Shyam may refer to:

• a name of Krishna
• Shyam (actor), a Hindi film actor
• Shyam (composer), an Indian music composer from Kerala

See also[link]

• Shyam Sunder (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Deva Premal, mantra singer, from October 2006

Deva Premal (born in 1970 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music which puts ancient Sanskrit mantras into atmospheric contemporary settings.

Deva met her partner in life and music, Miten, at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India in 1990, and they have been touring together since 1992, offering concerts and chant workshops worldwide.^[1]

Best known for her top-selling chant CDs,^[2] Deva is a classically trained musician who grew up singing mantras in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality. Her albums have topped the New Age charts throughout the world since her first release, The Essence, featuring the Gayatri Mantra. Deva & Miten's record company, Prabhu Music, reports sales of over 900,000 albums.

Deva began her journey with mantra in her mother's womb, as her father chanted the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most sacred mantras of Hinduism, to her daily, and it continued to be her bedtime lullaby after she was born. Many years later, she heard a friend singing the Gayatri and was inspired to put together an album featuring it. She and Miten recorded The Essence in her mother's apartment in Germany, the same one in which she was born and where her parents had sung the Gayatri Mantra to her years before.^[3]

Deva brought this journey with the Gayatri Mantra full circle in July, 2005, when she and Miten chanted the Gayatri for her father as he was dying: "We kept singing for what must have been over half an hour, when suddenly the monitor showed that he was about to leave. I continued to sing and the last sound he heard as he passed on was his beloved Gayatri Mantra. Finally we ended with the mantra Om and the circle was complete. He had welcomed me onto this planet with the Gayatri and I accompanied him out of this physical existence with it. What a blessing this was for me! It was the first time that I was present at a death, and to be at my father’s is a memory I will cherish all my life."^[4]

In an interview with Sam Slovik of LA Yoga Magazine,^[5] Deva discussed the potent effect many notice when chanting Sanskrit mantras:^[6]

“The meaning is secondary. The word table is not the table...With Sanskrit, the word ananda is the sound vibration of bliss. In sound the energy of bliss. We have to say bliss; we have to make it smaller by putting it into an English word. Just the sound; ananda, If we were sensitive enough we’d just feel the entire scope of that energy that’s contained in this sound... It’s working on a cellular level. It’s much deeper than the mind. It’s not a language that you need to understand the meaning of before you use it. It’s a deep universal sound code that connects us all.”

Deva's chants have been used in a wide variety of settings in recent years. Cher featured Deva's version of the Gayatri Mantra on her Farewell Tour^[7] and Russian Prima Ballerina Diana Vishneva danced to Deva's Gayatri in Moses Pendleton's F.L.O.W. series.^[8] Actor/director Edward James Olmos is said to have handed out copies of Deva's Gayatri Mantra to the entire cast and crew of Battlestar Gallactica,^[9] as well as citing her music as a source of inspiration in preparing his role as Commander Adama in the series.^[10] Mr. Olmos also used Om Hraum Mitraya from Deva's album Dakshina to close his HBO movie Walkout,^[11]

Deva and Miten performed for The Dalai Lama during a 2002 Conference in Munich, Germany on Unity In Duality, which brought top figures from the scientific community together with members of the Buddhist community.^[12] They gave a concert for the full conference, and were also invited to sing for the Dalai Lama at a small pre-conference gathering.^[13] They had heard that his favorite mantra was the Tara Mantra, dedicated to the Green Tara of Compassion, and that he had asked for it be chanted recently when he was ill, and so they chanted it for him.

Deva's most recent release, Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times, was recorded with the Gyuto Monks of Tibet and was created as a support for mantra meditation practice, featuring eight mantras chanted 108 times each. It is a benefit CD, with all proceeds going to the Gyuto Monastery in Dharmsala, India, the Phowa Project, and Veggiyana.

