It would require Shyam Benegal’s brilliance and accuracy to encapsulate concisely the art and craftsmanship, the skills and craft of Benegal, the master of parallel cinema. He disliked the expression ‘middle cinema’. This is probably a grammatical sensitivity that characterised the art world of Benegal. He ideologically found himself at war with the mainstream interpretation of glamour, gloss and grotesque, all in the name of cinema.
Arguably, he wasn’t the first. However, unlike a Bimal Roy or Satyen Bose, he strove to place his path very distinctly differently. His cinema initially or even substantially was unapologetically political, politics not even like, Mein Azaad Hoon or Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.
His politics were seemingly Marxian and thus perhaps seeped in economics more than politics. As a postgraduate in economics, he understood the verticals of economics in a feudal backdrop in the 60’s and 70’s. We must note that Benegal is a product of Nehruvian India.
It must necessarily be acknowledged that Benegal’s cinema, like a Sourav Ganguly team, was about individual brilliance matched with the understanding that teamwork is imperative. He has worked of course with the likes of Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Supriya Pathak, Surekha Sikri, Farida Jalal, Leela Naidu, Anita Kanwar, Vanisri from the south Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anant Nag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Amrish Puri, Amol Palekar to name some.
Vanraj Bhatia was to him what probably Shanker-Jaikishan was to Raj Kapoor or S.D. Burman to Navketan. Except Well Done Abba, which had Shantanu Moitra, and A.R. Rehman, invariably the simplicity of Vanraj Bhatia became the signature of Benegal.
Govind Nihlani was his go-to cinematographer. The other master craftsman who worked with him was Ashok Mehta (Susman). Cinema many perceive as the grandeur on screen. It is actually glanular on paper. His scripting team included Vijay Tendulkar, Satyadev Dube, Shamma Zaidi, Khalid Mohammad, Girish Karnad, Ismat Chugtai, Kaifi Azmi and Ruskin Bond.
Essentially the sensitivity of Benegal reflected in the quality of his team, their nuanced understanding of what good cinema is about.
