Fandry the movie

I rarely watch movies, but on insistence of my friends, I did went to watch the movie Fandry. This post shares my view on the movie with readers. This is not a film review.

Fandry is a Marathi movie based on 15-20 days of time span of a low caste boy 'Jabya'. Also it brings forth the viewers the contradictions of Rural India.

The protagonist is an adolescent boy Jabya, trying to break away from chains of poverty, familial tradition of catching pigs and wants to go to school, study and for all this he is ready to work hard. He has a crush in school, a girl called 'Shalu', who is from the upper caste. He tries to dissociate himself from the forced job of catching pigs, the job which the village and tradition forces on him; he doesn't wants to get identified with his mother and shouts at his mother when she comes to his school; he desist speaking in his mother tongue for fear of being identified and segregated;he speaks in Marathi, the language of elites.

But unfortunately, the village is a small hamlet and everyone knows there who's who.

 His dreams are small. He wants to study, buy a jeans and T-shirt he is craving since past 6 months and get attention of Shalu.

The movie starkly points out the way the Harijans are STILL treated in villages. When Jabya goes to his friend 'Pirya' s house, he is offered entry as well as tea. But when he goes to his friend Kulkarni's house, he has to stop at gate only. His father's insistence to join to work shows how much money is important for the poor family and acts like RTE and MNREGA are still short of expectations.The master stroke of the film comes when nearing the climax, after getting a handsome beating from his father, the family is finally able to catch the pig and Jabya is forced to catch the rabid pig in front of his class mates (in presence of Shalu too) and becomes a laughing stock. Once the task of pig catching is accomplished the crowd of onlookers disperse and Jabya is carrying the pig on his shoulder assisted by his sister. His dreams have already shattered. When passing from near the school wall, there are portraits of social reformers whom Maharashtra cherishes (and all political parties swear by their name). They are saying as if we memorise their teachings only for passing the exam and for school only. The main development is still pending and we have failed them in terms of integrating the downtrodden in the mainstream.

Also interesting is the character of Sangram Patil, an arrogant lad. The village is a maratha dominated village growing sugarcane and Sangram Patil is a maratha, comes to school on bike, sports a trendy mobile and is on Facebook. But now a days he too is demanding affirmative action from government and Jabya, who I doubt, if ever knows that the exists some affirmative action for him.

One might argue that the film is based on some long gone era of 80's and 90's and now there is equality and equity. But the mobile tower, Facebook updates confirms the story is on present times and still lot of things are needed to be done for upliftment of downtrodden
Anyways, the film shows the truth and Truth, sometimes is bitter. Hats off to Shri Manjule for making such a film.

Death is Permanent, Life is momentary. Live it or Leave it

An average day of study. I am yet to complete finishing the geography part, but now its late(9:00 pm) and making back the journey to home by train.


I am a habitual to the train, to the platform and to the surroundings at Virar Platform No 7 at this time of day (or night). Its all same since past 6 months. The 9:00 pm MEMU is almost empty with exception of few heads. On the platform, there are few families dining, chatting, cosying up each other. An ordinary day. As usual, I got my daily window seat and digged my head to finish off geography.

A few moments lapsed, I heard low wails of a woman crying. I searched for the source and found it to be a woman on platform. A lone woman amongst the 10-15 families residing there was crying. Initially I thought of some domestic issues involved and ignored it. But the pitch of the sound increased and this time an another woman joined in, partly crying and partly consoling. I curiously looked around and I saw person lying beside the crying woman, across the railway beam. On a closer look, it was clear that the person was dead and was a relative of the woman. The person died probably by an illness. Strange but true, that the emotions are same everywhere and they surpass class, religion,region or lingual boundaries. The loss felt by the dear ones is always the same and the void left behind cannot be filled by anyone whether it be a beggar or be an emperor. Time can only heal the wound and lower its pain.

