Buzzfeed Dialogue: Do Bollywood films tend to erase caste frequently?

Originally posted by: BiraSaysWhaddup

Can you blame them?

Does anyone remember the hue and cry over one lyric in Aaja Nachle? With a 50 cr budget movie like Dhadak, the risk of talking about caste is much higher than a small scale Sairat.

Originally posted by: SrideviFan4ever

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Newton was actually listed as a 'woke' film trying to be progressive 'when it's not'. Hain? What's the meaning of when it's not? How can she just pass a judgement around something that she thinks is not progressive?

The film literally has Dalit references regarding the protagonist at many subtext levels, we have a adivasi Manko as the heroine of the film. There are so many interactions and actions that suggest caste differences and representation of caste issues in the film. Manko is the only one who does not wear bullet proof jackets in the maoist area. That speaks volumes of the trust adivasis have on one of their own over people from the upper caste who has been indulging in caste atrocities towards them and trying to erase them from the society.

The host first has a problem with the lack of representation of caste in Bollywood and when it actually does, she has a problem with that too and pass it off as a 'woke,inaacurate film'. I remember during the release of Netwon with all the write ups coming up, there was also this article by an urban adivasi who had a problem with the depiction of adivasis in Newton. You can never satisy every single person with your depiction of caste and class in films because someone or the other will have a problem with it. Caste cannot be seen with a narrow lens only addressing problems that's happening around you. If the host feels that she hasn't been represented well, it doesn't mean someone else hasn't been represented properly. By bringing in Brahmanical ideologies and bahujans in film industry to support her argument, she is literally trying to criticize casteism by bringing in more casteism.No where in the film industry are people asked about their caste and class before handing them jobs. This is the only industry where people of all caste,faith and class come together to work towards making the SAME film, a successful one,which is played in theatres which once again has no bar on certain castes and classes. And that is how is should be. Free of caste heirarchy.

And this is not the first work I've seen of hers. The host does come off to be very biased and one tone over the fact that what she thinks is right and everything else is wrong. There's not even a scope of a maybe, she literally gives out statements with this video and passes them off as the ultimate truth.

And don't even get me started over the final bits with her 'dalits should be cast as dalits, only women should make women oriented films' and etc. Pretty weird that after four years since their inception, Buzzfeed is trying to bring in discussions like these when at the same time, there's zero representation of caste and colour in their regular videos unless it's one of those '12 things brown skinned girls are tired of listening' kind of sketches. Who is the actual woke in the house?

Originally posted by: Justmoi

KJO and Dharma are a joke when it comes to telling stories based on reality. He cannot tell a story straight with honesty be it love, cancer and so why would he tackle something like caste. To be far though, when he had to apologize for something stupid for ADHM why would he even try ? He got his ass handed to him and he has a business to run. He did say he regretted the apology later and he had to do it for his business regardless of his personal ideology.

I do not know about caste because I am not from India, I know racism though and discrimination hurts. So I have rather strong feelings on it. I have learnt about caste through regional movies especially Tamil which my parents used to make us watch.

One film is Vedham Pudithu starring Sathyaraj who played Kattappa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedham_Pudhithu

Another is Ore Oru Gramathil banned by the government until it was undone by the supreme court. It later won the National award for Social Issues.

This film, is about a penniless upper-caste woman who pretends to be from a scheduled caste to get an education. She goes on to become an excellent civil servant, but is eventually exposed, leading to a courtroom scene in which she defends her case and appeals for reservations based on economic backwardness rather than caste.

This girl is stupid if she thinks only certain roles should be filled by certain people.

Originally posted by: Justmoi

This film, is about a penniless upper-caste woman who pretends to be from a scheduled caste to get an education. She goes on to become an excellent civil servant, but is eventually exposed, leading to a courtroom scene in which she defends her case and appeals for reservations based on economic backwardness rather than caste.