Maestro: A Tribute to Shyam Benegal at 90
By Atul Tiwari
Kautilya Books
ISBN: 978-93-6063-062-1
233pp.

In 1957, a young man visited Calcutta to take part in a swimming competition and watched Satyajit Ray’s Pathar Panchali — it sealed his fate, as the film cast a spell on him. He had a moment of epiphany as he realised what he really wanted to do after getting a degree in economics from Nizam College in Hyderabad.

The young man was Shyam Benegal and this anecdote is related by scriptwriter and actor Atul Tiwari in his book Maestro: A Tribute to Shyam Benegal at 90.

In the interview that’s a part of the book, Benegal says Ray’s film had hit him like a bolt of lightning. “This is what struck me, and because of that film, I could find my ambition taking real shape, this was what I wanted to do in life. Not to imitate Ray, but to make my own films that answered my questions and tastes.”

After starting his career as an advertising film director, he made 200 documentaries of various lengths, alongside 800 to 900 ad films. But he became best known for dozens of iconic feature films that every film buff now knows in the world of cinema.

Not everybody in the field of art is lucky enough to have received recognition and had tributes paid to them in their life and Shyam Benegal, who passed away at the age of 90 last December, is among the lucky ones. Just 10 days before his death on December 24, Benegal, one of the pillars of Indian ‘parallel cinema’ — a term he himself did not like much — got the last tribute from his mentee, Atul Tiwari, in the form of this book. It was launched on the filmmaker’s birthday on December 14 and he enjoyed its celebration among his friends and family. Tiwari should consider himself very fortunate that he could present this special gift to his mentor in his life.

The book, which the author himself considers neither a scholarly work nor a conventional biography, is divided into seven sections, covering aspects of the life of Benegal, the person as well as the filmmaker, mostly based on the author’s own interactions with the maestro and the latter’s views on art, history and cinema. In his book, the author says that it is “not a chronological journey through Shyam Benegal’s films. Rather I am going to talk about his cinema, his concerns, his aesthetics, his world view, his stylistic experiments and his work in myriad genres and his life.”

An unconventional biography of Shyam Benegal by a longtime collaborator and mentee, provides rich information on the filmmaker and his world view

In the first chapter, ‘A Story Well Told’, Tiwari explains the concept of parallel cinema, art films or the ‘new wave’ films Benegal was known for. About this form of cinema, Benegal says, “I don’t know if there is such a thing as ‘new wave’. Let me put it this way: some people now attempt to make films of their choice, different from the industry’s mould.”

The book narrates that Ankur (1974), Benegal’s debut feature film, is based on a short story he had written for his college magazine. To Tiwari, it set a template to which Benegal returned repeatedly in his film career. “Ankur also brought to the fore a number of new actors, including the trailblazer Shabana Azmi, who won the National Award for her debut in this film.”

Ankur was followed by Nishant (1975). The author points out that, in the film, Benegal refrained from sensationalising the sexual exploitation of the woman, played by Shabana, saying that he had refused to objectify the woman, as often happened in mainstream Indian cinema. The film went to Cannes in 1976 and Benegal, who had not much of a publicity budget, asked Shabana and Smita Patil to don sarees to walk the promenade. They say all eyes turned to them and the Indian film industry owing to their outfits.

Benegal’s father had a photography studio in Secunderabad near Hyderabad. His father had a passion for paintings, too, and his elder brother was a known painter in Calcutta. He used to play with an 8mm camera and learnt the skill of developing film and printing on photo paper. As a child, he used to watch film clips shot by his father on a convertible projector. Guru Dutt was his cousin, which also might have played a role in his bent towards the art of films.

In the author’s words, Benegal introduced more new actors to Indian cinema than anyone else, including Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Priya Tendulkar, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Nafisa Ali, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Rajit Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and many others. Some of these actors acted first in Bharat Ek Khoj, a 52-episode TV drama, based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s book The Discovery of India, covering 5,000 years of Indian history.

Tiwari’s book tells interesting anecdotes. For example, the main lead of Ankur, Anant Nag, had only accompanied someone else who Benegal had called for a camera test, but he eventually chose Anant who had done no camera test. Similarly, Shabana was brought to Benegal’s office by Zarina Wahab. “Shabana was selected while Zarina could not land the role and she did not talk to Shabana all her life, thinking she had stolen the main role from her. Shabana was just tagging along [with] her to visit his office,” writes Tiwari.

According to him, Benegal always believed in long-term relationships with his team members, including actors, writers, cameramen, editors, sound engineers, art directors and other associates. Tiwari himself remained associated with Benegal as a writer, along with Shama Zaidi, for most of his historical films.

The book explains how Benegal experimented with form, genres and narratives in his films. In Arohan (1982), he used the Brechtian technique of drama, where Om Puri broke the fourth wall and talked to the audience directly as he introduced the cast and the crew. Then there was the film within a film, just like the Shakespearean play within a play, in Samar (1998), as he took on the caste question.

The author clears the conception that Benegal only survived on government funding and support for his films, pointing out that the filmmaker did not take any money from the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) for the first 20 years of his feature film career. His first two films were produced by Blaze Films, which was the biggest producer of ad films in the country, while his third film, Manthan, was produced with a contribution of two rupees each by 0.5m farmers of the Gujarat Milk Federation. Another film, Susman, was produced by the association of cooperatives of handloom weavers.

Tiwari writes, “Benegal’s engagement with human condition, his social concerns, compassion for the people with weaknesses and frailties — be it economic and gender-generated, casted-based or others — have distinguished his cinematic vision in each of his films.”

It’s a fact that women-centric themes brought the best out of Benegal; whether it was in Ankur, Nishant, Bhumika, Mandi, Hari Bhari or Zubeidaa, he dealt with gender issues and women characters in a very direct way. He is quoted as saying, “A film must provide an artistic experience and have a kind of social communication.”

The chapter, ‘A gateway to cinema — a conversation with Shyam Benegal’, is a 22-page-long interview with Benegal done by Tiwari himself that they had recorded for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. In the interview, they discuss language, the art of filmmaking, themes, and how some of the films came about. The interview also details a docudrama that Benegal had made in Punjabi on the freedom movement, starting from the times of Ranjit Singh till the present day, and contains anecdotes related to actors such as Rekha and Shashi Kapoor and behind-the-scenes stories.

Eight years before his death, Benegal had donated all his books, in about 100 boxes, to the library of the IGNCA, while all his old film tapes and other material related to films went to the library of the Film Heritage Foundation, where the print of Manthan was digitally restored. The restored version of the film was screened at Cannes last year, getting a standing ovation.

The reviewer is a member of staff.

X: @IrfaanAslam

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, May 4th, 2025