Sairat, Nagraj Manjule’s
Marathi feature film after the national award winning Fandry, has been wowing
audiences in Maharashtra ever since its release. With a powerful score by Ajay
Atul, music that has been topping charts and a charming lead pair, Sairat would
give any mainstream Hindi love story a run for its money.
To many who’ve seen the
film, Sairat may not offer anything new in terms of storyline- we have had many
Indian films showing young couples fighting their families and the society for
love or being persecuted for entering into relationships outside their social
standing. The inherent message then, is that love conquers all and renders all
barriers inconsequential. However, more than a star-crossed lovers’ romantic
drama a la Romeo Juliet, Sairat is a film with a striking commentary on society
and the caste and class backgrounds of its protagonists.
Set in Bittergaon in rural
Maharashtra, the film introduces us to this place with sound alone. As credits
are being rolled on the screen, we hear a man commentating a local cricket
match. The opening sequences establish the chaotic setting- the people, their
language, the vast fields of sugarcane, and the political mileu. All of it
looks very real, like setting foot in the village ourselves and the actors look
like they’ve lived the lives of the characters they’re portraying. (This is not
surprising, as the actors are from similar social backgrounds as their
characters and were handpicked for this very reason, unlike the tradition of
mainstream films where actors are often chosen on criteria other than whether
they suit their characters.)
The male protagonist
Prashant, fondly called Parshya is a lower caste boy and son of a fisherman,
who has a crush on the rich, landed, upper caste, local political leader’s
daughter Archana (Archie). The feisty, tractor and bullet-riding Archie,
who pushes out a group of boys from a well because she wants to swim in it with
her friends, is used to having her way. This sequence follows her father
mocking his political opponents for not keeping a firm hold on their women,
showing a society that places its collective morality in their absence of
agency and sexual fidelity. When she sees Parshya trying to pursue her, she
reciprocates with enthusiasm and saves Parshya from being beaten up. While she
is the female protagonist in the film, this is quite uncharacteristic of the
romantic interest of a male lead. She continues to subtly break such gender
stereotypes even later, when we see her drive her husband around in a big city,
a minor yet refreshing change from watching women in the forefront, rather than
the background.
Aiding in the diversity of
the social setting are Parshya’s friends, Pradeep (langdya), a boy with bowlegs
and Salim (Salya), a Muslim – all of them marginalized in some way in their
village. Even as we see Pradeep rationalizing his feelings not being
reciprocated by the girl he likes as an inevitable consequence of his slight
disability in what is a wonderfully done scene, Parshya and Archie revel in
their affection for each other, the difference in their backgrounds not coming
in the way of their budding romance. There are symbolic references to it
though, like in the scene where Archie is seen dancing in a balcony on the top
floor, while Parshya is dancing on the ground below.
Dodging Archie’s family
and narrowly escaping the witch hunt that ensues after they are caught
together, they flee to Hyderabad. This is when the difference in the stature of
the two is magnified. Both find adjusting to their new surroundings difficult,
especially Archie, whose circumstances see a drastic fall as compared to her
life at home. We see some friction between the two, with Parshya even showing
an abusive streak. But it is only when they leave their prior identities and
the social hierarchies inherent in them behind, that they start their life
together from scratch.
If you’ve not seen the film, please stop here as spoilers follow.
Just as we are relaxing in
our seats from the tension of the chase sequences from before and preparing for
a happy ending, that the final blow is delivered. A flock of birds appears in
the background, an omen of impending events that we see throughout the film,
and a sudden change in tone of the film follows- one moment you have a group of
guests quietly drinking tea, browsing through the couple’s albums, playing the
part of relatives and friends on a normal visit, and the next moment you find
the couple lying in a pool of blood.
The almost casual manner
in which they are killed makes the ending even more chilling and hard-hitting.
While some might find it clichéd for a love story like this, it is actually a
gruesome reminder of the deep caste-hatred in our society and of how some
divides run so deep that they don’t get bridged even with time, even after the
passage of many years after the couple’s elopement. And when rooted in
realistic setting like this, it is a far cry from other films with
similar endings, which glorify the sacrifice that is implied when the lead pair
is killed.
What seems like
an innocent tale of young love at first, is actually a slap in the
face of a society that still witnesses caste related honour killings. Such
instances are often dismissed as isolated events from the dark corners of our
country, but are in fact part of a well-oiled system that has institutionalized
caste-oppression. Along with succeeding at the box-office, one hopes that the
film also succeeds in provoking thought and introspection among its viewers.
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