(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Â The three-day Shyam Benegal Retrospective concluded on Saturday with an in-depth discussion of the previous night's film, Sardari Begum, and the screening of the final selection Mammo. The Indian Film Society of the UAE (IFSUAE) event focused on Benegal's trilogy of films about Indian Muslim women, consisting of the aforementioned works and the film Zubeidaa.
The famed Indian filmmaker joined scholars Dr Anuradha Needham and Dr Rajeswari Sundar Rajan for a deconstruction of the trilogy's second film at the New York University in Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), where he earlier held a "masterclass" for film students. Dr Needham devoted a year of research to writing the soon-to-be-published book "New Indian Cinema in Post-Independence India: The Cultural Work of Shyam Benegal Films."
"The focus on performing women enables him to explore issues surrounding women's empowerment in the context of Indian nationalism," said Dr Needham, who argued that Benegal's films chronicle important changes in India's gender and political norms. During her lecture, she described how the long-standing tradition of female performers -such as the title character in "Sardari Begum"- was 'cleaned up' and appropriated by the Indian upper and middle classes to help form a new national culture after independence.
"The rules of the game were different when national identity wasn't an issue," explained Dr Needham. "It was a feudal culture in which the courtesans had a place; they were bearers of culture. When we made the transition to nation, it excluded them." Benegal's "Sardari Begum" captures the struggles faced by female artists of the time, she claimed.
Benegal said he appreciated the scholarship. "It gives a different point of view than the one I had when I was making the film," he noted. He was happy about the local film students who spent a two-hour session with him earlier that morning. "It was very interesting for me, because in a place like this, students come from everywhere in the world -even within that small group of twenty, you had so many nationalities representing completely different kind of cultures," he said.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.