Two documentaries screened in MIFF's Homage section on June 19, 2026 approached artistic knowledge through different forms: a photographer explaining how he sees, and a percussionist demonstrating how rhythm works. They were Raghu Rai: Hearing Through the Eyes, directed by Suvendu Chatterjee, and Shyam Benegal's Tala and Rhythm - Mridangam Played by Palghat Raghu.
The festival's published schedule listed the Rai film as a 29-minute Hindi production from 2016 and Benegal's documentary as an 11-minute English film from 1972. Both appeared in morning screening slots, in different auditoriums. The pairing therefore brought works made more than four decades apart into one day's programme, rather than presenting two newly commissioned portraits.
According to the festival's account, the Rai film combines photographs with personal reflection, including his idea of darshan as a connection with the subject. Benegal's film makes technique visible through finger movements, tonal variation and demonstrations of rhythmic cycles. Its account of teacher-to-student transmission adds the learning relationship behind the performance. The comparison is between articulated perception and demonstrated practice.
A later assessment supplied a closer view of the Rai documentary's construction. Writing in The Daily Eye on July 2, critic Utpal Datta described open-air conversations in the photographer's garden, interspersed with photographs and glimpses of him working. He found that discussion of the garden helped illuminate the creative instincts also present in Rai's photography.
Datta's review was not unqualified praise: he criticised the handling of still photographs and some interview framing and lighting, while valuing access to Rai's thinking. That distinction matters for a documentary about a visual artist. Recording an artist's explanation and finding a cinematic way to present the work are separate creative tasks; the review judged them differently.
Alongside the musical film's demonstrations, that assessment gives the homage programme a question more specific than celebrity remembrance: how can cinema make an artistic process understandable?
