A couple of days ago, I was talking to my friend Biju Toppo, a National Award-winning documentary filmmaker. I had casually asked him at that time, “Why is the Adivasi community invisible and unheard of in the Hindi movie industry?” Apparently, this simple question had no easy answers. Then we went on to discuss in detail about the struggles and the hardships that our Adivasi community faces in getting our faces seen and our voices heard.
Sadly, this fact is true not only for the Hindi movie industry but also for the other modern era communication channels. These include the mainstream media, book publications, television, internet entertainment industries, and many more. We concluded our lengthy discussions on a cheerful note. As my friend Biju assured me that I should expect positive changes, at least in the Hindi movie industry in the future. My filmmaker friend Biju was optimistic, but I am not so sure.
In India, the first feature film was made in 1913. Now, this Hindi film making business has gone for more than a century with thousands of films being produced each year in India. Despite that, we can simply count them with the fingers the number of movies that had Adivasi stories and characters.
I hope that you all remember the movie ‘Chak De! India’ that came out almost a decade ago in August 2007. It is an iconic sports movie based on the fictionalized triumphs of the Indian Women’s Hockey team at the world stage. This movie had four Adivasi players. They were Mary Ralte, Molly Zimik, Rani Dispotta (her title name should have been Kispotta, but they got it wrong), and Soimoi Kerketta. As no Indian women’s hockey team can be complete with the inclusion of naturally talented Adivasi players in the team.
In this film, two players from Jharkhand, my home state, were shown as the players who could not speak proper Hindi. Needless to say, they did not fit in and stayed at the sidelines of this Hindi movie. Having interacted with many Adivasi hockey players from my state, I can safely say that speaking proper Hindi has never been a problem with them.
Isn’t it ironic that these Adivasi players remained marginalized even in a fictionalized Hindi movie?
A few years later, in December 2009, the blockbuster movie ‘3 Idiots’ graced the movie theatres across the country. The lead character of this youth-centric movie was called Phunsukh Wangdu (Ranchhoddas Chanchad or Rancho). It was inspired by the real-life Ladakhi tribal hero Sonam Wangchuk. He was recently awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award.
However, this movie never ever dared to acknowledge Phunsukh Wangdu’s tribal roots. In addition, on the matters concerning his family, community, or culture, it barely scratched the surface of tribal roots. But, it narrated the tales about the families, the communities, and the cultural backgrounds of the other leading characters in detail.
Probably that’s the way the Hindi movies make the Adivasi character(s) in our Indian society invisible and unheard.
Almost six months later, in June 2010, another prominent Hindi movie called ‘Raavan’ was released. In this big budget movie, the main antagonist was known as Beera Munda. It was said that the character Beera Munda was loosely inspired by the revered Adivasi freedom fighter Birsa Munda.
Birsa Munda belonged to the Munda Adivasi community of the Jharkhand state. He had waged an inspiring freedom struggle against the British rulers in the Chotanagpur plateau region.
Like the movies mentioned above, this film too did not try to explore the socio-cultural lives of the Munda tribe.
And the Adivasi community continued to remain hidden behind the thick cloak of the script.
Although I praise the “Thok de killi” song in the movie, one of the lines in this song is “Aaja mil ke bethain, haal suna dain dil ka, dilon ko khaate jayein, humkon phenkain chilka chilka”. Its translation in English means “Today let’s sit down together, and talk about the things that break our hearts, that they eat up the main fruit, and then toss its leftover skin for us”. The lyrics of this song aptly conveys the general feeling among the Adivasi community. This rebellious song tries to express the marginalization of the Adivasi community in our society.
It makes their unheard voices heard.
Almost four years later, in September 2014, they released another sports based Hindi movie titled ‘Mary Kom’. It was a biopic based on the life of the celebrated Manipur tribal boxer Mary Kom Hmangte from India. Not surprisingly, in the 122 minutes-long movie, they wiped clean almost all the overt references to her tribal identity. Barring the two scenes, barely lasting a couple of minutes. They implicitly hinted about her tribal roots in the northeastern state of Manipur.
It’s worth mentioning the fact that World Amateur Boxing champion Mary has won many prestigious national awards. For instance, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, et al. Still the filmmaker of her biopic had no qualms about hiding the Adivasi heritage of a world champion.
In the 21st century, if the powerful mainstream Hindi movie-makers can make two modern-day Adivasi icons invisible and unheard, then one can easily understand the plight of the Adivasi commoners.
Now, what’s remarkable to note here is that the award-winning movie-making teams backed all the mainstream Hindi movies named above. These big-budgeted movies teams consist of respected producers, directors, actors, musicians, scriptwriters, cinematographers, et al. Yet, none of them objected to the content of these movies that perpetuated the age-old stereotypes and the typical clichés with respect to the less-heard Adivasi denizens of India? Mind you, these are some of the biggest names in the movie industry. Up till this time, not even one of them has taken the lead to address the issues of the invisibility and the muffled voices of the Adivasi community in their movies.
Ironically, one of the movies includes an actor that wants Hollywood to accept Indian actors.
While, back home in India, none of these movies tried to find Adivasi actors to play these roles of the Adivasi characters.
Isn’t this a contradictory stand, and a case of double standards?
Actually, the content of the Hindi movie industry did not surprise me. They simply reflect the explicit and implicit biases inherent in our society. But, I can only wish that these big names take a moment to think about the Adivasi community. Adivasi society has always been one of the most marginalized and disadvantaged socio-economic communities in our country.
The harsh reality is that the Indian movie industry has yet to see the affirmative action on Adivasi community issues. They are yet to correct the historical wrongs. They have not yet broken the ongoing cycle of exploitations sustained by the inequality of the caste-based social hierarchy.
As I type this, I caught the glimpses of the dubbed Hindi movie Tarzan the Heman in the television. Released in 2017, its original movie was called Vanamagan in the Tamil language.
Like so many other Indian movies, this Indian film also propagates the well-ingrained racial inequality. It publicized the deep-seated prejudiced and the well-entrenched discriminatory mindsets. Although it did try to address the societal biases against the Adivasi community. But it lacked the finesse to pull it off in a sensitive manner.
Of late, the bunch of influential Actors in the Hollywood movie industry has taken initiative to push the two basic ideas of diversity and inclusion in the entertainment sphere for their western society. I can only hope that these two powerful ideas of diversity and inclusion should visit and get itself firmly embedded, not only in the Hindi movie industry but also in the broader milieu of our Indian society.
Or else, India will remain a melting pot of diversity that makes our Adivasi community invisible and unheard, even in this modern age.
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