Veteran director Shyam Benegal's choice of subjects for his films reveals a deep love for history and biographies, but lesser known is the filmmaker's interest in art and paintings. "I like art and among other works I still have a small painting of the head of Christ that was gifted to me by

Anjolie a long time ago along with works by other artists," Benegal told PTI on the sidelines of a function held here recently to mark painter Anjolie Ela Menon's 70th birthday.
Apart from directing films based on historical events or biographies such as Zubeida, Junoon, Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Bharat Ek Khoj, and Mahatma Gandhi, the director has also done a lot of work on art history.

However, Benegal seems to wear a different hat when he is not directing.

"The manner of perception changes when you look at art. When you are directing a film you are going through the perception of a filmmaker, which is different when you are looking at art," says the director who has given Indian cinema Ankur, Nishant and Manthan among others.

Benegal who lived in Mumbai and dabbled in painting before turning to full time filmmaking says, "When I was in Mumbai it was an interesting time with a rich congregation of artists. There was Husain, Gaitonde and all of them. Also, Alkezi with his theatre and Ravi Shankar with his music school."

M F Husain and Gaitonde were part of the Progressive Art Movement of the 1950's and Ebrahim Alkazi went on to become the founder director of the National School of Drama. Sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar had come to Mumbai and joined the Indian People's Theatre Association.

In their midst, Benegal says he lived and worked admiring the artists, painting with them a bit and writing poetry.

"Whatever we could afford we bought. I have some works that were gifted to me by the artists," says the veteran director who possesses works by a "couple of contemporary artists.

Meanwhile, even as his international film based on the life of Indian spy in the second world war -Noor Inayat Khan-has been currently put on the back burner, the old director is busy on his next project which he says is "a new contemporary film."

The ace director quotes American writer and Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway while refusing to reveal details of the upcoming film.

"Just like Hemingway said, you lose it if you talk about it."

Chinmaya Yuva Kendra, the global youth wing of Chinmaya Mission, in an effort to inspire the country’s youth, are conducting mono act plays on the lives of the martyrs of the 1999 Kargil War. The first such play will be held on the life of Param Veer Captain Vikram Batra, on his eleventh martyrdom day today. Captain Batra, of the 13 JAK Riles, captured point 5140 in Dras sector and point 4875 in Mushkoh valley during the Kargil war.

Inspiring Youngsters

After capturing point 5140, the 24-year-old captain had made famous the line, ‘Yeh dil maange more’ (the heart wants more), referring to his desire to lead his battalion to more victories. The young Captain fell in battle to enemy fire, while attempting to save a fellow officer.

Shiva Suryavanshi, an actor from the Himachal Culture Research Forum and Theatre Academy, Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), will be playing Captain Batra in the play. Says Suryavanshi, “Youngsters today aren’t keen to join the Indian army. They know very little about the sacrifices our heroes have made. We know about Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, but they don’t know about a Vikram Batra or Manoj Pandey, who also sacrificed their lives for the country.”

“In fact, we held a quiz for people on Marine Drive and Chowpatty recently, to see how many people knew Captain Vikram Batra,” he continues. “And the results were shocking — hardly anyone knew about his sacrifices. With our plays, we want to create awareness about our heroes.”

The play will depict the life of Captain Batra before his time in the army, as well as his bravery during the war. Suryavanshi met the Captain’s parents, and read the book, Param Vir Chakra, by Major General Ian Cardozo, to understand him better.

“His life is as inspiring as his achievements during Kargil are,” Suryavanshi says. “Captain Batra had been selected in the Merchant Navy, and was getting a great package there, but he didn’t take it up, and preferred the Indian Army instead. “In fact, his father had wanted him to give an exam for MA in Literature, but Vikram was so interested in joining the army, that he filled the entire paper with ‘Jai Bharat.’”

Country-Wide Play

The Yuva Kendra has invited current and former army officers to watch the play. Captain Batra’s parents will attend the event as the guests of honour. After this play, Suryvanshi will also enact the lives of other brave martyrs like Lieutenant Manoj Pandey and Major Somnath Sharma too.

“We have received invitations from Delhi, Chennai and Goa, and we hope to present the play in those cities as well,” Suryavanshi says. “This is just the beginning – we want to inspire the entire country.”

Priyasri Patodia was 16 when she bought her first artwork for her home in Baroda. She went on to study art and began taking inspiration from Jyoti Bhatt, a veteran artist and printmaker back home. As she delved deeper into the history of printmaking in India, she came to understand its value. Now, after years of research, Patodia brings together original works of over 100 artistes in a one-of-a kind show titled, Contemporary Print Making In India.

“Although there have been small-scale shows over the years, the last large-scale show was held in 1999,” says Patodia, who owns the Priyasri Art Gallery, in Worli. “We’re doing this for the revival of the medium of printmaking. Europe was more aware because the middle class population was interested in buying art. It came to India late in the 1940s. The earliest printmaking activity started in Mumbai in the 17th century. Raja Ravi Varma started his own oleograph press and oleographs started going to every home in India,” she informs.

Memory Lane

Patodia has fascinating stories to tell. She reminds us how western artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso dabbled with printmaking too. “Art was expensive, so this was the best way to reach out to people. The progressive artists in India in the ’60s also were documenting history. A press was started where they would do serigraphy and lithography to make art accessible to the common people.”

Printmaking was happening everywhere. “Artist Madhavrao Dhurandhar and the father of the Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke, worked at Varma’s studio. Chittaprasad Bhattacharya from Kolkata, who was a part of the freedom movement, was making posters in this medium. The importance of the ad and newspaper industry doubled because of printmaking. A new department came into existence in the JJ School of Art only after the ’40s, because of artist YK Shukla who went to China and got interested in the medium,” she recounts.

Patodia asserts that printmaking is the only medium which is the future. “Even photography is a part of printmaking. The more developed the technology is, the better the printmaking is.”