Benegal’s New Cinema is a documentary on the films of Shyam Benegal and explores the time, ethos and concerns of the New Cinema Movement in India through his oeuvre. A pioneer in the New Cinema Movement within the Hindi film industry, Benegal’s career spans four decades of consistent work. The documentary is a foray into the mind of this great filmmaker, and an attempt to understand his motivations and impulses for making cinema. The film brings into conversation Benegal’s work from his first feature film, Ankur [1973] to theformally experimental Suraj Ka Saatvan Ghoda [1993]. Lying at the interstices of history and memory, Benegal’s New Cinema is an exercisein remembering the world of New Cinema of the 1970s and 80s and to bring it into a conversation with the contemporary. Based on extensive interviews with Benegal, the documentary also features some of his long term colleagues including actors Anant Nag, Rajit Kapur and Shabana Azmi, scriptwriter and filmmaker Girish Karnad, cinematographer Govind Nihalani, and music composer Vanraj Bhatia. Benegal's New Cinema received a Special Jury Mention at the SAARC Film Festival in Colombo [2016].

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Key credits:

Featuring:   Shyam Benegal with Anant Nag, Govind Nihalani, Girish Karnad, Rajit Kapur, Shabana Azmi,  Vanraj Bhatia

Cinematography: Avijit Mukul Kishore, Amit Mahanti, Kashif Siddiqui, Kunal Deshpande & Sagar Shiriskar 

Location Sound: Christopher Burchell, Dushmanta Sahoo, Jitendra & Pratik Biswas
Sound Design and Mix: Christopher Burchell | Editing: Iram Ghufran

Executive Producers: Tulika Srivastava with Ridhima Mehra

Producer and Commissioning Editor: Rajeev Mehrotra, Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT)

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Technical details:

Duration: 57 minutes | Format: HD/ Stereo Mix/  Year of Production: 2014

Languages: Hindi‐Urdu-English | Subtitles: English

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