Discography[link]

• The Essence (1998)
• Love Is Space (2000)
• Embrace (2002)
• Satsang (with Miten) (2002)
• Dakshina (2005)
• The Moola Mantra (2007)
• Into Silence (2008) (compilation)
• In Concert: The Yoga of Sacred Song and Chant (w/Miten & Manose) (2009) (CD/DVD)
• Mantras For Precarious Times (2009)
• Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times (2010)
• Password (2011)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Dubrovsky, Anna. Yoga Rock Stars, Yoga International, September 2008.
2. ^ Widran, Jonathan. Review: Dakshina AllMusic.
3. ^ Spirit of Things. Mantras Go Mainstream, Interview with Rachel Kohn on ABC Radio, Feb 2008.
4. ^ Deva Premal. Wolfgang And The Gayatri Mantra, Article, DevaPremalMiten.com.
5. ^ Slovik, Sam. Soul Balancing: Path of the Sacred Road Dog, LA Yoga Magazine, March 2010.
6. ^ Shapiro, Ed & Deb. Do Mantras Really Work, Huffington Post, Oct 20 2009.
7. ^ Tsering, Lisa. "Cher Chants Gayatri Mantra At Her Concerts", Times of London, Sept 5 2003.
8. ^ "Beauty In Motion-F.L.O.W. Part III", YouTube.
9. ^ Stailey, M. Battlestar Gallactica: All Access, DVD Verdict Legal Briefs, June 8, 2007.
10. ^ Ruby, Jamie. "Edward James Olmos: Exclusive Interview With MediaBlvd", Battlestar Aries, Aug 5 2009.
11. ^ Educate Your Thinking, YouTube.
12. ^ Tarab Institute. Unity In Duality-Tendrel Congress, Tarab Institute, Oct 10-13 2002.
13. ^ Attwood, Janet Bray Songs of the Divine: An interview from the Dialogues with the Masters Series, Healthy Wealthy nWise, Feb 2008.

External links[link]

• Official website

Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal, in his office, Mumbai, India, December, 2010
Born	(1934-12-14) 14 December 1934 (age 77) Trimulgherry, Hyderabad State, British India
Occupation	Film director, Screenwriter
Awards	1976 Padma Shri 1991 Padma Bhushan 2005 Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934, Hyderabad) is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India. He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema.^[1]

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, Benegal was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.

Early life and education[link]

Shyam Benegal, was born in a Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family^[2] on 14 December 1934 in Trimulgherry,^[3] Secunderabad then a British Cantonment, and now a twin city of the state capital, Hyderabad. It was here, at age twelve that he made his first film, on a camera given to him by his photographer father Sridhar B. Benegal. He received an M.A. in Economics, from Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad.^[4] There he formed the Hyderabad Film Society.

Family[link]

Benegal is related to the famous film director and actor Guru Dutt; his paternal grandmother and Guru Dutt's maternal grandmother were sisters, hailing from the Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community.^[5]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

He started his career working in 1959, as a copywriter, at a Bombay-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. Meanwhile, Benegal made his first documentary in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at Doorsteps) in 1962. His first feature film had to wait another decade while he worked on the script.^[6]

In 1963 he started a brief stint with another advertising agency called ASP (Advertising, Sales and Promotion).^[7] During his advertising years, he directed over 900 sponsored documentaries and advertising films.

Between 1966 and 1973, Shyam taught at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and twice served as the institute's chairman: 1980–83 and 1989–92. By this time he had already started making documentaries. One of his early documentaries A Child of the Streets (1967) garnered him wide acclaim.^[8] In all, he has made over 70 documentary and short films.^[9]

Soon, he was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship (1970–72),^[4] which allowed him to work at the Children's Television Workshop, New York, and later at Boston's WGBH-TV.

Feature films[link]

After returning to Bombay, he received independent financing and Ankur (The Seedling) was finally made in 1973. It was a story of economic and sexual exploitation from his home state, Andhra Pradesh, and Benegal instantly shot to fame. The film introduced actors Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag and won Benegal the 1975 National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film. Shabana Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress.

The success that New India Cinema enjoyed in the 1970s and early 1980s could largely be attributed to Shyam Benegal's quartet: Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977). Benegal used a variety of new actors mainly from the FTII and NSD like Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Amrish Puri.

