Conflict (Samar)

Benegal returns to his prime concern about caste conflict and power. A film unit arrive in a small village to reconstruct an incident in which a low caste peasant is humiliated by the landlord. Events move fast to expose deep-seated caste prejudices amongst the urban crew members. Financed by the Ministry of Human Welfare, the film occasionally borders on the pragmatic. Marked by a strong script by Ashok Mishra, the award-winning Samar questions the notion of progress with a film-within-film structure.

India 1999. With Rajit Kapur, Rajeshawari, Kishore Kadam, Seema Biswas. 125 mins.

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Making of The Mahatma

Made in two versions (English and Hindi), this is a biopic about Gandhi's early career in South Africa where he emerged as leader of the Indian community. This is the formative period before he became the 'Mahatma' or apostle of non-violence. Made in India and South Africa, Benegal masterfully alternates an intimate drama of conflict and panoramic sweeps of history, as in the reconstruction of the Boer war.

India-South Africa 1995. With Rajit Kapoor.147 mins.

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Past, Present and Future

Benegal explores Portuguese culture in colonial Goa just before its liberation in 1961. Middle-aged Ruiz Pereira returns to Goa after 20 years to visit the mansion in which he spent much of his youth. Flashbacks introduce the matriarch Dona Maria who denies her husband's death by retreating into the past and conjuring spirits through séance sessions. Turning to this Portuguese inheritance, a little known chapter in Indian history, Benegal turns away from the Raj nostalgia films. Brilliantly photographed by Ashok Mehta, the top-lit and candle light scenes evoke nostalgia about a past truly lost to Indian culture. 'Benegal's most subtle attempt to illuminate the present by looking at the past ' - Derek Malcolm.

India 1985. With Naseeruddin Shah, Leela Naidu, Neena Gupta. 137 mins

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Possessed (Junoon)

Using the backdrop of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, this epic film revolves around the relationship between an Anglo-Indian girl and a Pathan nobleman. Based on Ruskin Bond's short story 'A Flight of Pigeons', the film was produced by Shashi Kapoor who also played the lead role of Javed Khan. The demands of a period film are met by ambitious battle scenes juxtaposed with detailed interiors, silent looks and erotic tension.

India 1978. With Naseeruddin Shah, Jennifer Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Nafisa Ali. 141 mins. J-Cert 12.

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Seventh Horse of the Sun (Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda)

Benegal's restlessness with narrative leads to this fascinating film based on Dharamvir Bharati's Hindi novel. Over three afternoons the raconteur Manek Mulla recounts stories to his friends who then analyse and assess them. The stories are interconnected and overlapping, shifting truths and points of view to break linearity. Benegal offers three fascinating women characters but ultimately the film examines male attitudes to love and romance. Made after a five year break from film-making, this marks a fresh repertory cast and is considered by many to be Benegal's masterpiece.

India 1992. With Rajit Kapur, Neena Gupta, Amrish Puri, Pallavi Joshi, Rajeshwari Sachdev. 124 mins.

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Shyam Benegal in Conversation

One of the foremost film-makers of India, Shyam Benegal's oeuvre is central to the history of the alternative cinema movement in India. Benegal's career of 28 years spans the genesis of the movement in the 70s to an exciting trend today when arthouse cinema language is being appropriated by mainstream films.

His first feature, The Seedling, is considered a landmark in Indian film history. He has kept pace with changing market trends and audience tastes, as evident in his last film, Zubeidaa, in which he enters mainstream territory, casting top Bollywood star Karishma Kapoor in the lead role and utilising wiz-kid AR Rahman's music. As the centrepiece of our celebration of his work, a selection chosen by Benegal himself, we are very pleased to welcome Shyam Benegal to the NFT to discuss his career.

Tickets: £10.30, concs £8.20. Joint ticket with Zubeidaa (18 Oct only) + Interview £13, concs £10.

