The Cinema of the Oppressed

Cinema is called the mirror of society, it is an important form of art and entertainment that has the power to inspire, educate, and bring people together but, the cinematic representation has been lacking the section of people that have struggled with the long-age evil of casteism.

2021 has been a landmark for the portrayal of the lower-caste community in Cinema. Source: ThePrint

Cinema reflects and shapes cultural values, and has the ability to captivate audiences with its visual storytelling. Through its depiction of diverse perspectives and experiences, cinema can promote empathy and understanding, making it an essential tool for social and cultural discourse. When the audience sees the hero beating all the insurmountable odds and still believing everything that he does, they believe in all the values and morals that he upholds. They stand by him against all the atrocities of the antagonist. That is the power that cinema holds, what the audience watches on the screen, they understand and try to incorporate into their lives.

But what if they are not shown the cruelest and most shameful part of our culture, casteism? The lack of portrayal of Dalits on the silver screen is worth revolting against. Bollywood has a history of underrepresenting and misrepresenting Dalit communities, perpetuating harmful stereotypes, and failing to give them a voice. This lack of representation in popular media perpetuates systemic discrimination and reinforces existing power dynamics.

In 2021, Dalits continued to be underrepresented in mainstream cinema, but independent films portrayed their experiences with nuance and empathy, raising awareness and challenging prejudice. The Achilles Heel of Bollywood was overcome in 2021 when the southern cinema industry challenged the notion that Dalits characters cannot be lead characters in movies. Pa. Ranjith’s ‘Sarpatta Parambarai’, shows a Dalit boxer’s fight for dignity and self-realization, Surya-starrer Jai Bhim, inspired by Ambedkar’s faith in the judiciary to address discrimination, Director Mari Selvaraj produced a masterclass Karnan (Dhanush), an assertive character hailing from a small ‘backward-caste’ village who fights back against the establishment and awakens the villagers content with being subjugated. Nearly all anti-caste films with Dalit lead characters have made good box office collections. Tamil movie ‘Karnan’ gave Dhanush his best box office opening despite a fifty percent theatre occupancy limit. ‘Jai-Bhim’ became the highest-rated film on IMDb, beating ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.

The acceptance and success of these movies are proof that the audience wants to watch these topics explored and are willing to step into the theatres, to indulge in conversations about topics like casteism, and class difference. The audience is now not only limited to fairy tales, and escapism movies but thought-provoking ideas. This can be considered as nothing but a teaser of the upcoming future of cinema.