Shyam Benegal is the best known and most prolific contemporary film-maker from India's arthouse or 'New Cinema' tradition. This work traces a career with its beginnings in political cinema and a realist aesthetic. Sangeeta Datta demonstrates how the struggles of women and the dispossessed and marginalised in Indian society have found an eloquent expression in films as diverse as Nishant, Bhumika, Mandi, Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda and Kalyug. The book also traces Benegal's work with his protégés and collaborators including many of the biggest names in Indian Cinema - Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Karishma Kapoor and A.R. Rahman.

Sangeeta Datta is a writer/director, independent filmmaker and cultural commentator. She is director of Baithak - a non-profit arts company - and Stormglass Productions. Trained and published in Tagore music, Datta has been a research fellow at the University of Sussex and SOAS, UK, and is the co-author, with Kaustav Bakshi and Rohit K. Dasgupta, of Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art, (2015). Her critically acclaimed work includes the award-winning feature film adaptation of King Lear, Life Goes On (2009), the stage productions The Dying Song (2008) and Gitanjali 100 (2013-14), and the documentary, Bird of Dusk (2018).

Foreword by Derek Malcolm
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. Parallel Cinema in India
2. The Formative Years
3. The Rural Trilogy: Winds of Change
4. The Women's Voice: Bhumika and Mandi
5. Histories and Epics
6. Subaltern Voices
7. The Last Trilogy: Search for Identity
8. Experiments with Truth
Appendix: Reflections
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index