Of course jai to your Bhim & fancy

Irsquom wondering aloud if the Academy Award jury watching VisaranaimdashIndiarsquos entry for Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2017mdashgot the fact that the film was about labourers from Tamil Nadu crossing over for better work opportunities to Andhra Pradesh And getting further exploited as a result because they only spoke Tamil as against the local Telugu The two languages could sound the same to an international jury Did the movie somewhat miss out thereforeAnd I ask this because that bit is sort of central to the film on extreme custodial torture and the deep police state Visaranai itself cinematically speakingmdashas with other works of one of Indiarsquos most powerful filmmakers Vetrimaaranmdashis as universal as it getsSomething I canrsquot tragically say if you can keep this between us about Tamil mainstream cinema in general where melodrama is the main language excessive heroism the sole purpose and sometimes things head so many feet overthetop still a few floors below commercial Telugu that it becomes hard to reach it as an audience at all Therersquoll always be those say Shankar Kamal Haasan or Mani Ratnam from the past breaking the mould from withinA still from the film VisaranaiStill itrsquos essentially a palettegenre thing Which is why Irsquod rather keep quiet than nag anyone over not being as swayed by Pa Ranjithrsquos period boxing flick Sarpatta Parambarai 2021 Or opine unless specifically asked why Sudha Kongararsquos Soorarai Pottru 2020 is okay rsquon allmdashbut it doesnrsquot feel like a solid biopic of aviation pioneer Captain GR Gopinath starring SuriyaAlso a reason I initially stayed away from TJ Gnanavelrsquos Jai Bhim based on an important 1993 legal case concerning custodial torturedeath of a tribal manmdashbooked for a petty crime given pressure from higherups and subsequent coverup by the system full of opportunists to deny his family justice A publicinterest lawyer fights this case on behalf of the labourer from the Irulas tribe This uppercaste attorneyrsquos part is based on K Chandru who later retired as Madras High Court judgeWhat if he starts dancing I thought because Suriya after Gopinath is in a biopic of sorts The role itself instantly hearkens back to Govind Nihalanirsquos directorial debut Aakrosh 1980 scripted by Vijay Tendulkar with Naseeruddin Shah as the uppercaste lawyer appointed as legal aid for an adivasi man Om Puri on trial for alleged murder of his wifeBut that was an arthouse film Meaning cinema so parallel to an lsquoentertainingrsquo mainstream that it consciously shuns all its ingredients Naseer as hero is terrified of being attacked by goons Om doesnrsquot utter a word Music is minimalfolk Pace is slackened Film ends even while the case is on Guess thatrsquos how life isA still from the Tamil film MandelaIt directly touched upon caste though Something Hindi popular cinema seldom didmdashwith its own tradition of stars with the pseudonym Kumar also playing characters with the same casteless surname Jai Bhim is obviously titled after the father of Indiarsquos Constitution Bhimrao Ambedkar whose name remains a battlecry against Dalit oppression This isnrsquot a surpriseOf all Indian cinemas Irsquove perfunctorily followed lately none have placed caste as central to its themepolitics as Tamil films have Even for a movie named after Mandela 2021mdashMadonne Ashwinrsquos brilliant allegory on Indiarsquos obsession with elections as the only aspect of democracy to understand a voter called Mandela can swing results Him being lowcaste trumps that allimportant identity stillPa Ranjithrsquos Rajinikanth starrer Kaala 2018 remains the most fullfrontal mainstream statement on Dalit rightsequality of late Even in Visaranai if you notice the falsely implicated labourers get help from a Tamil cop in Andhra because of caste rather than language Tamil policeman who saves them is Dalit So are theyJai Bhim in its brutal portrayal of custodial torture is very Visaranai As an idolworshipping temple it is much less Kaala You care for Suriya as the lead Chandru just enough as a bridge for an lsquoempathy generating machinersquo that great movies can bemdashconnecting you to the lives of socially distant others Restoring faith in clicheacutes such as truth which alone triumphs Whatrsquove we got if not optimism Never mind the slightly dated symbolism of Marx and Lenin on table and wall You wanna be like Chandru Doing the right thing That careempathy doesnrsquot remain with audiences for too long I know But which emotion doesFurther the two judges of Madras High Court in the movie remain the real heroes all throughmdashchoosing equality and human rights over all other legalese to deliver justicemdashtheir reason for precious existence Making exceptions while admitting a lsquohabeas corpusrsquo petition to produce the person charged with a crime before a courtroomJai Bhim is set in 1995 Its point goes beyond caste and its timeline then The film decidedly belongs to 2021 Especially at a time in India when we couldnrsquot possibly hope more for heroes in coats to returnItrsquos not my case my lordmdashonly been all over social media and newspaper columns repeatedly over quite a few years nowMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper