioned and cynical Harijan leader Bhola(essayed flawlessly by noted thespian Naseeruddin Shah)-all of them socio-politically conflict with each other but at the same time harbour a distaste towards the dogmatic norms meted out by the devious and scheming Mishra,the local dairy owner (portrayed by the iconic Amrish Puri) who along with the village sarpanch acts as a constant hurdle to Dr.Rao and his efforts to establish a Cooperative society dairy for the benefit of the marginalised village proletarians of the Kheda district,Gujarat. Dr.Rao’s character,based on the persona of Dr. Verghese Kurien, resonated with the reformist spirit that seemed to gather momentum in India during the 1970s and 1980s. Even in “Ankur (1974)”, an evocative portrait ,inspired by the dire failure of 1971-72 harvests ,of a dalit woman Laxmi(one of the most profound performances by Shabana Azmi) who is wrecked existentially as she struggles to make ends meet while society is oblivious to her longings and her desire to bear a child.This crisis is aggravated further when her mute husband Kishtaya(Sadhu Meher in a brilliant act) is kicked out from the village on grounds of stealing and on top of that him belonging to the lower caste which is followed by Laxmi falling in love with the young upper-caste landowner Surya( played by Anant Nag) who despite being a progressive individual falls prey to the societal contradictions. Apart from having a plethora of morally grey characters,the film’s ending scene-the vignette of a young boy pelting a stone at the local zamindar’s mansion and breaking a glass serves as a revolutionary metaphor for the crumbling of the old order followed by the birth of free minds and free spirits!
Arna Mukhopadhyay,noted filmmaker and thespian, has cited the works of Shyam Benegal and Satyajit Ray as his primary inspirations towards venturing the path of a filmmaker and theatre artist. “As members of the human race we all have a social commitment. It is the sole purpose of any art and any artist to produce something which is ever resonant for the years to come. Similar is the case with the works of Shyam Benegal. His works like Trikaal(1985) and Nishant(1975) not only serve as essential depictions of human relationships but rather they reaffirmed our faith in the pluralistic environment of India due to the profound social commentary being incorporated,” he said. Further with his vast erudition regarding history he stated, “ In a nation like ours history has tended to be distorted anytime and everytime. However contemporarily with the creeping of the rightist minds like the RSS a monolithic perspective of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ tends to engulf the cultural sphere . The onus is on us to revisit the works of Ray, Ghatak and the recently deceased Benegal to counter this mythical historiography for there is nothing as neutral.” Arijita Mukhopadhyay,eminent theatre practitioner and artiste provided a brilliant analogy of Benegal as an auteur by quoting the nobel laureate bard and polymath Rabindranath Tagore’s words - “Adhunikata bichar kara uchit marji diye, samay diye naye.”(It is an imperative to determine modernity via the individual's purpose rather than their circumstances)“As someone who was deeply influenced by Satyajit Ray,Benegal ,akin to Ray, was extremely international,extremely modern ,extremely foresighted. But on the other hand both Ray and Bengal were constantly concerned with Indian politics,thus,making them strong social critics.”
Further she stated, “It is impossible to categorise Benegal into leftist or rightist politics. Auteurs like Benegal and Ray transcended these binaries through their works. Even in “Ankur” and “Nishant”,he depicted a squalor of a society affected by casteism and misogyny eating itself away owing to the voices raised by the marginalised. As someone who followed a layered and critical approach via films ‘Manthan’ and ‘Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda(1992)’,based on esteemed Hindi novelist Dharamvir Bharati’s postmodernist magnum opus of the same name,Shyam Bengal had a profound capacity for imagination akin to Satyajit Ray and Rituparno Ghosh, the very justification of the feminist subtexts and texts pervading his entire oeuvre.”
A Feminist undertone
In a BBC interview dated 2006 he remarked aptly, “When you make a film that contests a whole value system,obviously you should’nt expect that to be exceedingly popular.” Quite truly, Benegal’s films did not ally with the escapist,status-quo centric .larger-than-life Bollywood narratives. His oeuvre also followed a distinctly feminist apporach brimming with iconoclasm when ,aided by the ‘empathy machine(as Ray Bradbury called it) ,he sensitively and fairly seriously approached the humanity , hegemony and resilience of the courtesans in a brothel with memorable performances by Shabana Azmi as Rukmini Bai , Smita Patil as Zeenat and Naseeruddin Shah as Tungrus. Benegal’s films showed women as opinionated individuals rather than being an appendage to the hero when assisted by the gifted pen of eminent film critic Khalid Mohammed ,he set out to direct the Muslim Women trilogy-Mammo(1994),Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa(2001)featuring poignant performances by Farida Jalal,Rajit Kapoor,Kirron Kher,Karishma Kapoor,Rekha and Manoj Bajpayee. Apart from providing a profound commentary about the devastating vestiges of 1947 Indo-Pakistan partition , “Mammo(1996) ,with an iconic performance on part of Farida Jalal who played the titular role with ardour ,offered glimpses of an uncomfortable reality of a patriarchal society which has not ceased to exploit and subjugate women politically and socially.
