[Pic: hindu.com]
Shyam Benegal‘s interview to Business-Standard is one of the best interview columns I’ve read in the near past. It’s as refreshing as the energy he holds.
With his latest grand movie Netaji Subhash: The Last Hero, set to hit the screens soon, he talks about his admirations towards Indian cinema and it’s film makers. He admires many of his contemporaries and also the new comers in the same level. From Satyajit Ray to Gurinder ‘Beckam’ Chadha to the mushy mushy Karan Johar, his admiration levels shows his broad spectrum of liking towards Indian Cinema. He was very right when saying about Mani Ratnam, “He is an intelligent filmmaker, with a good control over the medium, and Nayakan is my favourite”. And expectedly he has so much to say on Ritwick Ghatak.
Younger directors, he continues, are looking at cinema in a entirely different way. Their attitude is different. How so? For the older filmmakers, tradition was not be touched and whatever you did, ultimately you had to accept tradition. This is particularly true of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. But the younger lot grapple with tradition, much like they did before Independence. Good he said that and now wait for the arguments to suffice from the oldies. It’s Engrossing. I would have expected that such an sweeping interview would happen with the filmy magazines. He finally opened up with the Business-Standard. Film magazines can go dump themselves. But you read ahead.
kirukkal.com 