New Delhi:
The year was 1976. India was moving towards a new kind of cinema, a cinema that was irreverent but with its own sensibilities and sensibilities. Shyam Benegal, the 42-year-old director who sowed the seeds of silent revolution in films sprout A few years ago, he had his big international moment. Benegal was in Cannes. This is back when the film festival was a true-blue film festival and not a L’Oréal fashion parade.
NishantThe film, directed by Shyam Benegal, was in competition at Cannes. When the film was sent to the festival, it was accompanied by some NDFC (National Film Development Corporation) posters.
The posters never reached Cannes. The director and his two slim, dark heroines did so.
No one knew who this trio of Indians were or what they were doing on the French Riviera so many miles from home. But when Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi paraded down the beach at Cannes that morning in their finest ‘South Indian sarees’, the world of cinema took notice. Desi had come.
Shabana Azmi later told writer Maithili Rao, “In a place where we had no money and everyone was having grand parties, Shyam came up with this unique idea. He said, ‘I want both of you [Azmi and Patil] Wearing your best South Indian sarees and going for a walk from eight in the morning.’ So there we were, parading around in our silk sarees, where everyone else was in beachwear! We were such a sight! Whenever anyone would look at us, we would grab them and say, ‘We have a screening at a certain time, please come.’ We were our own walking advertisement and we got huge numbers of people in the theatre. This was the only way Smita and I could get attention. We had no money at all to promote the film!” (Smita Patil: A Brief Inspiration, HarperCollins 2015)
Not surprisingly, when Benegal pitched this idea to Shabana and Smita, Smita was at a loss for words. They didn’t have those silk sarees that Benegal was talking about!
So, the director had another solution to the plum problem. He suggested she go to Uma da Cunha, a renowned critic, film programmer and publicist.
He was Shyam Benegal.
Edman Benegal’s advertising skills were unmatched. Of course, he had spent years writing copy for an advertising agency sprout Films took shape in his mind.
He came into limelight with his first feature film in 1973. sprout, Which introduced actors Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag to the world. Three films came after this sprout , Nishant (1975), churn (1976), and Role (1977) – A new era in Indian film production began. This was the birth of new cinema in India.
In the seventies, Benegal gave many actor-stars to Indian films. Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Om Puri, Mohan Agashe, Neena Gupta are some of the more prominent names of the Benegal school.
Working conditions in Benegal’s films were not ideal. There were no vanity vans or the luxury of fancy five-star hotels. Benegal did everything on the film – carrying lights, serving food, overseeing editing, pitching in whenever necessary (or not). There were no star-studded tantrums, no unapproachable actors. The idea was to be part of a film that all these actors believed in.
Working with Shyam Benegal also meant that no actor was small or big. These were mass films in which actors of this new world order played long and short roles, even small roles without any problem. The actors who worked in these films often did so for free. The best for little money. He worked with Benegal because he wanted to work with him. It was an act of faith and they all jumped right into it.
So, when Benegal pitted Shabana Azmi against Smita Patil NishantHe knew what he was doing. NishantMeaning Night’s End, known for its female lead roles. Shabana got more screentime and the script worked heavily in her favor. This was never an issue for Smita, who was in the film for Shyam Benegal. This was also his first feature film.
Nishant’s Day Out at Cannes was a two-film old director with two new actors. Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah both made their debut NishantThe rest of the cast included an amazing list of actors: Shabana Azmi, Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri, Mohan Agashe, Anant Nag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sadhu Mehar!
Nishant It was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes 1976 and, back home, won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
It was Shyam Benegal who paved the way for a brave new world of filmmaking. End of the night, for a new dawn in Indian cinema.