True to its character, Death is a great leveller. It catches everyone irrespective of his caste,creed,status or position. For most of us, it comes unannounced. Even the fear for death is same in everyone's heart and no one wants to die. Ironically everyone wants to go to heaven! After death every person is treated with respect, irrespective of his 'karma'. Probably, we humans are more fearful of the reprisal from the ghosts rather than believing on old Sanskrit saying"Marnanti vairani" (Death ends all enmities). A human in his life tries to get the same rrespect from the fellow brethren, but he hardly gets one if he does not have money or power except after his death. True , death has its own rules and it devours none, whether it be Shri Krishna, Lord Jesus or Prophet Mohammad.

In the meantime my train has moved , the body still lays there, resting in eternal silence. The woman's wail have been converted to sobs, she might have prepared herself with thought of living the rest of life without the person she was crying for.


 A few lines by my friend reverbate in my mind....

   Zindagi main do minute mere koi pass na baitha,aaj sab mere pass baithe ja rahe hai;
   Koi tohfa na mila aaj tak mujhe, aaj phool hi phool diye ja rahe hai;
   Taras gaye the mere haath kisike diye ek kapde ko, aaj naye kapde odhaye ja rahe the;
   Do kadam saath chalne ko naa taiyaar tha koi, aaj kaafilaa banakar chale ja rahe hai;
   Aaj Pata chala 'maut' itni hasin hoti hai, kambakht hum toh yuhin jiye ja rahe the.

   (No one gave me company even for two minutes, today all are sitting besides me;
   Never had I received any gift from anyone, today I am receiving flowers and flowers;
   I pleaded (but never got) for a piece of cloth, today I am adorned by news clothes;
   Nobody ever followed me for even two steps,today I am being followed as a leader;
   Today I understood how beautiful (and bountiful) death is, and I unnecessarily struggled to live.)
by

IDEAS and REVOLUTION

"The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas"

The above words said by Shaheed Bhagat Singh are true, for there generation, and for generations to come. This reality is especially true or is especially reminded in the backlight of the anti-corruption agitation which happened in 2012.

Many parallels and antithesis can be drawn between then and now. The agitation too is having the conspicuous absence of intellectuals and thinkers. Thinkers play an very important role in any society. They are the compass which guide the society rationally. The French revolution (1789) happened because of pivotal role played by thinkers like Rousseau, Voltaire and others. No doubt that when anti-revolution forces come in power they first try to suppress intellectuals and thinkers, whether it be Stalin's Russia, MaoZedongs's China or Z A Bhutto's erstwhile East Pakistan.

If there are absence of ideas, the poor people do what they can best do on individual stage, that is, fight against the system. Normally people prefer to fight through non violence, because they knew the ramifications of violence and care more for safety of near and dear ones rather than own. But government rarely heeds to demand and then some youngsters want to overthrow the system itself. If they are able to get the arms, the struggle becomes an armed one just like the Maoist menace in Indian states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand.

Thus the main difference between the anti-corruption agitation and Maoist is that one wants to reform the system while the other wants to replace the system. Intact, Arvind Kejriwal is now the Chief Minister of Delhi. However both the movements lack ideas whrich can actually guide the movement and sustain it for long. Though some readers might point that the Maoist movement is active since 1972, it should be noted that the movement is active because of the power of gun and some short sightedness of local politician for short term personal gains. The maoist still rely on the same literature used by initially Russians and later Chinese.

With these outdated ideas and beliefs, there is no doubt that the movements are going to whither away within a matter of time. No movement and agitation can be sustained on basis of mere rhetoric as the people gets tire of the rhetoric and stops giving any damn. The people are more interested in actions and for actions its is a compulsion to have ideas, which we unfortunately do not have. Probably the education in schools forbids independent thinking and that's the reason we don't have likes of Bell, Microsoft, Google,etc which are identities of a generation. Instead we have Tata's, Birlas , Ambanis which are nothing but dynasties. Even our political parties too are full of sycophants and dynasties. No doubt, that we have hordes of stereotype graduates in all fields who are unemployable because of lack of skill sets.