GOI censors ANOTHER film: Papilo Buddha

[VanHelsingh]

Warning: Brief glimpse of a female being stripped of her clothes

Jayan Cherian’s film Papilio Buddha has infuriated the Indian film censors: they are yet to certify and clear the film. It was also denied entry to the International Film Festival of Kerala though the censor’s certification is not a pre-requisite for entry. It has also lost its chance to compete in the many film festivals around the world as the censor board is in a mode of deliberate procrastination. The stated reason for the refusal of certification: it uses ‘abusive’ language and dares even ‘abuse Gandhi.’ The unstated reason: it upholds the Dalit cause, and in the process, interrogates the status quo including political parties of every hue.

The immediate inspiration for Papilio Buddha (the name of an endangered butterfly species in Kerala) came from a news report about the Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM) that the police had identified as a ‘terrorist movement’ while in fact, it is a peaceful movement upholding Dalit dignity, encouraging education among Dalits and supporting sub-altern struggles for basic human rights in Kerala.

Papilio Buddha imaginatively recreates some of the politically significant real-life incidents that happened in Kerala during the last decade symptomatic of the society’s growing amnesia about its own past and the authorities’ callous conspiracy against the landless and the downtrodden. Though Kerala’s Left movement was made possible by the earlier social reforms pioneered by leaders from the backward and Dalit communities like Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali, the mainstream Left has shown scant regard for the rights of the Dalits and tribals and little sympathy for their independent struggles for land rights and dignity. Even the land reforms undertaken by the Left hardly benefited the landless Dalit peasant. The Right and the Left alike seem to be scared of the new independence shown by women, Dalits and Adivasis, often sharing platforms with minority organisations that they write off as manifestations of ‘identity politics,’ as if they had nothing to do with the question of class.

Two incidents narrated in the film have revealed the anti-Dalit stance of the civil society in Kerala with its caste hindu hegemony. One is the experience of the DHRM, mentioned earlier in this article, that has been trying to redefine Dalit subjectivity by promoting self-help, creating new family and community models different from the individualistic unitary family, by urging its members to follow a unisex dress-code with jeans and black shirts with Ambedkar’s picture on them and asking each to cook for others. They were ‘extremists’ to the police and the Shiv Sena and were even falsely implicated in a murder. The other is the case of Chitralekha, a Dalit woman from Payyannur in North Kerala who challenged CITU diktats and drove an autorickshaw – a male preserve in the state. She was abused as a ‘loose woman’ and a ‘drunkard,’ beaten up and her vehicle was burnt leading to a campaign by feminists and Dalits in support of her.

One of the links that connects the diverse episodes is Shankaran, a young Dalit who helps a white man in his research on butterflies; they also are in a transient gay relationship. Shankaran is finally arrested and tortured by the police as a ‘terrorist.’ The discriminatory treatment teaches him the meaning of being a Dalit, even to one like Shankaran with a good education and a degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Another is Shankaran’s father, Karayan, played by Pokkoodan, a Dalit environmental activist himself who had begun as a communist, driven by disillusionment to Dalit struggles and local environmental regeneration. The third is Manjusree, an enlightened and educated Dalit woman who is punished with rape by a group of unionised autorickshaw drivers as she, a Dalit and a woman, dared to run an autorickshaw and resisted lechers and was teaching Dalit children with the money she earned from her vehicle.

Manjusree, the Dalit activist is at the very centre of the film, carrying it forward. She refuses to surrender even after the group-rape, shaves her head, becomes a Buddhist along with other Dalits of the locality, pledges her allegiance to Ambedkar and leads the land struggle when the police step in and beat her up. She challenges patriarchal violence, upper caste violence and state violence at the same time and realises their tacit collusion in the oppression of Dalits and women.

The film brings to the surface the caste feeling that survives in Kerala’s society despite the average ‘enlightened’ Keralite’s attempts to brush it under the carpet. The protagonists have full faith in the democratic constitution Ambedkar has drawn up for independent India but they are disillusioned to find how that sacred document is violated by the rulers themselves during every critical attempt the poor and the oppressed make to emancipate themselves from the crushing hegemony of caste, class and gender in our society. The critique of Gandhi, never flippant or overstated, is made precisely in this context and is an organic part of the film, inseparable from the total social critique the film attempts.

The film has not shown even one-hundredth of the torture borne by us. And now they won’t even allow our film to be screened,” says Thathu, a dalit who saw the film. About the denigrating remarks about Mahatma Gandhi, the director said, “Gandhi has a saintly image created through our educational system and the media. When we brought out a counter-narrative to the official one, there is no space for us. Then how can it be a democracy?”

