Dalitprotagonists
Dalitprotagonists News
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: Karuna Kumar's Palasa 1978 is a sublime song of resistance
Palasa 1978 does not merely narrate the resistance of Dalits — the film sings it.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: Veyilmarangal's searing depiction of displacement, dreams and hope
Bijukumar Damodaran’s Veyilmarangal — like his other stories — is also dream-like, but set in a reality we ruthlessly ignore.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: In Dhanush's 2019 film Asuran, the rise of a new national hero
Asuran is a story of a Dalit, Sivasamy (played by Dhanush), and his family. It is an unusual story in that it doesn’t succumb to violence or revenge, but rises about it.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: In Pariyerum Perumal, love is the only meaningful resistance in a caste-society
Coming out of our caste-mentality is a freedom, but most of us fear this freedom, especially those who benefit by it. Pariyerum Perumal provides us the courage to emerge from this fear.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: Kaala represents resurrection of masses in world of cinematic stories
It is not the case that Indian movies have never dealt with political subjects or politics in their stories, but they lacked aesthetics from the lives of the masses. Kaala breaks this monotony.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: Chamm spurs viewers to think rationally about emotional complexities of exploitation
Chamm establishes a truth about today’s Punjab with every frame: that this Punjab is not “grand” anymore, it is organically deprived.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: Kammatipaadam deftly unravels the connection between land and caste
Kammatipaadam is a 2016 Malayalam movie directed by Rajeev Ravi, which captures in a simple yet profound manner what land means to Dalits.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: How Masaan confronts us with a truth caste norms would have us negate
In post-constitutional India, the meeting points of two castes or of people from two historically opposed castes, has become a vantage point for understanding the process of society’s democratisation.
Indian film and the Dalit identity: Perariyathavar is the cinema that a caste-society needs to become humane
Perariyathavar’s biggest achievement is that it takes us into a long-invisibilised world, through the eyes of a man (played by Suraj Venjaramoodu) employed as a sweeper, and his son.
Indian cinema and the Dalit identity: The groundbreaking defiance of Nagraj Manjule's Fandry
Fandry is a rigorous cinematic exercise for viewers to contemplate on: what kind of society we have become; what kind of cinema this society has produced; and what kind of society cinema has constructed, in which a man is denied love just because he is Dalit.