Shyam Benegal would have made a great teacher of communications if he had not blossomed into one of India’s most eminent directors. As is common to a large body of work made over a period, there is unevenness but what almost all of Benegal’s films share is the ability to connect with the viewer. He can convey the underlying theme that drives the narrative – be it the simple need for women’s empowerment with regard to their fertility in Hari Bhari, a cause film if there ever was one, or the complexity of critiquing the very art of narrative even as the story is being told with such engaging intelligence in Suraj Ka Satwa Ghoda. It is a rare, often overlooked virtue because it could get facile in lesser hands who don’t have the passion to pursue different ways of telling a story with integrity and basic respect for the viewer’s intelligence. 

Heir to Hyderabad’s syncretic culture where the North and South meet and mingle in a variety of delightful ways, Benegal explored this rich load in Ankur and Nishant. The many faces of feudalism were explored through the sexual exploitation of women – Shabana Azmi as the servant entering a liaison with the master in Ankur and as the kidnapped wife of a gentle school teacher who becomes emotionally bound to her abductor in Nishant – without reducing the men to cardboard villainy. Manthan has the unique privilege of being the first film produced by members of a milk co-operative and Benegal goes beyond the documentary to bring alive the caste and sexual tensions of a Gujarat village. The prerequisite of a Benegal film is that it always sounds right . The Deccani of Ankur, Nishant and the rambunctious brothel comedy Mandi is rustic and sweet, with its admixture of Telugu and Urdu while Manthan includes Gujerati inflections into its speech with spontaneity. His ambitious period film Junoon was again faithful to the Bundelkhandi idiom. Benegal has the gift of amplifying the theme – the larger political struggle against the British in Junoon and the extraordinary felicity with which he recasts the Mahabharath conflict into a modern day Karna’s tragedy in Kalyug. Bhumika remains a landmark for the irony of an actress struggling to find her role in life, limned by Smita Patil’s power-packed performance.

Benegal has ventured beyond the safe confines of realism in complex film- within- film structures of Samar and the multiple narratives of Suraj Ka Satwa GhodaI and Sardari Begum. He infuses the bio pic (The Making of the Mahatma and Subhash Chandra Bose, the Forgotten Hero ) with insights into the evolution of the iconic person in focus. The Making of the Mahatma is truly that rare thing, an intimate epic. Benegal is of course the great discoverer of talent. The iconic quartet of our New Cinema flourished in his films as did a whole generation of actors who have redefined ensemble acting in Indian cinema.