In Benegal's next effort, Nishant (Night's End) (1975), a teacher's wife is abducted and gang-raped by four zamindars; officialdom turns a deaf ear to the distraught husband's pleas for help. Manthan (The Churning) (1976) is a film on rural empowerment and is set against the backdrop of Gujarat's fledgling dairy industry. For the first time, over five lakh rural farmers^[specify] in Gujarat, contributed Rs 2 each and thus became film's producers. Upon its release, truckloads of farmers came to see "their" film, making it a success at the box office.^[10] After this trilogy on rural oppression, he made a biopic, Bhumika (The Role) (1977), broadly based on the life of well-known Marathi stage and film actress of the 1940s, Hansa Wadkar (played by Smita Patil) who led a flamboyant and unconventional life. The main character sets out on at an individual search for identity and self-fulfillment, at same the time grappling with exploitation by men.^[11]

Meanwhile, in the early 70s, Shyam made 21 film modules for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), sponsored by UNICEF. This allowed him to interact with children of SITE and many folk artists. Eventually he used many of these children in his feature length rendition of the classic folk tale Charandas Chor (Charandas the Thief) in 1975. He made it for the Children's Film Society, India.^[12] To quote film critic, Derek Malcolm:

"…what Benegal has done is to paint a magnificent visual recreation of those extraordinary days and one that is also sensitive to the agonies and predicament of a talented woman whose need for security was only matched by her insistence on freedom."^[13]

The 80s[link]

Unlike most New Cinema filmmakers, Benegal has had private backers for many of his films and institutional backing for a few, including Manthan (National Dairy Development Board), Susman (1987) (Handloom Co-operatives) and Yatra (1986) (Indian Railways).^[3] This gave him an added advantage, as he managed to survive the collapse of the New Cinema movement in the late 80s due to paucity of funding, with which were lost many neo-realist filmmakers. Benegal continued making films throughout the next two decades. He also served as the Director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) from 1980 to 1986.^[4]

Following the success of these four films, Benegal was backed by star Shashi Kapoor for whom he made Junoon (1978) and Kalyug (1981). The former is an interracial love story set amidst the turbulent period of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Kalyug was based on the Mahabharata and was not a big hit although both won Filmfare Best Movie Awards in 1980 and 1982 respectively.

Benegal's next film, Mandi (1983) was a satirical comedy about politics and prostitution, starring Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. Later, working from his own story, based on the last days of Portuguese in Goa, in the early 1960s, Shyam explored human relationships in Trikal (1985).

In the 1980s, with the collapse of the New Cinema movement, Benegal's films did not have proper releases. He turned to TV where he directed serials like Yatra (1986) for the Indian Railways, and one of the biggest projects undertaken on Indian television, the 53-episode television serial Bharat Ek Khoj (1988) based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book, Discovery of India.^[3]

Soon, Shyam Benegal stepped beyond traditional narrative films and took to biographical material to achieve greater freedom of expression.^[14] His first venture in this genre was with a documentary film based on Satyajit Ray’s life, Satyajit Ray, in 1985. This was followed by similar biographical works like Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa, which was written by filmmaker and critic Khalid Mohamed.

The 90s and beyond[link]

The 90s saw Shyam Benegal making a trilogy on Indian Muslim women, starting with Mammo (1995), Sardari Begum (1996), and Zubeidaa (2001). With Zubeidaa, he entered the Bollywood mainstream for the first time, as it starred top Bollywood star Karishma Kapoor and boasted music by A. R. Rahman.

In 1992, he made Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (Seventh Horse of the Sun) based on a novel by Dharmavir Bharati, which won the 1993 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. In 1996 he made another film based on a book, The Making of the Mahatma, based on Fatima Meer's, The Apprenticeship of a Mahatma. This turn to biographical material resulted in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, his 2005 English language film. He criticised the Indian caste system in Samar (1999) which went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

Shyam Benegal is the current president of the Federation of Film Societies of India. He owns a production company called Sahyadri Films.

