Director Shyam Benegal, who created a brand new idiom for Hindi cinema and was one of many main figures of the parallel cinema motion, died in Mumbai on Monday night from kidney-related problems, his daughter Pia Benegal informed information company PTI. He was 90.
Benegal, who was filmmaker Guru Dutt’s cousin, began his profession as an advert filmmaker earlier than occurring to make genre-defining movies akin to Ankur, Manthan, Mandi, Nishant, Junoon amongst others. He launched the careers of Shabana Azmi, and Smita Patil (in her first break as main girl). A bunch of sensible actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Sadhu Meher who would have in any other case been misplaced within the tinsel of Bollywood, discovered their metier working for Benegal by way of the Seventies and the Nineteen Eighties. In response to a query about how he outlined his type of movies, Benegal informed HT in an interview final yr, “I hate the time period center of the street cinema. I’d say my cinema appeals to the city, middle-class literate viewers who doesn’t should be spoon-fed.”
Additionally learn | This Shyam Benegal movie was shot in 28 days, did silver jubilee in a theatre; starred Shabana Azmi
By his movies, he grappled with the massive questions that India grappled with, from feudalism, the cooperative sector, the battle of 1857. In later years his cinematic arc moved from the Nehruvian mission in Bharat Ek Khoj, to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s life to Ambedkar’s and creation of the Indian structure.
Born in Secunderabad, Shyam babu, as he was extensively recognized, recalled within the HT interview how his father, an novice filmmaker, would shoot one thing like a house video for every of his ten kids. “Each baby had a movie dedicated to them till the subsequent baby got here alongside. So, it will invariably imply that from our start till we have been round two or two and-a-half-years previous, every of us starred in a film shot by our father.” The love for cinema was handed on to his kids. Benegal’s older brother and he shot a brief movie which they known as Chuttiyon Mein Mauj Maza (Enjoyable within the holidays) when he was simply 8 and his brother was 12.
Additionally learn | Shyam Benegal dies: Manoj Bajpayee and Shekhar Kapur mourn demise of veteran filmmaker, name him ‘legend’
Benegal who graduated from Osmania College moved to Mumbai within the 60s the place he first labored as a copywriter and a prolific director. He shot shut 900 commercials, made 11 company movies earlier than transferring on to options. He was chairman of the Movie and Tv Institute in Pune for 2 consecutive phrases and received 18 Nationwide Awards over his profession that spanned six many years.
Benegal’s strongest cinematic affect got here not from his cousin Guru Dutt’s emotion-saturated motion pictures however from Satyajit Ray’s cinema of neo-realism. He found Pather Pachali on a visit to Kolkata in 1955 to symbolize his faculty at an inter-collegiate swimming competitors. “My life and my imaginative and prescient modified after watching that movie,” he had stated.
Additionally learn | From Ankur to Zubeidaa: Remembering Shyam Benegal by way of his 10 most iconic movies
Advert filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar who was a part of Benegal’s ninetieth birthday celebration in Mumbai on December 14, stated he had misplaced his “guru.” “His ninetieth birthday was an amazing occasion. Shabana (Azmi), Kulbhushan (Kharbanda), Naseer and an entire lot of different actors, huge and small, have been all there to pay their respects to the clan chief. Shyambabu’s demise is a collective loss for world cinema,” he stated.
Along with his 18 Nationwide Awards, Shyama Benegal was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012. He’s survived by his spouse Nira and daughter Pia.
