 |
| Caste in Bollywood: Why are there no Dalit heroes in Hindi films? |
'Rubbish this is the last ball of the game, we still have five races to win, all you have to do is cross the ball border, rubbish, or we'll be charged three times, rubbish, our lives are in your hands. '
This is a scene from Aamir Khan's film Lagaan in which there was a Dalit character from a garbage village. In India, the company Zomato recently took out an advertisement regarding the role of garbage, which some described as racial bias.
The question then is, is Kachra's Dalit character in Lagaan in 2001 really casteist?
Actor Aditya Lakhia, who plays Kachra in Lagaan, says, “Kachra is a very strong character. When Lagaan was released, no one said that Kachara's Dalit character was portrayed in a dehumanizing manner. So today, after 25 years, how did it become inhumane?
He said, "This character is from 1893, Garbage was a very relevant character for that era. If anyone's sentiments were hurt by Zomato's ad, then it is right that the ad was withdrawn." Yes, it felt bad because our thinking was good.
It all started when director Neeraj Ghiwan tweeted, "Kachra's role in Ashutosh Gowariker's Oscar-nominated film Lagaan is one of the most inhumane in the history of cinema."
Chandrabhan Prasad is a scholar at George Mason University, USA.
He says, “Earlier, Dalits were given names that were unpleasant to hear, such as Padoha (Nala), Katwaro which means garbage. So in Aamir Khan's movie, Zomato named the character Kachara, then you understand that Aamir Khan is not doing it intentionally, it is also part of his natural thinking, it is called permanent recall because it has been going on for years.'
However, apart from the role of Kachara, a big question is how much and how Dalits have been shown in Hindi cinema?
Director Nagaraj Monjale, who has made several films on caste issues, made the film Jhand in 2022, in which Ambedkar's scene became a hit.
While talking to BBC Marathi, he says, "Maybe this is the first time when a big hero like Amitabh Bachchan stands with folded hands in front of Babasaheb, it was a matter of pride for me."
From untouchable girl to Sujata
To understand caste and cinema, one has to look into the history of Indian cinema. Here we are reminded of the pre-independence untouchable girl in 1936 where Ashok Kumar is an upper caste and Devika Rani is a Dalit girl. Due to this reason both of them could not get married.
Towards the end of the film, Devika's husband and Ashok Kumar have a huge fight near the railway track, with the train crushing Devika in an attempt to save them both. After all, it is the Dalit girl who pays the price of casteism.
When Bimal Roy made a film on caste in independent India in 1959, the heroine Nutan was given the role of a daughter who is adopted by a Brahmin family. But the mother could never accept Nutan wholeheartedly as she was from an 'untouchable' family.
Finally, when Nutan saves his mother's life by donating his blood, Nutan's mother accepts him.
Nutan had to prove himself 'good' to make himself acceptable.
There is no dearth of worthy Dalit characters
Chandrabhanprasad also questions why when it comes to Dalits in films, they are portrayed as weak, unsuccessful, with cleft lips and dull faces, and their name is trash. Why should Dalits not be beautiful in movies?
According to him, showing the exploitation of Dalits is revealing the reality, but this reality is subjective.
Explaining his reasoning, he says, “Is there no successful, worthy Dalit icon in Indian history on whom films can be made? Babu Jagjivan Ram has been a prominent Indian leader, and the Chamar Regiment played a prominent role in the war. Kohima, Guru Ravidas defeated everyone in debates, they are all there too.'
The film Encore sowed the seeds of rebellion
In fact, in the 70s and 80s when parallel cinema was strong, many films closely depicted the exploitation of Dalits.
Shabana Azmi (Lakshmi) and her mute alcoholic husband Shyam Benegal are the faces of exploitation in the name of caste, gender, and power in the 1974 film Encore.
The young zamindar of the village is educated, he keeps Shabana in the kitchen to cook while the villagers are against her.
Circumstances lead to a relationship between Shabana and the landlord. But the landlord did not recognize a Dalit woman and her child. Later, when Lakshmi's husband comes to the village, the landlord whips him.
Seeing all this, in the last scene of the film, a child throws stones at the landlord's house and runs away. In a sense, from this last scene of the film Encore, it can be understood that the cocoon of rebellion against exploitation has erupted.
