I see the flaws in my films too easily: Benegal

CINEMASCOPE: Benegal says a filmmaker must invite viewers, not scare them away.

          

Other stories in the section:

Farhan Akhtar's Don 2 to go on floors next year

Farhan Akhtar confirmed the news that he is making a sequel to Don - The Chase Begins.

• God Tussi Great Ho banned in UAE
• Singh is Kinng invited to Toronto International Festival

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Farhan Akhtar's Don 2 to go on floors next year
• God Tussi Great Ho banned in UAE
• Singh is Kinng invited to Toronto International Festival

Keywords: Films , Cinema

Shyam Benegal: That’s because I do believe that we should look at–that these things should not get off our sight-lens. Not only are they part of our world, it’s a huge part of our world. And when we talk about tradition and modernity and movement from tradition to modernity, and how to reconcile our traditions that we do not wish to lose with the kind modernity we are going ahead with–all these questions that constantly people worry about, and our cinemas, our cinemas, our saas-bahu serials and soap operas always lauding traditions but nobody being really traditional out there. Somehow, we have relegated the village to a penumbral darkness.

Anuradha SenGupta: In your new film–it’s a sort of comic satire–so you are not looking at the kind of conflicts, the kind of –

Shyam Benegal: I am! I am looking at everything.

Anuradha SenGupta: But with a different brush?

Shyam Benegal: But with a different brush. 30 years ago, 35 years ago, when I was making films, audiences, young audiences would be willing to look at something serious and take it home with them. Now you reject everything like that. Suddenly, you say I don’t want to see anything that is grim, I don’t want to see anything that is going to give me a bad night. Then you have to find strategies to bring that back into your consciousness, but you have to use different strategies. You can’t use the same strategies that you may have used 35-30 years ago. Because today if you use that, there’s a blank wall.

And yet, Shyam Benegal is certain that cinema is not just a fun thing, not just time-pass. His movies reflect his deep intellectual engagement with the world and his eclectic upbringing. He remembers a childhood where his father, a still photographer, would make home films with a Bolex camera. And passionate dinner-table discussions with siblings and visiting relatives.