As cinema buffs there was no way we’d miss out on a well constructed documentary film on one of the great legends of parallel cinema, late Shyam Benegal. Written and directed by the renowned critic & writer Khaled Mohammed, it has narration by none other than his most famed protege, Naseeruddin Shah.
Screened on 26th March at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA, this was an enthralling experience for cinema lovers beyond expectations ! From initial forays into advertising industry and more importantly his early struggles from which emerged and bloomed an amazing body of work – gets told to us with fine detailing mainly through the maestro’s own words. It begins with humorous side to his original name that had ‘Sunder’ in the middle. In self-deprecatory terms he says that since he wasn’t good looking (sunder), it was completely dropped and it became Shyam Benegal, as the world came to know him !
There are sharing of experiences with funny anecdotes and untold narratives & snippets from immensely talented actors & artists, most of whom got their biggest breaks in his meaningful films made with social purpose that were a far cry from the staple Bollywood masala! Of them, the candid interviews with Shabana Azmi, Late Girish Karnad, Writer Javed Akhtar, Music Composer Vanraj Bhatia, all of whom were closely associated with his works, provide special insights into the persona and the working style of Benegal but one missed Govind Nihalani and of course Naseeruddin, who does the film’s narration.
As a viewer with some basic understanding of cinema, one feels that Benegal had a niche audience though he denied that his films catered to the intellectual taste but argued that they were simply told and everyone could relate to them. We have preferences and my favourites would be ‘Ankur’, ‘Manthan’ and ‘Kalyug’ possibly because they had intense drama in their story telling but one must confess not having seen many of the later ones. To us it came as real revelation that Benegal had the distinction of being specially sought out for making a documentary on the iconic Satyajit Ray by the Master (Ray) himself !
At the end of a most engrossing 90 Mts film, there were glowing tributes from one of his celebrated actors, Rajat Kapoor (of big theatre fame) and the man who played ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ in his remarkable film ‘The Making of the Mahatma’ & acted in many of his other movies. Rajat shared with much depth of personal feeling his fulfilling & cherished experiences of the life and times with the creative genius that was Shyam Benegal. It was a moving finale to a beautiful film on a legend, the likes of whom may not be seen again.
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