rewrite this title Remembering Shyam Benegal – and the Feminine Spirit in His Cinema

Shyam BenegalOne of the most outstanding filmmakers of Indian cinema, breathed his last on December 23 at the age of 90.

Benegal never claimed to be a ‘feminist’ filmmaker, but her respect, reverence and concern for women irrespective of caste, class, status and education were clearly visible in her films.

She rejects Laura Mulvey’s 1975 theory of the “male gaze”, in which she says that women in films are essentially reduced to ‘objects’ to please male audiences – not those films themselves. ‘Subjects’ in which he has acted.

Benegal’s first feature film sprout (1974) introduced the powerful FTII gold medalist Shabana Azmi. She is the wife of a deaf-mute farmer, a Dalit daily wage laborer in the village, played by Sadhu Mehar. landlord (Anant Nag)’s house where his wife works as a domestic help. Youth landlord He has an affair with the maid despite being a married man. Through these incidents the film defines a sharp criticism of casteism, sexual exploitation, silent abuse landlord’The role of the wife, played by Priya Tendulkar, and the physical torture of the deaf-mute labourer.

Bhoomika (The Role, 1977) was based on an autobiography.संगत्ये एका‘ (Listen to this) Written by the famous Marathi speaking actress of her time, Hansa Wadkar. For BhoomikaBenegal based the film on Wadkar’s autobiography and cast actress Smita Patil to play her on screen.

The film was way ahead of its time as audiences could not be expected to digest a film with a female protagonist who lived a very controversial life entirely on her own terms after a stormy and exploitative girlhood, In which she was tortured and exploited by her mother. And her lover, financially and sexually.

Market (Marketplace, 1983) is one of the very few films that revolves around an old brothel whose existence is under threat due to land-grabbers including local politicians and landlords. Located on the fringes of Hyderabad city, this brothel is headed by a madam played by Shabana Azmi.

Benegal used burlesque as a medium to explore the dynamics of a brothel. He injects a dash of black comedy into the film, allowing for some lewd voyeurism while keeping in mind the social environment the women live in.

seventh horse of the sun (The Seventh Horse of the Sun, 1992): Based on Dharamvir Bharati’s famous Hindi novel of the same name, this film is not only an excellent example of transcription/interpretation of literature on celluloid, but also one of the few celluloid experiments. With the lost art of storytelling.

Characters from one story freely move in and out of the other two through the telescope, moving through time, and subtly indicating changes in their lives, as does Manek Mulla (played by Rajit Kapoor). It is seen from the perspective of someone who grew up in a family. From a playful teenager deeply in love with Jamuna, the young girl from the neighboring house, to a young man in the second story. In the last episode, he is a fully grown man trying to deal with the tormented, tortured and exploited young gypsy girl Shakti (Neena Gupta), but failing to come to a definitive conclusion in any relationship.

Suggested adultery enriches the tapestry and texture seventh horse of the sunOne of the three women who enter Manek Mulla’s life, even before she becomes a widow, becomes adulterous due to mere suggestion. Jamuna, who was forced to marry an old widower, suddenly finds herself pregnant.

Zubaida (2001) is said to be Benegal’s most expensive film to date. Netaji – It features four female characters who provide an insight into Benegal’s mastery in understanding and handling the female psyche from every angle, crossing the barriers of communal identity, age, background, status and education.

Apart from Zubaida (Karisma Kapoor), his mother is Faiyaji (Surekha Sikri), who is not very educated and is a Muslim. She is submissive and never raises her voice against her overbearing and abusive husband Suleiman (Amrish Puri), even when he openly flaunts her husband Rose Davenport (Lillete Dubey) in public .

But Fayazi takes a crucial decision when Zubaida decides to marry her Hindu prince of Jodhpur, Hukam Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), even though he is already married to Mandira (Rekha) and has children. But she does not allow Zubaida to take little Riyaz with her.

When Riyaz comes to meet Rose, she is a ghost of her former self, without any work or identity, as after independence, the Anglo Indian was gradually falling out of favor with the newly formed Indian government. Hukam Singh’s original queen Mandira is officially recognized by the royal family and the subjects of Fatehpur.

She speaks impeccable English but is always bejeweled and dressed in royal attire like any Indian princess of her time. Her name is short for British-sounding Mandy, possibly inspired by the Indian royal family’s sycophancy towards the British.

But she was fond of Zubaida, much younger than her, and was pleasantly surprised by her independent spirit, living life entirely on her own terms, even though this caused her not only sadness but also a lack of inertia, which ultimately led to the plant accident. He died. , Was the accident a sabotage? Or was it just an accident? Benegal left the question open.

This article has been updated. It was first published on 23 December 2023.

,Shoma A. Chatterjee is an Indian film scholar, author and freelance journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)