PHOTO ESSAY: The Women of BhumikaShyam Benegal's Bhumika—The Role (1977) featured Smita Patil in arguably her greatest role, for which she won her first National Award. One of Benegal's masterpieces, Bhumika was based on the autobiography of Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar. Amol Palekar, Anant Nag and Sulabha Deshpande play significant supporting parts, as well as a roster of fine women performers who are the subject of this slideshow, part of our Shyam Benegal retrospective.
PHOTO ESSAY: The Women of JunoonSanjana Kapoor has recently announced her departure from Prithvi Theatre, and the setting up of Junoon, an organisation that will take plays from around the country to smaller towns. Here is a look at a film in which she made her first appearance—Shyam Benegal's cult classic from 1978, the similarly named Junoon, in which a host of women had strong performing parts. This continues our restrospective on The Women of Benegal. Junoon, based on Ruskin Bond's novella, A Flight of Pigeons, and is amongst the few films that dealt with the 1857 mutiny, a list which includes Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Ketan's Mehta's Mangal Pandey—The Rising.
PHOTO ESSAY: The Women of TrikalA GENERATIONAL SAGA
Trikal, an ambitious (but ultimately unsuccessful) period drama helmed by Shyam Benegal in 1985, serves up a delectable slice of Goa in the 60s, when it was still under Portuguese rule. The late Leela Naidu starred as the doyenne of a crumbling Goan Christian clan. It remains one of the few films in which women took centre-stage with its ensemble cast including many fine talents. Here we remember the film's wonderful cast of women.
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(left to right) Neena Gupta, Leela Naidu (seated), Sushma Prakash and Aneeta Kanwar in Trikal
