JAI BHIM COMRADE: A FILM REVIEW

JAI BHIM COMRADE!

Courtesy: Google Images

By
DEVIKA SHARMA
Student, IIMC, New Delhi

Anand Patwardhan has given us landmark films in past on some of the most pertinent issues prevailing in our times. And the biggest accolade to the films came from the Indian state which tried laughably to block them every time just because they held a mirror to it to them their real picture, a picture they never wished to see.

Interestingly, Jai Bhim Comrade, his Documentary is his first documentary that glided smoothly through the government pipelines and the Censor Board of India.

The film is a heart wrenching experience of the caste carnage of Dalits in Ramabai Colony, Mumbai (Maharashtra). It provides a sneak peek into their circumstances and the way in which the section of Dalits are still downtrodden and looked down upon in a democracy that claims to be the largest and one, which does not discriminate.

In the wake up to the very recent and shocking case of Rohith Vemula’s suicide, the film helps to understand the way caste atrocities are still embedded in the society. What the film further helps to understand is how these subtle atrocities have become institutionalized.

The documentary that took Patwardhan 14 years to make, runs for over three hours.

The film is a metaphor to acknowledge a revolutionary singer Vilas Ghogare, who in the film, anchors the depiction of the plight of Dalits. The film starts with Ghogare singing a ballad with his choir. He is symbolic of the Dalits in Maharashtra who are famous for their exclusive democratic dissent with their rousing music.

The very next shot shows him dead, having hanged himself in protest of killing of 10 innocent Dalits by the police at Ramabai Nagar on July 11, 1997.

The very same day, a statue of the Dr. B R Ambedkar, a Dalit leader was dishonored with a garland of footwear put around his statue. Many Dalits peacefully demonstrated on the highway demanding an investigation into who was responsible for the shameful act. But flouting all democratic rules, a police van was positioned and Manohar Kadam, the officer in charge gave instructions to fire. Around 10 unarmed protesters were killed, leaving many injured. The police officer was let out on bail and further promoted as the incident doused down.

The act of desecration of the statue and the manner in which police under the Shiv Sena-BJP government killed blameless Dalits, the defenselessness with which Dalits had to take it all without any support from their leaders moved many Dalits to righteous anger. The sense of injustice would have let anyone to committing suicide as a natural reaction. But Vilas through his brutally honest lyrics and high pitched riveting voice compelled many to rise against injustice against their Community.

The scope of the film is not limited just to Maharashtra but India as a whole. This film at a time when Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar in Hyderabad University committed suicide for being denied of his rights, represents the position of Dalits in the country!

The film also highlights earlier and long forgotten atrocities on Dalits. Like the killing of a Dalit Panther revolutionary, Bhagwat jadhav by Shiv Sena in a protest rally in 1974 and the Khairlanji Massacre.  The film documents the twisted Khairlanji case where young men high on testosterone and the lucky tag of them being an upper cast are lurking on the roads, carrying swords made of cardboard and demanding job reservations.

When asked about the Khairlanji murder, one Maratha manoos defended the act by saying that the girl’s character was loose and the village decided to teach her a lesson!

The film is replete with thoughtful shots like that of  a chocolate wrapper dug in a heap of garbage when a Dalit sweeper is talking about  the lack of basic amenities like gum boots and masks for sweepers and his struggle to make ends meet and provide food and water to his family. The shot is a commentary on the stark contrast in the privileged and the not so privileged sections of society.

The film apart from these instances also reflects upon the way in which Indian Constitution is misused by the hegemonic powers, i.e. the ruling class, the appropriation of Dalit activists into mainstream dirty politics and also the role played by leftist parties in the way they deal with caste issues in India.

Jai Bhim Comrade is a film that will continue to converse to those whose human instinct allow them to glance deeper into society and human cognitive. There will be many other Vilas Ghogare and Rohith Vemulas if the outlook of the state towards the minorities remains the same.

Above everything, the film pays a tribute to music and poetry it is a film about music, poetry of those who have less of other things in life. The music of the Dalit revolutionaries in the film cannot be easily forgotten. Optimistically, the rebellion can’t be either. I can only end the review by saying, Jai Bhim Comrade!