He has authored three books based on his own films: The Churning with Vijay Tendulkar (1984), based on Manthan; Satyajit Ray (1988), based on his biographical film, Satyajit Ray; and The Marketplace (1989) which was based on Mandi.

Recent projects[link]

In 2008 his film Welcome to Sajjanpur, starring Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao was released to a good response.^[15] The film's music is by Shantanu Moitra,^[16] and it is produced by Chetan Motiwalla. Shyam Benegal is slated to direct an epic musical Chamki Chameli^[17] inspired by George Bizet's classic Spanish opera Carmen. The story revolves around the eponymous Chamki, a beautiful gypsy girl with a fiery temper and is written by Shama Zaidi. The music is by A. R. Rahman and the lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar.

In March 2010, Benegal released the political satire Well Done Abba.

One of Benegal's future projects is a film based on the life of Noor Inayat Khan — daughter of Inayat Khan & descendant of Tipu Sultan, who served as a British-Indian spy during World War II.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Shyam Benegal is married to Nira Benegal and has a daughter called Pia, who is a costume designer for feature films. He is involved with the Mumbai based film school Whistling Woods International as chairman of the academic council.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

National Film Awards

• 2005 Dadasaheb Phalke Award^[19][20]
• 1975 Second Best Feature Film for Ankur
• 1976 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Nishant
• 1977 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Manthan
• 1978 Best Screenplay for Bhumika
• 1979 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Junoon
• 1982 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Arohan
• 1984 Best Historical Reconstruction for Nehru
• 1985 Best Biographical Film for Satyajit Ray
• 1986 Best Director for Trikal
• 1993 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda
• 1995 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Mammo
• 1996 Best Feature Film in English for The Making of the Mahatma
• 1997 Best Feature Film in Urdu for Sardari Begum
• 1999 Best Feature Film for Samar
• 1999 Best Feature Film on Family Welfare for Hari-Bhari
• 2001 Best Feature Film in Hindi for Zubeidaa
• 2005 Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero
• 2009 Best Film on Other Social Issues for Well Done Abba

Filmfare Awards

• 1980 Best Director for Junoon
• 2008 welcome to sajjanpur

Cannes Film Festival

• 1976: Golden Palm: Nishant: Nominated^[21]

Berlin International Film Festival

• 1974 Golden Berlin Bear for Ankur: Nominated^[22]

Moscow International Film Festival

• 1981 Golden Prize: Kalyug
• 1997 Golden St. George: Sardari Begum: Nominated^[23]

Honours[link]

• 1970 Homi Bhabha Fellowship (1970–72)
• 1976 Padma Shri
• 1989 Sovietland Nehru Award^[4]
• 1991 Padma Bhushan
• 2012 D. Litt. Honoris Causa of the University of Calcutta

Bibliography[link]

• Benegal on Ray: Satyajit Ray, a Film, by Shyam Benegal, Alaknanda Datta, Samik Banerjee. Seagull Books, 1988. ISBN 81-7046-021-2.
• Shyam Benegal's the Churning (Manthan): Screenplay, by, Vijay Tendulkar, Shyam Benegal, Samik Banerjee. Seagull Books, 1984. ISBN 0-86132-070-0.

Further reading[link]

• Shyam Benegal (BFI World Directors) - Sangeeta Datta. 2003, British Film Institute. ISBN 0-85170-908-7.
• Bollywood Babylon: Interviews with Shyam Benegal, William van der Heide. 2006, Berg Publishers. ISBN 1-84520-405-0.
• BBC's Tom Brook interviews Shyam Benegal on 25 August 2006
• Girish Karnad interviews Shyam Benegal, National Film Theatre, 2002
• Sen, Meheli (2011) “Vernacular Modernities and Fitful Globalities in Shyam Benegal’s Cinematic Provinces” on manycinemas.org 1, 8-22, Online, pdf-version

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shyam Benegal at the Internet Movie Database
• 'Shyam Benegal: A Life in Pictures' interview at BAFTA
• Shyam Benegal on Upperstall
• Awards & recognition for Shyam Benegal's films