Shailesh Narwade’s Jayanti, which released today on Amazon Prime Video in Hindi and Marathi, is a milestone in anti-caste movies in India. It took 38 years after Independence for an Ambedkar portrait to make it to Hindi cinema, now we have a film that is a tribute to his ideology and books through and through.
This is perhaps the first time when SC, ST, OBC and Muslim characters are overtly used in a single movie.
The movie originally released on 12 November 2021 in theatres – becoming the first Marathi film to hit the screens post-pandemic. It ran for over 50 days and has a high IMDB rating of 8.3. The US, Kuwait, Australia, UK and Canada saw packed shows. This is a great achievement considering Jayanti is Narwade’s debut film and competed with big-budget Bollywood offerings like Sooryavanshi and Antim.
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OBC as the lead of an anti-caste movie
In Maharashtra, ‘Jayanti’ is synonymous with the birth anniversary of two greats – Chhatrapati Shivaji and Dr BR Ambedkar. But often a deliberate attempt is made to create a rift between their followers.
Shivaji, the king of the masses, has been long pitched as a Hindutva icon in Maharashtra and India at large. In the process, middle castes were drawn into this Hindutva narrative, even as atrocities continued against Dalits. Many communities who were part of the Mandal Commission were unaware of the fact that it was created for their benefit and was a direct result of Ambedkar’s hard work in drafting the Constitution. But when the Mandal report finally came, it was easy to enlist many OBC beneficiaries in kamandal politics.
Jayanti is made with this tussle in the backdrop. Writer-director Narwade chose to cast Ruturaj Wankhede as Santya, a character from a numerically strong OBC community, in the lead role instead of a Dalit character, as is customary in anti-caste movies. It’s a bold move. Jayanti even got Rituraj Wankhede the Marathi Filmfare award for best debut in April 2022.
Santya (Wankhede) is an uneducated karyakarta of a local MLA (Kishore Kadam) and despises Muslims. He falls in love with an educated Buddhist woman, Pallavi (Titeeksha Tawade), but does not know her caste yet. She refuses his overtures because he is rowdy and does the MLA’s dirty work. But Santya’s life takes a U-turn when an OBC teacher and social worker Mali Sir (Milind Shinde) introduces him to books by Ambedkar, Phule, and the true history of Shivaji.
In the rare but notable journey of a few Indian directors to show caste realities and use cinema to annihilate caste, Jayanti goes a step further. It builds on the work done by Nagraj Manjule, Pa Ranjith, and Neeraj Ghaywan.
Also read: 2021 was the year of anti-caste cinema — from Jai Bhim to Karnan
Photo frames to books in cinema
Jayanti uses, for the first time in Indian film, Ambedkar, Phule, Shivaji books to drive the story. Ambedkar is no longer limited to a photo frame in the background, his books are now on the big screen.
In the first-ever Dalit film festival in New York in 2019, Pa Ranjith, who recently completed 10 years in Kollywood, said, “I don’t want Ambedkar portraits to be just on the walls of courtroom or police station in movies, I want it in the house of the hero.”
It wasn’t just empty words, Pa Ranjith did it in Attakathi, Kaala, Sarpatta Parambarai. Narwade’s Jayanti goes further. He shows not just a photo of Ambedkar but opens up his book, his thoughts, philosophy, and ideology to the audience.
For the first time, we see Ambedkar’s Who Were The Shudras?, Phule’s Gulamgiri, Shahu Maharaj’s biography, and Govind Pansare’s popular Who was Shivaji. In fact, in the movie poster, Pallavi is seen holding a book by Phule.
Director Shailesh Narwade says: “The oppressor caste understood the power of the medium [cinema] and used it effectively to share their ideology. Bahujans have not succeeded on that front. I always wondered why only show pictures of Ambedkar to make a point? Why not showcase the thought and philosophies of Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Shivaji Maharaj in movies because they are more progressive.”
Also read: Lights, camera, caste – An Ambedkar photo made it to Bollywood after 38 yrs of independence
Intricacies of India’s caste system
Narwade shows a mirror to all communities including some Dalits who are big on celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti but remain unaware of his contribution as a nation-builder and his emphasis on education. He also calls out the elder generation of middle-caste communities for passing the virus of caste down to their children.
Santya’s mother hates when he mingles with boys from the Dalit locality. She does not want to see Ambedkar’s book in the house and eventually throws him out. The scene where Santya passionately appeals to his mother to read Who Were The Shudras? is one of the highlights of the film.
Jayanti, set in Maharashtra’s Vidharba region, is also the first inter-caste love story in an anti-caste film where the female character is Dalit (Buddhist) and the male character OBC. This is a welcome change from the ‘upper caste girl and Dalit boy’ love story in films such as Sairat, Masaan, Pariyerum Perumal, and Fandry.
The female lead Pallavi is a well-educated Ambedkarite and civil service aspirant. She not only knows about social reformers and their contributions to India but is also able to fight for social justice and bust myths about these reformers.
Jayanti is a great example of how historical evidence and books can be used to fight for social harmony in a commercial movie. It’s a regional film that paves the way for mainstream Hindi movies in handling anti-caste themes.
Through its OTT release in Hindi, with English subtitles, the makers expect Jayanti to reach the Indian masses.
Ravi Shinde is an independent writer and columnist. He writes on socio-political issues and is proponent of diversity. Views are personal.