In contemporary Indian cinema, Mr. Shyam Benegal belongs to a select tribe of intellectual and sensitive directors. In this Tagore Memorial Oration, we had a real glimpse of the personality, who has been trying valiantly for so many years, to exist with his kind of work branded as “alternative or parallel cinema” (terms, which by the way, he thinks simply ridiculous).
The lecture was organised by the Management Center of Human Values and sponsored by National Mineral Development Corporation Limited. Mr. Raghavan, the representative of the organisation, spoke on the importance of human values and IIM Calcutta’s role through the Management Center for Human Values to advance it.
After an introduction by the members of the faculty the lecture began with a definition of the topic. In speaking of tradition, Mr. Benegal drew on the historical roots of Indian cinema, which derived its form from the north Indian “Nautanki” and Parsi Urdu theatre culture from the early parts of this century.
The lecture then dwelled upon the historical roots of modernity and the virtues and thoughts associated with modernity – liberty, equality, fraternity, rationality, democracy, nationalism and secularism. He described the Modernity project which in India spread its wings through the Bengal Renaissance and the many proponents like Raja Ram Mohan Ray. Tagore was the most influential thinker of this period and he often lamented about the need to have a modern form of expression beyond cinema.
The director then classified the period of Satyajit Ray as a landmark epoch when modern sensibilities were independently portrayed by a director who understood the language and vocabulary of modernity. He brought out a genuine aesthetic which was drawn from the traditional but with a modern, socialistic, liberal viewpoint. Rays films were not necessarily entertaining, but they were engaging in attention and stimulated the audience to think. This was a rebellion against the rigidity of form in conventional cinema, which used to be till then, a narrative or dramatic unfolding of events.
The 80’s saw the tradition of making cinema suited to diverse sensibilities continue with the work of Mr. Benegal and his contemporaries like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. It was a difficult choice to make in the 80’s as a novice director, Mr. Benegal remarked, to avoid the hegemonistic influence of Bollywood in controlling the discourse and form of films. Modern sensibilities still did not make for the recipe of popular cinema as modernity had not really seeped into the society which continued to be largely upholding traditional values.
Indian cinema, Mr. Benegal observed, has taken a leap into Post Modernity without having to deal with the uncomfortable problems of modernity. Ending his lecture on a note of scathing criticism, he remarked that ‘Bunty aur Bubli’ with its synthetic idea of a good life in 5 star hotel rooms, night life and designer clothes, was a perfect example of the Post Modern in Indian cinema, which sees the complete annihilation of rural India or any of the traditional values it upheld.
The function ended with a valedictory address by the Dean of IIM Calcutta Professor Anup Sinha, who turned out to be surprisingly well conversant with the theories of cinema! The audience then indulged for a few more minutes with a question and answer session with Mr. Benegal, on topics as diverse as the reason for ‘Bose: A forgotten Hero’ not doing well at the box office to his opinion on how multiplexes with their niche pricing have made it easier for directors like him to reach his target audience. All in all, the event was a heady mixture of erudite and critical analysis which held the audience as engaged as the august directors multiple award winning films do.