I saw Mirch Masala, a 1987 film which is based in the early 40’s as part of the Smita Patil retrospective on MUBI. She is one of my favourites in the parallel movie universe who unfortunately met with an early death due to complications during childbirth. Because of which we could not see much of her like we do of Shabana Azmi who was her contemporary.
I had seen Mirch Masala probably when I was in 12th and I guess I would have slept through most of it except for the last part where she is fighting to save herself from the subedar who wants her for obvious reasons. And, how Om Puri plays the hero albeit an old man who fights against the subedar because his majhab / principles do not allow him to give Smita to the subedar. He fights knowing very well that it’s his death wish.
Seeing it again with after 25 years you understand that the movie portrays everything which was wrong with our society (and true for all others as well) - women cannot study, cannot go out, but man can have women beside his wife, the uneducated get their lands taken over by zamindars and have to pay lagaan - tax. In the current context - Om Puri is a muslim but he gives up his life to protect a dalit (in all probablity) Smita. A job in govt is a coveted need in those days which takes away Smita’s husband.
This was pre-independence, whatever stats I read the penetration of education is still abysmal in rural areas, law and order situation is still driven by the rich and powerful lobbies. The rich and poor gap is only increasing with the right wing making their voice felt more strongly than ever and tech has now given power to all but also taken our independence and relationships with nature and people around us.
The above may be a very simplistic picture but if we summarise all the articles and books in recent days and the articles I read it may not be very different, which made me stop reading news and engaging on social media.
I also saw Gargi, a Tamil movie starring Sai Pallavi, in which a daughter fights a legal battle against the society to prove that her father is innocent. This is set in 20 21 and it portrays the true picture of our courts and what it takes to fight a system. More importantly the power of press and social media to mobilise people against you. Jai Bhim, which one many awards, portrayed a similar picture of what’s happening in a city.
If you read Logical Indian, Better India - there will be many stories of how someone has decided to make a change and went ahead and made it. Recently I was in a seminar where the founder of an organisation was threatened with death, or acid being thrown on her and her family and even her tyre was punctured because she wanted to fight a legal battle against the land owners. She is a computer science graduate and has been working in the US for 20+ years before she decided to come and do something for India.
The kind of resilience and perseverance needed to follow this path is immense and very rare.
Like my friend said yesterday, most of us are reluctant activists/change makers / entrepreneurs. It’s easy to get bogged down by constant negative news and lift yourself up to do something within your sphere of influence. In the same seminar I mentioned earlier a young girl in college asked ‘how do i understand the nuances of these changes and how do I create change’. There were many suggestions made by people on dais.
For me, the change starts with me and my mindset, once that is clear, path will follow. As someone said - The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Start Walking.