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The Churning (Manthan)

Financed by 500,000 farmers in the state of Gujarat who donated two rupees each, the film explores the possibilities and paradoxes of change in rural society. When a government team arrives in a village to set up a milk co-operative, they encounter resistance from the local community and political leaders. Benegal turns documentary material into absorbing drama with assured handling of mise-en-scène and finely etched performances from the lead cast. Smita Patil's Bindu is strikingly sensual and her encounter with Girish Karnad's doctor charged with sexual tension. The Churning has travelled across the world as an excellent paradigm of Third Cinema.

This screening will be introduced by Girish Karnad

India 1976. With Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri/130 mins.

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The Essence (Susman)

Financed by the weavers' co-operative in Andhra Pradesh, The Essence explores the crisis of handloom weavers in the face of rapid industrialisation. Benegal creates a human document based on real life incidents in the village of Pochampalli. Om Puri's restrained Ramalu is a master weaver whose superlative craft brings him orders from the city. Pitted against nasty politics in the village co-operative, the weaver engages in a near-spiritual relation with his loom.

India 1986. With Shabana Azmi, Neena Gupta, 140 mins

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The Grandmother (Mammo)

After the communal riots in Bombay, Benegal addressed issues of nationhood and minority identity in a sensitive human drama about a Muslim refugee in Bombay. The widowed Mammo leaves her home in Pakistan and returns to her sister Fayazi. Told from the point of view of Fayazi's grandson Rizzu, whose coming of age involves forging delicate human relationships. The first of the autobiographical trilogy scripted by Khalid Mohamed.

India 1995. With Farida Jalal, Amit Phalke, 124 mins.

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The Market Place (Mandi)

A black comedy set in a Hyderabadi kotha (brothel), The Marketplace is a rollicking drama of excess. This singing-dancing prostitute establishment is faced with a sad decline as its patronage withers in the face of changing times. Benegal uses the bordello as an instrument to satirise middle class respectability but it has its own secrets and repressed passions. With an amazing cast this ensemble film boasts excellent music, sensuous interiors and is altogether a lot of fun!

India 1983. With Shaban Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri. 160 mins.

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The Role

Smita Patil's passionate performance as Usha breathes life into the script inspired by the autobiography of 40s actress Hansa Wadkar. A masterful portrait of a non-conformist woman trying to find a place for herself, The Role challenged Indian censorship and middle class attitudes with its treatment of female subjectivity and sexuality. Benegal pays a tribute to the history of commercial cinema by reconstructing the Bombay film studio atmosphere of the 40s and 50s.

India 1977. With Anant Nag, Amol Palekar, Amrish Puri. 142 mins. J-Cert PG.

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The Seedling (Ankur)

An absentee landlord's idle son is sent to the village to look after his father's property. He gets involved with a mute peasant's wife, refusing to accept responsibility when she gets pregnant. The Seedling is considered a landmark in Indian film history, addressing the tradition/modernity, urban/rural divide in a story of feudal power and oppression. Benegal's extraordinarily assured debut feature introduced Shabana Azmi as the servant Lakshmi in the first of his key female characters. Govind Nihalani's camera lyrically captures the lush green countryside against which the powerful drama is enacted.

India 1974. With Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Sadhu Meher. 131 mins. J-Cert 12.

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Zubeidaa

With Zubeidaa Benegal enters mainstream territory, casting top Bollywood star Karishma Kapoor in the lead role of a Muslim woman in 40s Bombay who aspires to be an actress. Married young and divorced, Zubeidaa falls in love with a Hindu prince from Rajasthan but finds she is a misfit in his code-bound royal life. The forsaken son Riyaz traces his mother's story through her diaries and interviews with the royal family members in Jaipur. Zubeidaa echoes the theme of The Role - a woman searching for identity. Wiz-kid AR Rahman's music and big production values made Zubeidaa reach out to a much larger audience.

India 2000. With Karisma Kapoor. 153 mins

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