Shyam Benegal: The filmmaker who redefined social storytelling

Shyam Benegal, one of India's most celebrated filmmakers, seamlessly blended fiction with reality in his cinematic storytelling. His work, known for its nuanced portrayal of social issues and its deep commitment to truth, often presented through the lens of fiction, has left an indelible mark on Indian cinema. Ramesh Tekwani, a creative director with a background in advertising, recalls his experiences working with Benegal and reflects on the lasting influence the filmmaker had on his approach to storytelling.

Life plays tricks. I had dropped in at Shyam Benegal’s office early this month; on his birthday eve to be precise. I was in Tardeo and lazy me tried to make it a two-in-one visit. I had made it a habit to visit him whenever I was in the vicinity only this time, I was told he had not come in. Nobody elaborated why.

A few days later, I saw Govind Nihalani on Facebook with a fan and both seemed to be in a cheerful mood. This, in turn, made me smile. He was not responding to my phone calls but here he was may not be larger than life but certainly not beaten and alive. Govind had shot Ankur for Benegal along with several others.

Oddly enough, I had not seen Ankur as a Shyam Benegal film but as a Shabana Azmi film who was a co-Xavierite and an active member of the Sangeet Mandal. I was an active observer even then. The word stalker had yet to be invented. Being shyish, I maintained my distance and never intruded. As I recall, Shabana’s  distinctive feature was a big bindi on her forehead a la Lalita Shastri, wife of  Lal Bahadur Shastri, wife of the former Prime Minister of India, Dina Pathak, Ratna Pathak’s mother, Dolly Thakore and the radiant Usha Uthup.

Benegal came into my life as an ad film director who collaborated with Trio Films. Owned by G B Ghanekar Trio Films produced films on behalf of advertising agencies. Trio Films later morphed into Film Five and Benegal continued to share space with the Ghanekars even after he set up his own unit Shyam Benegal Sahyadri Films.

I first met Benegal in 1976 in his office in Jyoti Studio which was located at Nana Chowk in Mumbai. A wooden structure of colonial vintage incongruously located amongst the faceless, brick and mortar, box-like, midrise structures that pre-dated the high-rise explosion. Inside, I saw no large, officious table – round, rectangular or oblong – other than one, modestly sized, set against wall, modestly sized. Benegal sat with his back to this table. He stood up to welcome us. Two chairs were already in place for us, the agency people, the account executive and I, the copywriter-cum-films person, the first of my kind for Clarion Advertising, but that is another story, for another day. We sat in this informal triangular setting each one facing the other, no him and us, just we.

He extended his hand and the executive handed him the script, he slipped on reading glasses and placed them on his nose just above his nostrils and adjusted them simultaneously behind his ears , his eyes scanned the page through a vertical movement of the eyeball and then raised his eyelids to look above the glasses; nodding to the executive, as he turned towards me “So, how do you see it?” This was not the first time a film was being made for Forhans toothpaste nor was it the first time his company making the film. There was a communication template and he was well-versed with it. This was yet another version and he wanted my take on it; as director he wanted to get the story from the writer, me.

He listened, intently, I did fumble a bit towards the end, closing abruptly with “then we have the product pack shot” to which he quizzed “what about the product pack shot? Tell me, does the end hold a visual promise to motivate the viewer? The end of the story has to be as exciting as the beginning ”.

This led to an extended discussion to his satisfaction and as we got up to leave his parting advice was simple “do not let the writer in you be distracted or bullied in any way by anybody. You tell your story your way and let us take it from there. “Kuchh to hamare liye bhi chhodo na, karne ko (leave something for me to do also).” Unknowingly, he had planted the seeds of a storyteller in me and thus began a relationship that lasted till current times.

I did see his subsequent films and revisited Ankur, this time as a film by Shyam Benegal. This film was produced by Lalit Bijlani and Freny Variava the owners of Blaze, the company which handled distribution of advertising film reels to cinema halls all across India to be screened before the main film. There is no Blaze today and all films are delivered as secure, encrypted digital files.

Benegal himself was an “agency man” having worked with Lintas and ASP. He learnt his film making on the job and it is said, he made over 900 documentaries and ad films during his stint at ASP.

During one of the agency assignments for the dairy co-operative movement in Gujarat, Benegal shared the story of Manthan with his client. This was a feature film involving the lives of the milk producers in the co-operative. The client loved the story, however, Shyam Benegal lamented that there was no money to make the film. The never-say-die client, now suitably enthused, saw no insurmountable problem. He assured Benegal that he would get his money. And thus began the financing of this film that created a unique story in its own.

The client mobilised his entire contingent of members at the milk co-operative and got every member to contribute two rupees each as an investment in the film, to become its producer. Thus , half-a-million and more milk farmers became the producers of Manthan  making it the world’s first crowd-funded film. I believe the number of contributors has yet to be surpassed.

Once ready, these farmers all went to the film with their families and friends. Their unprecedented footfalls synergised other footfalls all around, making the film a thumping success not just for Benegal but also for the investing milk farmers who got rich dividends for their two rupees; quite justifying the faith the client had reposed in Benegal.

Through his many films, Benegal inducted new talent into the industry, gave recognition to good but languishing talent into the industry through his films. Artistes and technicians. Anant Nag, Shabana Azmi, Govind Nihalani, Nasiruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Preeti Sagar and more. Despite sharing a relationship with Vanraj Bhatia for several years he sought out A R Rahman for his hitherto unheard kind of music for Zubeida and some other films. Everyone who came in touch with Benegal took with them a little bit of Benegal and became all the better for it.

In those days, Rajkamal Kala Mandir, the film complex set up by the legendary film maker  V Shantaram, was the go-to place for every film maker worth his salt for the re-mixing of their films because it boasted of Mangesh Desai who was, then, worshipped as the god of re-mixing. Benegal, who wanted nothing but the best for his films, was no exception.

Day end tea sessions often involved discussions with the studio head Kiran Shantaram and Sudhir Nandgaonkar, head of FIPRESCI India. In one of those discussions was born the idea of Mumbai’s own film festival under the aegis of MAMI, Mumbai Academy of Moving Images. Mumbai’s own film festival. By throwing his weight as Chairman, Benegal lent credence to the festival as a Mumbai Festival of the industry by the industry, big names such as Yash Chopra lent their names others offered more.  Shantaram the operating base with all its privileges. Manmohan Shetty gave his Imax screens as the festival venue. Together with Nandgaonkar, Benegal offered an unmatchable curated movie fare from across the world – all formats, durations and genres –  much to the delight of cine goers who trek from across the world for the festival often treating it as their cine pilgrimage.

Active till the very end, his last film was Mujib: The Making of a Nation which released in 2023, was based on the life of the founder of Bangladesh. It was an Indo-Bangladesh co-production. Where the world saw a divide, he saw a bridge.

As I re-visited Benegal’s, every now and then, I saw a film maker who spotlighted social issues nonchalantly without the artificial sparkle nor the gloom where the cinema screen in the darkened hall became an enlarged peep show where we saw a slice of real life and they did not know we were watching them.

It was only in the later years, long after I had quit Clarion Advertising and continued to visit Benegal in his office, that our discussions went beyond fiction film. I asked how is it that you can make fiction features, ad films, documentaries and shorts with equal ease. He responded in a lighter vein. All films display reality. Truth being hard to swallow, Ramesh, we give it the garb of fiction.

 

(By Ramesh Tekwani, Creative Director with a background in advertising . The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Media India Group.)