Bio-Profile of an Avant-garde Film Maker

The book by Arjun Sengupta who teaches English Literature at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, is thematically structured with a pithy Preface followed by a comprehensive introduction and ten chapters. Writing about the kind of films directed by Benegal, the author says he does not like to typecast him in the category of parallel cinema as contrasted with the box office movies, and quotes Benegal who opines such classification arbitrary and a kind of caste system. His movies reflect social inequities and injustices. Benegal indisputably occupies a unique position in the film industry of the country. Predominantly, he portrayed people and their pathos at the receiving end including at the subaltern level, although he made films of other variants as well. Sengupta writes that Benegal’s deep compassion for the exploited and the downtrodden goaded him to transcend regional limitations and search for stories on a pan India canvas. Although he was deeply influenced by Satyajit Ray,