Director: Nagraj Manjule.
Starring: Somnath Avghade, Suraj Pawar, Kishor Kadam.
Running Time: 105 minutes.
Synopsis: Young Jabya is a dreamer, a lover and a good student. He is, however, also a dark-skinned untouchable who is struggling to reach for better things than what society and the caste system insists upon giving him.
FANDRY means pig in Marathi, and the animal plays a surprisingly significant part in this film. Not only for the negative connotation it has, but also due to a pig chasing which Jabya and his family have been forced to do in their village, and the part the pigs play in a significant and stomach turning scene towards the end.
FANDRY assumes the traumatic and frustrating perspective of a young boy who is stubbornly holding on to the hope that he will be able to somehow live the life he wants by buying new jeans, wearing white powder on his face and putting a love spell on a girl from a higher caste. The audience is taken on a journey that captures his sentiments and ideas perfectly. His hope is inspiring, yet quickly deflating as his family, class friends and villagers all insist on putting him as far down as possible.
Simple pleasures for Jabya (which he considers privileges) include going to school and selling ice cream to make money. The story is told with such intensity and often all the misery can be seen through Jabya’s eyes as he goes from smiling about his opportunities to frowning at the realisation of the impossibility of being anything other than an untouchable.
The boy’s two sisters and parents are seen constantly working. It is an ongoing theme, where they go from workplace to workplace and shovelling everything from shit to digging ditches. Despite all of their hard work, they remain poor and struggle to survive while they must slave for the prosperous villagers who don’t even lift a finger.
More importantly than the depiction of never-ending work is the struggle of financial independence and the desperate attempt at romance and marriage. All these things come together and contribute to becoming the breaking point of many of the characters. His ever obedient father and Jabya are both seen reaching a point where they act in an unforgiving way as they manage to cast themselves even lower than untouchables due to the pressure put on them by society.
There is one setback after the other, and the lesson which Jabya refuses to learn is knowing his place and staying there. He is brave, but without any support but from another low-caste friend he inevitably loses what little he had to begin with. FANDRY is chilling, intense, heartbreaking and honest in its portrayal of the still very relevant yet somehow forgotten caste system which rules in India. The abuse received shows how international and soul-destroying bullying is.
Check out the rest of our LFF coverage here.