Trying to transcend caste
Gautam Ghosh's 1984 film Paar takes this exploitation to its extreme. It is the story of two landless Dalit laborers from Par Bihar whose houses were burnt down in caste violence and they flee to Kolkata.
Nurangiya (Naseeruddin) and Rama (Shabana) realize that they have no future here either. To earn money for a ticket back to the village, they do one last dangerous thing. 30 Carrying the herd of pigs to Nuringya and the pregnant Rama across the swollen river.
This almost 12-minute scene will make you laugh out loud. Their employer says people of this caste are good at handling animals. Senior journalist Ajay Brahmatmaj, who goes by the name Sane Chopal on YouTubeTap, also complains about why these characters are always shown to be weak.
The portrayal of Dalit characters can be questioned but till the 80s these characters were definitely seen in films.
Dalit characters absent from films
But by the 90s, as Indian cinema began to go global, these roles began to disappear, except in films like Bandit Queen.
Prakash Jha, the maker of the film Damool, made the film Orkshan in 2011.
Then perhaps for the first time or after a long time a mainstream hero Saif Ali Khan got the role of a Dalit hero in modern Hindi cinema who is literate, competent, and knows how to answer bricks with stones.
Masan To Newton - Educated, Strong Dalit Hero
Harish S. Wankhede, assistant professor at Delhi's Jawaharlal University, has been writing on Dalit cinema.
He says, “Despite the limitations, there is a change in Hindi films. Take the movie, Newton. Rajkummar Rao has been introduced as a new type of Dalit hero in Amit Masurkar's film.
Harish Wankhede says that in the film Rao is educated and does important work like conducting elections.
He says, 'Rao's character as a government officer is not weak, he is well-mannered, not corrupt. Rajkumar was given the same role that Amitabh portrayed in Heroism Zanjeer.
'You can only guess his character. You can see a picture of Baba Sahib Ambedkar in his room. When he rejects the marriage proposal, he is scolded by the family that he will not get a Brahmin or Thakur girl. Most important is the change in the portrayal of Dalit women. In the web series Dahad Aur Kathal these women are playing the role of police officers, they have their own dignity and they are empowered.
An example of this can be seen in Neeraj Ghiwan's 2015 film Masaan, in which the hero Vicky Kaushal (Deepak) played the role of a boy from the Dom community.
In 2019, Article 15 also raises questions about caste and gender. In a scene in the film, Ayushmann Khurrana, who plays a police officer, asks his senior, “Sir, these three girls were only asking three rupees more in their daily wages, equivalent to two or three sips. Because of this mistake of hers, she got raped, sir. He was killed and hanged on a tree so that the whole caste would remember his status.
However, Ajay Brahmatmaj also raises the question of why the patron saint of Dalits in Hindi films is still an upper caste, as was the case in Article 15.
Lack of Dalit understanding
Ajay Brahmamaj believes that the best films on caste are being made in Tamil and Malayalam because they have a Dalit consciousness which is not seen in Hindi films.
The 2021 Tamil film Karnaan opens with a scene where a child angrily throws stones at a bus because no bus stops in the village because of his caste, not even for pregnant women.
It is similar to the angst of the Marathi film Fendree's child who finally realizes that he will never be able to establish his identity beyond caste and throws stones at the crowd in anger in the final scene.
And this scene also takes us back to the little boy who throws stones at the landlord's house in the 1974 encore.
Is this anger the strength of these Dalit characters or does it bind them to the same circle of caste from which they are trying to escape?
Is it a positive step to show these caste-neutral characters or is it an imperative responsibility of filmmakers to keep questioning the exploitation of caste?
Harish S. Wankhede opines, 'Although new films are showing strong Dalit characters, it is not that those characters have become neutral from Dalit issues. Prakash Jha's film Pariksha depicts the struggles and aspirations of a Dalit father. It is not a big change but cinema is slowly becoming democratized.
But Ajay Brahmataj answers the question that why Dalit characters have not got heroism in Hindi films even today? When Vicky Kaushal did Masaan, he was new, but would a mainstream hero play a Dalit today?