Tackling the taboos

In the last few weeks a couple of cinematic narratives have left the sleek cityscape behind to probe the socio-political dimensions in rural and small town India. They are not perfect pieces of mainstream cinema but for a change grappled with caste and religious complexity. Even if it meant leaving the frothy comic cover to explore something what they call untouchable' themes in distributors' parlance, the filmmakers are taking risks and the audience and critics are responding. The tone may be comic but the base is not.

In Guddu Rangeela, Guddu's real name is Kanshi Ram and both the protagonists belong to a lower caste. In Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho watching a girl impersonating as the goddess in a village mela with the pandit asking for offerings, a character enquires how do gods relieve themselves. Now Masaan, which has made waves in Cannes Film Festival talks of a love story between a boy from Dom community (those who work on cremation grounds) and a high caste girl. In a crucial strand of the same film there is a girl called Devi who fails in giving her love a physical shape when her boyfriend develops cold feet and is branded as a s**t in Banaras. The reality is not lost in metaphors here.

"She is troubled, she is sad but there is no guilt in her about what she has done," says Richa Chadda, who has played Devi. "Sex is an integral part of life and is as normal as defecation. There is nothing wrong in having a sexual urge after a certain age. If our mainstream cinema hasn't been dealing with it for so many years it doesn't mean that is doesn't exist," she argues. Hailing from middle class Delhi, Richa says she seen girls like Devi all her life and didn't need an inspiration to play her. One reminds her of Piku, Devi's counterpart in a Delhi's Chittaranjan Park. "There are similarities but Devi is not aspiring to be Piku," says Richa.

Talking about the inter-caste love, co-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, who once contributed to the changing discourse of cinema with Udaan, says, "Education has bridged the gap. Youngsters are going to common spaces like they study in the same college where in classroom caste is no longer a big factor. Then mobiles and social media have given them access to a world where caste barriers don't matter. Facebook has no column for caste. In such a situation falling in love is not impossible and we do get to read such stories in newspapers. Having said that I don't agree that caste consciousness has diminished in youngsters. It is very much there."

Analysts counter that indie filmmakers talk about sexual freedom to attract eyeballs. Some have found the absence of Piku's female friends disturbing. Motwane counters the characters should be judged individually and in the context of the film. "When we are moving from generic cinema to more personal stories, the characters are also bound to be more distinctive. That way Tanu (of Tanu Weds Manu Returns) also appears scatter-brained but we know that such girls exist around us. The characters should not be self aware and that is what is happening largely because the filmamkers who are dealing with these stories are outsiders to the so-called Bollywood culture and are in many ways telling their stories. They might not be true to every little lane or detail but nobody can deny that it is a refreshing change."

Some critics have asked whether the people in small towns are really so witty and colourful or are filmmakers spicing up poor people and their sad lives in the name of entertainment to cash in on some trend. Nila Madhab Panda who has come up with Kaun Kitney Paani Main, a satire on the water crises in rural Odisha where the ruler has run out of water while the lower caste village has it, says it is condescending to believe that poor people lead boring lives. "I come from a humble background. I used to cross Mahanadi to go to my college and often we had to carry bicycle on our shoulders but still we used to make fun of people that we came across along the way. The difference is these people don't have to go to an AIB roast to laugh at themselves or the situation they are in." The film shows pouches of water being used as currency. "It is a metaphor but in Bundelkhand I did find unbranded pouches of water being sold at road side shops." Similarly, he continues, "I have seen in my village, a blind man using a buffalo as a guide. Now in metros people can find it insensitive or laugh at it but it is an observation made from real life situation."

Moreover, Motwane adds that overanalysing cinema doesn't help because at the end of the day the characters have to entertain. "For years we hardly questioned when the same stereotypical set of characters were offered to us in the mainstream. Writing about ordinary people in ordinary situations is boring, Either, the situation or the character has to be extraordinary. Everybody wants to see a world outside their lane, their community so there is nothing wrong in if well-heeled people are paying to watch small town stories." Panda says for few it may be nostalgia but for the most it is a case of reverse fantasy.

However, the change is not easy. Director Subhash Kapoor contends that mainstream is very closely watched by CBFC and even if you like to change the discourse, your efforts are often muted. He cites the example of Guddu Rangeela where the word nichli jaati and then pichhdi jaatiwere muted. The latter, he says, exists in government records. Panda faced similar issues when ruler says that Dusshera is the festival of the upper caste and Holi is celebrated by the lower strata.

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