Aakrosh and Article 15: Four decades apart yet similar flaws in addressing Caste-based Violence
Preview: Two Hindi films, Aakrosh (1980) and Article 15 (2019), almost four decades apart addressed violence perpetrated by savarna caste groups (those belonging to three varnas- brahmin, kshatriya and vaishya) against Adivasis and Scheduled Castes (SC) respectively (also referred to as Dalits). Aakrosh was directed by Govind Nihlani and written by Vijay Tendulkar. Nihlani’s films usually attempt to portray socio-political issues through a realist narrative and cinematography, characteristic of the Indian New Wave Cinema movement (a movement which began in early 1970s and declined towards the end of 1980s). Tendulkar’s works have been inspired by Indian theatre’s progressive movement which challenges regressive values through classic theatrical tool of problem plays.
Article 15 which came out in 2019 was co-written by Gaurav Solanki and Anubhav Sinha. The latter has also directed and produced the film. Though Solanki and Sinha do not have the same staunch ideological identity as Nihlani and Tendulkar, their film was touted as an important intervention in the narrative about caste atrocities in most mainstream and some alternative commentaries on cinema.
Aakrosh can be characterised as a cinematic version of a problem play which addresses caste-based violence perpetrated against Adivasi people in Maharashtra. Article 15 is more of a crime thriller which tries to incorporate elements of commercial mainstream cinema within a realist cinema while looking at the caste-based atrocities and violence against SC population in Uttar Pradesh.
Both movies represent different phases of evolution of Hindi cinema but there are some things which are thematically similar in both vis-à-vis their narratives and cinematography which this article seeks to address.
A Brief History of Representation of Caste in Hindi Cinema
Caste-based violence has been reluctantly addressed in Hindi cinema. In the initial phase of Hindi cinema social issues such as those of caste and gender were addressed in Hindi cinema for a small period of time during the 1930s. After independence the issue of caste gradually disappeared as it was subsumed predominantly by the themes of nation building on the one hand and mainstream filial melodrama on the other. Critical take on Indian society in Hindi cinema emphasised more on class and gender divisions for a long time to follow.
It was not until 1970s that a new type of cinema began to take shape in the Hindi film industry and in other languages, retrospectively termed as the Indian New Wave Cinema. Unlike New Wave cinema movements in other countries, Hindi New Wave cinema did not emphasise upon experimental narratives and cinematography but instead sought to break away from the melodramatic, hyperbolic, escapist tendencies of mainstream Hindi films to represent realism in the narrative structure, subject matter and cinematic techniques. Most of the filmmakers and artists associated with this movement came from the progressive theatre movement which had been active since colonial times. These films inherited social and political themes from this movement and while they were being partially or wholly financed by the Indian government, they were still undertaking critical commentaries on Indian society and politics. Among many other issues, these films also addressed caste based violence as evidenced by the film Aakrosh.
By the end of 1980s the New Wave movement slowly dissipated and gave way to commercialised cinema, a process catalysed by the 1991 liberalisation reforms in India. Subsequently for two and a half decades topics of caste, gender, communal or racial violence became increasingly under-represented as single screen theatres were dominated by commercial entertainers produced by big production houses which refrained from socio-political commentary. It was with the multiplexes opening up in smaller towns in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century that a viable space was recreated for small-budget films which were different from mainstream commercial cinema and could address political and social issues on the backburner for a long time. Article 15 serves as an example of this phenomenon.
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