ANKUR (1974)

Shyam Benegal’s cinema touched upon sexual and socio-economic subjugation of women but also strongly brought in an element of female empowerment. That was evident right from his first film.

Ankur, which introduced a luminous Shabana Azmi, heralded the arrival of Benegal, and is a film that rightly deserves its spot in the top 10 classics of the Indian arthouse canon. Through Lakshmi (Azmi), a domestic help who gets impregnated by her rich employer and then abandoned, Benegal, who died on Monday, presented a woman at the intersection of the multifold alienation of oppression — a poor, uneducated woman from a lower caste who is dependent on various agents of the patriarchal system to sustain her survival. However, right from the beginning, Benegal chooses to frame Lakshmi in a way that refuses to look at her as a victim. Even in the most dire circumstances, he empowers her with agency, something she carries through the whole film.

MANTHAN (1976)

Made in the middle of the Emergency, India’s first crowd-funded film was built around the story of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation and the Amul revolution brought on by ‘Milkman’ Verghese Kurien. In Manthan, Benegal tore open the class and caste structures that make the democratic process difficult to realise at the grassroots, with the filmmaker finding strong allies in writers Kaifi Azmi and Vijay Tendulkar.

While Manthan was not really aimed at being a character study, one cannot deny the powerful presence of Smita Patil as the feisty Bindu, whose raw and reckless feminism makes her a standout. When we first meet Bindu, she pops out of her hut and responds to Rao’s (Girish Karnad) inquiry to her son about his ‘baap’ by snarling, “Baap ahiyan hai. Tamare ko kya chahiye?” A smouldering performance, albeit short.

BHUMIKA (1977)

A year later, Benegal was back with Smita Patil in Bhumika, with the actress at the front and centre of the film. Based on the life of Hansa Wadkar, a Marathi stage and screen actress from the 1940s, Patil brought in a layered portrayal of Usha, a troubled actor, and followed her life from childhood to adulthood, tracing her trials and tribulations, her coming of age, her relationships with different men, her despair, and finally her self-acceptance.

Patil is exceptional, depicting the predicament of a woman who plays many characters but is unable to ever play herself. Her expressive eyes and stark silences make Usha a much celebrated yet very unhappy woman, one of the most memorable characters in Indian cinema.

MANDI (1983)

Long before Bhansali’s Heeramandi, there was Benegal’s Mandi. The brothel that the women in Mandi inhabit is a world in itself, peopled with characters who are distinct from one another. Mandi explores the hypocrisy of society, but is more of a satirical comedy than a film stuffed with social commentary. Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil explode on screen in this 1983 classic, with each frame painting an evocative picture. Azmi is particularly brilliant as the ageing madam of a brothel. Her range from seductive to maternal, crude to poetic is a masterclass. “Hum hain toh samaaj hain,” still hits home.

MAMMO (1994)

The lingering effects of Partition come vividly alive in Mammo, for most the best film in Benegal’s ‘Muslim social’ trilogy. Farida Jalal is emphatic in the title role as a woman torn asunder by the division of the country. The film has drama, comedy and moments of joy as well as jeopardy, all embodied through the character of Mammo, with Jalal turning in a career-best performance. Surekha Sikri as Mammo’s harried sister Faiyyazi is just as impactful.

Mammo remains a landmark film in Benegal’s career, particularly because it takes forward his interest in telling the stories of Indian women, offering a voice to subaltern lives which are continually blotted out in the mainstream.

ZUBEIDAA (2001)

Zubeidaa, played with heart and honesty by Karisma Kapoor, is one of Benegal’s most complex, tragic heroines. A riveting tale of love, loss and legacy, Zubeidaa fundamentally touches upon a woman’s hopeless quest for love. Benegal painted Zubeidaa — based on a real-life character — as an emotional, spirited and rebellious woman through the various stages in her life, making her presence and voice felt even when the men around her constantly try to tie her down. A true Benegal heroine.