A lot has already been said and written about Article 15, some have praised the movie for its bold commentary on the caste system while for some, the movie still presents the issue from a privileged lens, and attempts to maintain the status quo by making the hero or the lead character, an upper-caste Brahmin with a ‘saviour complex’.
As I watched the movie, I too was bothered by the fact that people from the Dalit community were shown as weak and powerless and had to rely on help from the upper-caste Brahmin policeman. Despite the presence of characters like Nishad, Gaura, Jatav who had the agency and were passionate about helping their community, the director refused to make them more important in this caste struggle.
Another issue was that, as the movie proceeded, the story seemed to forget about the women characters gradually, and completely eliminated them by the end. Gaura, a strong and fierce Dalit woman who stood up against the politics of caste, who wanted justice for the young girls who were raped and killed, who had an opinion and a voice, was reduced to a helpless lover.
With these questions in mind, I desperately wanted to understand the rationale of the director. I came across an article which mentioned how he wanted the audience to enter through the eyes of a privileged man who is untouched by the caste discrimination and is made to enter the muddy swamps, (quite literally) introspect, understand and shed his privilege. I was more or less convinced about the fact that Anubhav Sinha as a storyteller had to choose a direction for his audience, and he chose to continue the story from the hero’s point of view. But, I still could find no answer as to why he didn’t focus a little more on his women characters.
No Movie For Women?
I do appreciate his attempt to choose a volatile topic of caste discrimination and present it with sensitivity and intelligence. He blended reality with fiction and created a bold commentary on the present situation; and by incorporating elements of Chandra Shekhar Azad and Rohith Vemula’s letter in Zeeshan Ayyub’s character, Sinha has made a compelling narrative. But, even with an intelligent script, good direction, strong character background, and gripping cinematography, the film still didn’t work for me as well as I had anticipated.
While watching the movie, I constantly felt a nagging absence of a woman’s voice from the whole narrative. I wanted to see a woman speak up; I wanted to know what women had to say, after all, women are on the lowest ladder of hierarchy and are the most impacted by the caste system. Then why did the story overlook the importance of its women?
The character of Gaura, played by Sayani Gupta remained ignored and underutilised. The character of Aditi, played by Isha Talwar was redundant. The Dalit doctor was merely instrumental. I couldn’t help but ask, why were all the women characters serving as mere accessories? Why were the women left out of the discussion while the bodies of three young girls became a battleground for men to fight out their caste battles?
It’s not news that women’s bodies have always been controlled, their identity curbed, and, their agency snatched but, I thought now was the time that we needed fresher perspectives and stronger women characters. As an audience member and as a woman who appreciates and wants to see good cinema, I can say that the movie could have done much better if it wasn’t so busy excluding the women. And I speak for most women when I say that we don’t want women to be used as a mere plot line.
We don’t want to see women being turned into goddesses and getting caught up in the politics of ‘purity and impurity’ and losing their identity as human beings. We don’t want to see the characters of women to be ‘modern and educated but not too modern and too educated’. We want the voices of women to be heard, we want the women to be stronger so that we can hear their voice. We want narratives that highlight the insecurities, the fear, the inequalities faced by women and we want to hear the stories of real women who are struggling, manoeuvring, losing and succeeding to find their space in this world. We want the women to no longer bear the burden of pride of their family, we want the women to be free.