Shyam Benegal: filmmaker and philosopher
- London Bloomsbury Academic 2021
- viii, 200 p. Includes index and bibliography
Table of Contents
Prelims Preface 1. Introduction 2. Ankur, Nishant, Manthan: The Uprising Trilogy 3. An Indian Feminist –I: Bhumika, Mandi 4. An Indian Feminist – II: The Muslim Women Trilogy – Mammo, Zubeidaa, Sardari Begum 5. The Fabulist – Junoon, Suraj ka Satwan Ghoda, Kondura, Kalyug Bibliography Index
For over forty years, Shyam Benegal has been one of the leading forces in Indian cinema. Informed by a rich political and philosophical sensibility and a mastery of the art and craft of filmmaking, Benegal is both of, and not of, Bollywood. As a philosophical filmmaker, Benegal brings to life the existential crisis of the downtrodden Indian, the 'subaltern' if you will-the serf, the peasant, the woman-and imposes a distinctive philosophical vision on his cinematic reworkings of literary products. To understand Benegal's cinema is to understand, through his lens, modern India's continued process of political and social becoming.