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Warning: Brief glimpse of a female being stripped of her clothes

Last second of the movie, showing Buddha statue being burnt - recalled the memories of history when I read "Buddha Bodh Gaya Tree in Bihar" - TREE under which Mahatma Gautam Buddha got reincarnation was then burnt at that time by followers by Adi SankarayaCharya / Mihirkula, to start the Vedic/Brahamanism again, as Mahatma Gautam Buddha was against caste system - untouchability.

It is a shame Sikhs have not been able to do effective "PRACHAR" of Guru Nanak message, and take Sikhism to all castes / races ... We have pretty much kept our message within ourselves, hence so many sects Radha-Swamis/NarakDhari's etc. all giving 1 page of Naam/Shabad from Guru Granth Sahib Jee, and masses joining them as they do PRACHAR, and they do PRACHAR to ALL. We restrict it just to ourselves.

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Wonder why the Reservation system in India started after 1947 is not coming to an end, and also not being beneficial in anyway to the sort of people as shown in this Video???

One would just say Politics - VOTE BANK, but I have some other arguable strong reason, GUESS WHAT ???

[Singh559]

Wow, amazing. It looks like a great film and looks really well made.

We need films of this caliber in the future. I hope it gets unbanned.

[VanHelsingh]

Wow, amazing. It looks like a great film and looks really well made.

We need films of this caliber in the future. I hope it gets unbanned.

Exactly. That's what I was alluding to a few weeks ago when talking about Sadda Haq, which is a great achievement in itself, but if we really want to attract the attention of film festivals, etc., then the level of sophistication needs to be ramped up when it comes to our productions. You don't need a huge budget to make something real and full of integrity. Panjabi pot-boilers are a great start (it shows us thinking outside the box and making use of modern media) but I hope there's a gradual progression into these kind of hard-hitting films.

Although another part of me wonders whether we'd get any of the audience who flocked to watch Sadda Haq to see a similarly crafted (like Papilo Buddha) Sikh-oriented movie, without a Jazzy-B number to get the feet tapping, lol? :giggle:

[Singh559]

Exactly. That's what I was alluding to a few weeks ago when talking about Sadda Haq, which is a great achievement in itself, but if we really want to attract the attention of film festivals, etc., then the level of sophistication needs to be ramped up when it comes to our productions. You don't need a huge budget to make something real and full of integrity. Panjabi pot-boilers are a great start (it shows us thinking outside the box and making use of modern media) but I hope there's a gradual progression into these kind of hard-hitting films.

Although another part of me wonders whether we'd get any of the audience who flocked to watch Sadda Haq to see a similarly crafted (like Papilo Buddha) Sikh-oriented movie, without a Jazzy-B number to get the feet tapping, lol? :giggle:

Totally agreed, I said the same thing even though Sadda Haq was great for a truthful punjabi movie, but it wasn't something you'd see get a film festival showing.

It's been a dream of mine for quite some time to take up making movies related to Sikh history and documentaries, but I'm not studying film or anything close and don't currently have the means. I think it would be an honorable profession to pursue, but many punjabi parents would be against it due to the financial risk and security uncertainty involved. As a community we don't tend to get out there and become our own 'individual' by finding our own passion despite the risks. Maybe one more generation?

I do think if a high quality historical film were made we would be able to rally behind it and support it and even bring it to the maknstre, something you can't do with punjabi movies.

[VanHelsingh]

Totally agreed, I said the same thing even though Sadda Haq was great for a truthful punjabi movie, but it wasn't something you'd see get a film festival showing.

It's been a dream of mine for quite some time to take up making movies related to Sikh history and documentaries, but I'm not studying film or anything close and don't currently have the means. I think it would be an honorable profession to pursue, but many punjabi parents would be against it due to the financial risk and security uncertainty involved. As a community we don't tend to get out there and become our own 'individual' by finding our own passion despite the risks. Maybe one more generation?

I do think if a high quality historical film were made we would be able to rally behind it and support it and even bring it to the maknstre, something you can't do with punjabi movies.

Love, respect, and take care of your parents. But nobody in the history of civilization ever made a change or became a trail-blazer by worrying about what their parents would think when embarking on a new, dangerous path. Wider society is full of hypocrites so no need to worry about them.

I find that, ultimately, Panjabi parents resist their offspring pursuing unconventional paths, whether it be in film-making, art, i.e. pursuits outside of the standard law, medical, and engineering professions. However it doesn't surprise me when said parents change their tune when a degree of success is gained in those previously unconventional fields, So really all parents crave is success for their children; they just happen to prefer the kind of success which is virutally guaranteed as opposed to the kind which is rather risky to begin with.