Dalit pehelwan, savarna gaze: Does 'Peddi' address casteism? Indian experts dissect the film

Peddi has all the hallmarks of a feelgood sports film What doesnrsquot feel good however is the Dalithook that critics have pointed out in the movieThe plot is anchored on the tale of a Dalit athlete who aspires to represent his country on the global stage and bring recognition to his marginalised people But critics have pointed out that while it draws in viewers with the promise of addressing one of the biggest controversies in sports mdash the ill treatment of Dalit sportspeople mdash the plot conveniently converts the struggle into a class war without caste contextCasteism in Indian sports is no matter of fiction Nor do we have to go very far back in history to point out an instance In 2021 when the womenrsquos hockey team lost their chance to win at the 2020 Summer Olympics which were held in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic team member Vandana Katariya and her family were at the receiving end of casteist slurs and even death threats The accusation India lost because Katariya a Dalit was on the teamOmeya says that Dalit issues always feel shiny for mainstream moviesMovies like Peddi have always existed ldquoDalit issues are shinyrdquo says Omeya a filmmaker from Satara who now resides in Vashi ldquoThey filmmakers audience love to see us from the point of view of how they save us These movies start from caste but turn into a goodversusevil class warrdquo he addsOmeyarsquos 2021 movie Kadubai follows its eponymous heroine in Aurangabad Kadubai was a displaced single mother who sang Ambedkrite folksongs with her ektara to earn a living It is free to watch on YouTube Omey is also set to release another movie Gungondhal which is about The story revolves around Sidharth a PhD student researching intercaste marriage who recently broke up with Yashika a Tamil girl due to the rigid caste hierarchyldquoBabasaheb social reformer BR Ambedkar was glad that there was Dalit representation in movies but had said that he was disappointed at the lack of nuance they showedrdquo says Omeya on how the communityrsquos icon had viewed Dalit representation in Bollywood ldquoMovies by V Shantaram and even Raj Kapoor have included caste but again the feeling was lsquoAt least we have some representation thatrsquos better than nonersquo The expectation of nuance was withheld for the future generations that could take the anticaste movement forward in cinemardquo he addsVamsi is a theatre artiste born in Andhra PradeshBut the issue of savarna actors portraying the Dalit experience is something Omeya says he cannot fathom ldquoShantaram too had directed savarna actors playing Dalit roles and Babasaheb had pointed out the same issuerdquo he says In more recent times Omeya takes objection to the same thing happening in Marathi film Dhangar ldquoThe movie had no actors from the Dhangar community there is no lived experience to inform the portrayal How can the film be counted as something that actually helps the community when you are not even hiring them to portray their own storiesrdquo he asksAppealing to Dalit sentiments to gain traction of a movie does real harm says Vamsi a Bengalurubased theatre artiste who addresses caste oppression through his work ldquoThe Telugu film industry or Tollywood has historically run on finance and distribution networks controlled by a very small section of feudal caste communities such as the Kammas and the Reddys They control production houses distribution networks screens movie halls and now even OTTsrdquo he saysVamsi who hails from Andhra Pradesh himself is no stranger to the manipulations ldquoMass cinema is always run on the underdog engine mdash the angry young man of Hindi cinema the rebel hero in Tamil cinema the rowdy hero in Telugu cinema they are all variations of a poor wronged man taking on the corrupt system An emotionally potent version of this is the Dalit Bahujan or working class Muslim or Christian person mdash the lsquootherrsquo mdash who is fighting unemployment humiliation or any sort of structural injusticerdquo he addsldquoThis is a trope that is played again and again And the problem is that this extracts the emotional charge of someone who lives in the slum and fights the man but doesnrsquot help the people actually living that life This is yet another part of the systemrdquo says Vamsi