Shyam Benegal

<p>For over forty years Shyam Benegal has been one 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. <p/>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. <p/>Focusing on the philosophical depth of Benegal's oueuvre Samir Chopra identifies three key aspects of his work: <p/>- A trio of films which signalled to middle-class India that a revolt was brewing in India's hinterlands <p/>- Two sets of movies which make powerful feminist statements and bring viewers into the lives of Indian women by showcasing strong interesting female characters <p/>- Benegal the master storyteller who possessed of a unique fabulist style in a reboot of the Indian epic Mahabharata a Ruskin Bond novel set during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and a Rashomon-like retelling of an Indian experimental novel where three perspectives converge to form a unified whole</p>