 |
Shyam Benegal visits IIM Calcutta
Date: September 23rd, 2005 In contemporary Indian cinema, Mr. Shyam Benegal belongs to a select tribe of intellectual and sensitive directors. He has always tried to avoid the stifling dominances of Bollywood and to emerge with cinema as a form of expression of the realities of Indian society. 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). Working under the aegis of Bollywood, where "popular cinema" is a recipe for commercial success and the definition of popular cinema is a trite mixture of human emotions, Mr. Benegal often found that cinema which did not cater to the collective daydream or fantasy of the Indian masses, could be rudely rejected by the box-office. But inspite of his unconventional presentation, he along with a bunch of contemporary directors, did succeed in placing serious Indian cinema on the world map, even though it is branded as art cinema at home. 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. In this form, there is a tendency of providing entertainment through an amalgamation of the nine basic human emotions. There is also a propensity to simplify every character and event into "good" or "bad", not allowing any shades of gray to exist. Hindi cinema also trivialized events, including social transformations, outright into good or bad. It provided fodder for the masses "collective fantasia" - a sensory experience, basic emotions being the lowest denominator of appeal for the maximum population. The predominance of music and dance was also an effort to provide entertainment in this same way and often the purpose of cinema. In some extreme cases, the plot or the story was subjugated to the role of a thread tying together the various dance numbers. In fact the director criticized the return of this predominance of song and dance in cinema and said that most films today could be called "music videos peppered with action and dialogue"! Contributed by - |
 |
|
|