By Satya Narayan Misra* in Bhubaneswar, December 28, 2024: If Ray reflected the Tagore enlightenment, Benegal is undoubtedly the chronicler of Nehruvian India. He shares his socialist bias and commitment to secularism, pluralism, democracy, human rights, and women’s rights. His all-India identity is manifest and pulsating. If Ray was a Bengali and an Indian, Ghatak would only be a Bengali; Benegal would only be an Indian.

If Ray was the first to make art cinema in India, with Pather Panchali made in 1955, Benegal was truly a forerunner of art/parallel cinema in Hindi when his film Ankur in 1973 made a new splash in the cesspool of maudlin melodrama. The Ray model of realism dominated the cultural avant-garde cinema in India for nearly two decades before Benegal’s first film happened. Ray’s Apu trilogy in the 50s was followed by Benegal’s trilogy in the 70s (Ankur, Nishant, and Manthan).

Ankur was concerned with oppression generally and the exploitation of vulnerable women in particular- a concern carried into the next film, Nishant (1975). Bhumika (1977) deals with a woman’s dilemma of finding both security and freedom, Mandi in 1983 went into a prostitute’s struggle to survive and her inscrutable relationship with a society that needs her and rejects her.

Later in his career came the three remarkable portraits of Muslim women in Mammo (1994), Sardari Begum (1996), and Zubeida (2001), exploring an area seldom visited by the Indian filmmaker. In the process, he midwifed a few remarkable actors like Shabana, Smita, Surekha Sikri, Kiran Kher, and Farida Jalal to the center stage of Hindi cinema. But the central strand to Benegal’s ideology and his oeuvre is documentary. It is best illustrated in Manthan (milkmen and women), Susman (handloom weavers), and Antarnad (fishermen).

Add to this the long semi-documentaries, Discovery of India, the Making of the Mahatma, and the full length film on Subash Bose. Manthan, Susman, and Antarnad also represent a unique approach to film funding and the involvement of people with films made about them.

The men and women of the Khaira milk cooperative who made Manthan possible by contributing money was a grand fruition of Dr Verghese Kurien bringing in the White revolution in India and building a durable institution like NDDB.

In Girish Karnad, as the protagonist Dr. Rao, Nasir, as the outcaste rebel Bhola, and Smita, the feisty young woman Bindu, the film could not have asked for a better convergence of character and commitment, real and reel life. History is among Benegal’s other preoccupations.

In Trikaal, the unique flavor of Portuguese India comes through in ample measure without the camera ever visiting Portugal. The concept of the matriarch ruling over a large extended family with as much despotism as affection is perfectly realized by the porcelain beauty Leela Naidu and her natural daughter Neena Gupta.

Trikaal is unmistakably reminiscent of Garcia Marquez in its grasp of the climate of a time, of history, religion, custom, character, and family all enmeshed together with unfailing humor. The three portraits of Muslim women in Mammo, Sardari Begum, and Zubeida also mark out the position of women in a moment of history.

In a way, Mammo is the most important of the three because it is the only one concerned with ordinary women. The extraordinary performances put in by Surekha Sikri as the Indian woman and Farida Jla as her Pakistani sister make the film come to life. Zubeida is a landmark film as here Benegal comes closest to the norms of mainstream cinema yet steering clear of its maudlin sentimentality. The film becomes an essay on the illusory nature of princely raj.

Benegal must have realized early in the day that the best training for acting in cinema is in the theatre. No wonder most of his discoveries of new acting talent come from the stage- Anant Nag, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Mohan Agashe, Surekha Sikri, and Nasiruddin. In Benegal’s approach to acting, Amrish Puri occupies a special place.

At the other end of the scale is Surekha Sikri. From Nishant to Zubeida Amrish is the man you love to hate; the apotheosis of patriarchal authority. He is to Benegal what Pran was to commercial cinema. It showed Benegal’s openness to melodrama as a legitimate device for the art film. At the other end of the scale is the unforgettable Surekha Sikri.

As the sister in Mammo, the old singer in Sardari Begum, the mother in Zubeida, Rajo in Tamas (a tele serial made by Nihalni) , her oeuvre is bewildering. No matter what age she represents, she never stops being convincing in anything she does. He nurtured Shabana, a well-trained actor from FTII to reach her acting crescendo in Mandi as he did to an untrained natural actor like Smita who scintillated in Bhumika. He held both actresses in high esteem, valuing their unique talents, without making any comparisons. The same was true when he was recently asked to compare Nasir with Om Puri.

They were all part of his family kitchen in which he was the Master Chef, without judging! Most of Benegal’s films set up an objective truth -a historical fact, a given situation, a character or a class. The making of passionate personal films was not his forte. One outstanding exception to this is Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda’s (1993) and Trikaal.

In both, the underlying feeling is of nostalgia overlaid with comedy. Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda is a rare commodity in Benegal’s oeuvre a clutch of love stories revolving around the same characters. The shades of Kurusawa’s Rashomon are confined to the discovery of the same characters in various could-have-been situations whose truth cannot be determined. The nostalgic, self-deprecatory multi-narrative of Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda is unique in the world of Benegal.

He made a biopic on Satyajit Ray in 1982, the filmmaker he admired the most, like Nehru, the liberal colossus whom he admired. I was lucky to see him in the foyer of Vigyan Bhawan on a cold blustery evening in Delhi in 1976 when Akira Kurusawa’s film Dersu Uzala was being screened. He was in the company of Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurusawa, the legendary director, and Indira, our imperious Prime minister.

It would be impossible to conjure a scenario where culture at its crescendo stood so steadily with the icy hands of censorship. Benegal was quintessential Nehru in outlook and a true Renaissance man in the footsteps of Satyajit Ray. Though at 90, looked withered and devoid of any will to live, his legacy in quality cinema will remain incandescent and continue to inspire and enthrall.

•  Professor Emeritus