Book excerpt: Shyam Benegal’s greatest subject is India itself

His quest for the truth and obsessive interrogation of social realities through the story of the individual have at times been dominant over his artistic skill and craft. The emphasis has always been so much on what he has to say that it is easy to neglect how he constructs his films. In his early films, one is struck by the extreme economy of his storytelling. He is spartan in his camera movements and editing, his scenes constructed through as few details as possible.

Benegal had made hundreds of advertisement films before his first feature film. He had learnt the virtue of getting his point across in the shortest period of time, and this shows in his early work. He rarely draws attention to his craft, avoids any kind of flourish, and concentrates on layering each scene with levels of significant information in the most succinct manner possible. This gave an unusual intensity to these films, where the stories gained in effect due to the stark simplicity of their design.

He began to experiment with greater freedom in his later films. He started playing with the traditional ways of telling a story. There are sudden irruptions of the supernatural in Trikaal, which otherwise maintains...

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