"Stories of Women": Shyam Benegal
An overview of the role of women in Indian society through four feature films by director Shyam Benegal. Tales of oppression and the struggle for freedom, values and rights are told by a filmmaker committed to social causes and intimately familiar with human nature. An open discussion will follow each screening session.
"Benegal has put up a model of committed film-making in a thoroughly professional manner that could be eminently useful for both the mainstream, with its recklessly expensive habits, and art cinema, with its holier-than-thou attitude and amateurism."
Each of his films has brought him closer to people and their realities. His craft is an exercise in self-education about diversity of life around us, and taking pride in achieving small things and celebrating them in a big way. Benegal's films have pivoted around the contemporary Indian experience of inherent problems and their solutions in the development process and social changes. He was influenced by Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak in his early days, and his founding of the Hyderabad Film Society at university and subsequent association with the Calcutta Film Society broadened his ideological persuasion and sensibilities.
After the death of Satyajit Ray, Benegal is undoubtedly India's greatest living film director.
Curated by: Qazi Abdur Rahim, director of the Imagineindia International Film Festival.
