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Welcome to a multi-part series on the History Of Hindi Cinema. Through individual films and the larger oeuvres of some Hindi filmmakers, we’ll explore the highlights of 70 years of cinema, starting with 1950, just three years after India won its independence from British rule, and ending in the 2010s.

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Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Shyam Benegal's Ankur (1974) is now showing in the series A Journey into Indian Cinema.I go back to my middle school Biology lessons to find the scientific word for the Hindi word, ankur. Epicotyl: The part of the seed that becomes the leaves and stems of a new plant; the first rebellious sign of life that raises its fist above the earth to proclaim its existence. The title of Shyam Benegal’s 1973 debut film, Ankur, has been officially translated to The Seedling and its story tells of a society raising its first fist of resistance against the ceiling, colliding against it to break across a divide that seems impenetrable.Benegal, born in 1934, grew up near the city of Hyderabad in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He was around 12 when the Telangana Rebellion broke out in 1946. Led by the Communist Party,...