The Beginning

 There is a new short film by Neelam Productions called 'The Discreet Charm of Savarnas', it has been all the rage in the past few days, so many people have been putting it up on their status and sharing it on social media and so on. 

To talk about these things is a slippery slope because people tend to see things in a very black and white manner, for most of my acquaintances and friends the argument is that it is made by one of our people about a phenomenon that is so common among Savarnas and one of our issues is being represented on screen so we must encourage it. While there is no disagreement there, the question remains, should we encourage or praise bad film-making and a mediocre delivering of a subject simply because it is one of our own who has made it? Must we not be critical about the way the subject is dealt with and how it is put across so that there is scope for improvement and better performance in the future, or should we remain in our echo chambers and praise the work done no matter how good or bad? This is the same question Kenya Barris deals with in the series '#blackAF' , one interesting point in that was how the white people were very skeptical to say anything bad about a 'black'movie that Barris makes them watch. I feel that there is a parallel here, our people are revelling in TDCS and the Savarnas are too afraid to speak their mind and are afraid to lose their 'wokeness' by saying what could possibly be wrong with the movie. So the question remains what do we do when a not so great movie with an good intended message yet poor storytelling is made by one of our own? If we continue to make movies in the aforementioned manner do we not run the risk of being compartmentalized once again something we are fighting hard against? And if we are overtly critical we probably might do some damage to the morale of film makers and needless to say incite the wrath of the Social justice warriors of our community (higher possibility of the latter to happen than the former). But speaking from an objective point of view,  I do think we have to find a balance between the two, being extremely critical doesn't help our cause, especially when we are in a space that doesn't give our people many opportunities, so when someone is able to make something we must appreciate the effort but at the same time we must encourage our people to do better, and our folks too should be open to constructive criticism. and it's important to note that there's a difference between constructive criticism and criticizing for the sake of it. I know if I were to put it out there for everyone to read, I'm going to be told off by everyone and will probably open up a whole new avenue for people to spew their misogyny on me and put me in my place for even daring to speak against something 'our guy' has done. Nevertheless we ought to speak about things, at least in spaces that are safe for us to do so, therefore I am writing here on my blog which is pretty much private and is seen only by those whom I trust most. Having said that here's my take on the short film.

There was plenty wrong with it from bad acting to sloppy handling of the subject. The main idea that the movie seeks to convey is that the Savarnas have a certain schema of how a Dalit person is supposed to look like and they're taken aback when they see that somebody who is a Dalit could be fair skinned and be dressed in a crackling white saree and look so "pretty". To begin with the plot felt a bit too dragged, it could have been a little shorter.  The director tries to show the caste blindness of the savarnas but his wit fails him as the jokes are not that funny and feel too forced.  I think the problem here lies with the fact that just like how the savrnas caricaturize our  people the same thing has been done by the director with the savarna characters. But I don't intend to delve further into that aspect, rather I ould like to touch upon a different subject. It feels like it has become a fad to dis to feminism or anyone who is seen as a feminist and the directors internalized disdain for feminism is clearly seen through the movie. The character that is bashed more for their 'wokeness' is the woman, I'm not denying that the issue at hand is not true but that 'wokeness' is there in men and women as well but there's more detestation directed towards the woman. in the final scene they meet the "Dalit girl", the woman playing the Dalit girl is a fair skinned woman clad in a crackling white Saree. Our men so used to mansplaining feminism to us and telling us how we need to look like and appear, they hate being stereotyped into what Dalits should look like but never refrain from stereotyping us women into what a Dalit woman is supposed to look like or dress like. It is rather ironic how the director who is trying to mock the 'Savarna gaze' doesn't shy away from imposing his 'male gaze'.

It isn't an uncommon experience for most of us where men from our communities have policed us for our clothes, and told us in whatever manner possible how we should dress and the director does just that when the Dalit girl shows up in a saree. One woman is indirectly pitted against the other, there is a Savarna woman obsessed with political correctedness who is a dark skinned woman dressed in jeans and then there is the Dalit woman dressed in white shown as two distinct creatures and cutting away any solidarity that they could possibly have. While there is no disagreement that Savarna feminists blatantly ignore the caste question, there is no disagreement that as women we have both been subjected to a disadvantage in various circumstances. Most of our Dalit men ignore the question of gender in their crusade against casteism, but that doesn't stop us from standing shoulder to shoulder in the anti caste movement and proclaim our support, solidarity and lending the movement our strength. Why then is it so bad for us to stand together with women of other castes when it comes to the issues of gender? There is always a feeling among our men that we will be 'used' by them as pawns for their struggle, they must think so low of us that they believe this to be true or they must also be treating us as 'pawns' for their struggle so they think the other women would do the same to us. But what the Dalit men or Savarna women forget is that we have our own agency and we would like take charge of our issues and our bodies and we definitely are a force to be reckoned with. So I would like the men to just let us be and let us wear whatever the hell we want and stop telling us what to wear or portray a certain image of us to the rest of the world, because that's your idea of how we should be and not how we are!