“ His movies mirror a society at times incapable or unwilling to gaze upon the stark realities around itself. Take Ankur (1974), for instance. To me, this film is not just a story of caste and gender oppression but a quiet rebellion against the sanitized narratives of mainstream cinema. Benegal strips away the gloss, presenting characters who feel startlingly real. Lakshmi, the Dalit protagonist, embodies resilience, and her silent defiance is more powerful than a thousand loud protests.What impresses me most about his cinema is the dignity he accords to his characters, especially women. Bhumika (1977) stands out as a feminist milestone in Indian cinema. Smita Patil's portrayal of a woman navigating her desires and constraints is heartbreakingly human. As a critic, I often find myself returning to this film, marveling at its layered storytelling and emotional depth,” stated Abhirup Pal,a student from St.Xavier’s University,Kolkata.
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| During the shooting of Junoon with Sashi Kapoor |
A smorgasbord of influences
It would be a sheer act of idiocy if one were to categorise Shyam Benegal’s works under standardised political theories.Even though he explored India ,via his films,with the lens of a liberal democrat, I did not find him taking any narrative sides. A stark admirer of Nehruvian humanism and the Gandhian philosophy of a peaceful transition to a much more just society,Benegal’s acclaimed “Bharat Ek Khoj” ,a 53-episode historical television series which aired on the then channel-Doordarshan was an apt tribute to Pandit Jawaharal Nehru’s(the former Prime Minister of India apart from being an erudite scholar,statesman and secular humanist) brilliant work of literary-political imagination “The Discovery Of India”. But here he did not utilise a singularly distinct Nehruvian approach.Rather,Benegal employed his own interpretation-that of a politically conscious artiste whose joie de vivre made him someone averse to fundamentalism,intolerance,terrorism as a means of attaining any political goal and inequities along the lines of caste,class and gender ,all of which continue to plague the nation critically.Therefore,he reiterated the age old truth- history progresses spirally and there is no single truth in it. “In a stark contrast to the run-of-the mill films,aka mindless violence and song-and-dance routines aimed at mesmerizing the audience to a ‘never-never land’,the parallel cinema arrived as a catharsis,a whiff of fresh air in the 1950s.Inspired by Italian neorealism,the parallel cinema was characterised by realism,naturalism and a penchant for analysing the socio-political milieu of the times. Following the footsteps of his illustrious predecessors(Sen,Ray,Ghatak,et al),Benegal captured the true essence of India,its feudal social structure,its exploitative nature and the struggles of the flotsam and jetsam.He also portrayed the rebellious spirit of the masses as is evident from the last scene in "Ankur".A film based on the White Revolution,”Manthan” speaks volumes for the maestro's capacity to blend intellectual prowess with cultural roots. The violence and brutality portrayed in "Nishant" is a telling commentary on a society,where poverty and illiteracy are rampant with the landlords holding sway over the common people,”said Shivaji Bhaduri,an esteemed educator based in Howrah Vivekananda Institution and an avid film enthusiast. Further the 58-year old stated, “The hydra-headed demon of fascism has reared its ugly head in India.Right-wing nationalism has bared its fangs. Mind Boggling blockbusters have been vitiating the psyche of the masses.
Benegal uses Nehruvian modernity to counter this phenomenon.His unwavering commitment to social justice is a tool with the help of which he effectively counters the venomous propaganda of the right wing to present India as a monolithic society.Benegal's camera forsooth eavesdrops on everyday life and humanism permeates every cranny of his films.Thus he effectively counters the detrimental effects of photographed jatras.”
Apart from this,the auteur had created an illustrious career, as a copywriter of over 900 ads and 11 corporate films with taut and socially relevant scripts ,at Lintas Ad agency,Mumbai owing to Benegal’s social consciousness shaped by the Soviet masters and pioneers of montage -Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin apart from his exposure to voluminous world literature during his days as a university sophomore at Osmania University,Hyderabad where he studied economics and even established the ‘Hyderabad Film Institute’.Being the cousin of legendary writer-director Guru Dutt and the son of Sridhar B. Benegal,a noted stills photographer ,filmmaking attracted the young Shyam from a tender age of twelve. Hence he set out a legacy which altered the grammatology of Indian cinema fetching him an array of awards-the much prized Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (1974) for “Ankur”,the Golden St. George (1997) at the Moscow International Film Festival for “Sardari Begum” and even the Golden Palm (1976) for “Nishant” at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival amongst a plethora of national awards.
Benegal may have left us, his loss echoing volumes, but his works ought to be introspected upon and preserved for posterity for in heart and spirit they are immortal for they were the brainchild of an individual who refused to compromise and avowedly in the words of Amartya Sen(nobel laureate economist and philosopher par excellence) was an ‘Argumentative Indian’.
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