ISSN No. 0974-035X An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education Towards Excellence UGC-ACADEMIC STAFF COLLEGE, GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD, INDIA VIGNETTING DALIT HEROISM THROUGH A BIOPIC; MANJHI - THE MOUNTAIN MAN Sameer N. Solanki Abstract Since the beginning, Indian Cinema has been adopting subject matters and themes from Indian myth (Raja Harishchandra), history (Mughal-E-Azam) and social issues (Achoot Kanya). As India has been certainly known as the agriculture country, in most of the early movie we can find a farmer as the leading character. Films like Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007), Aarakshan (Reservation-2011) and Shudra – The Rising?”(2012) and Manjhi - The Mountain Man (2015) etc all had set in rural background. The Hero of most of above given movies is a plain, candid, tries for healthier existing but could not defend against the cruel realities of upper caste society and returns to the rural community and rebelled in opposition to the structure to set up new societal norms. The caste system which lies in the India is an arrangement of stratifying society and suppression and oppression of such communities by the upper class people. This research paper is aiming to comprehend the depiction and representation of Dalit Heroism in Hindi cinema, a well overpowered and vanquishing intermediate in Indian and other Asian continent. Key words: Vignette, Caste, Cinema, Society, Intermediate. Introduction A “biopic” is a biographical representation of a person (a film based on the events of someone’s life) or in other words it’s a life story of a real life character in form of celluloid print filmed by film director. Majority of expert of this genre believe that it is fundamentally a historical and real life drama with stress on actual persons or actions. As per the study there are nine types[Life Story Biopic (True Biopic), Career/Event Biopic, Generational Biopic, Semi-Biopic (Semi-Biographical Film), Documentary Biopic (Docu-Drama), Fictional Biopic (Fact-Based Fiction), Mythic Biopic, Alternate History/Hypothetical Biopic and July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 45 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Sameer Solanki/ Page 45-54 Namesake Biopic] of biopic which have adopted by many of the film producers and directors for making their films. More or less, one can describe biopic as truly a work of fiction where some needed permission and agreement are very necessary. As it depicts events of one real life character, directors must finish some of the legal procedure well before making a film on that person. As we all know that factual living is often chaotic and full of dramatic ups and downs, where the entry and exit of people and character in past and present events are without any prior justification or word of warning. Most of the time Real life stays unethical, where male protagonist from time to time undergo an event of pain and grief as well as sensed antagonist often flourish and conquest, never having to suffer bodily or even mentally. Most of the time, every genre of biopic begins with a real life incidents of a person and ends with a decent note. It always canonizes and sometimes articulates the humans as devilish to create generate resistance among the forces of ethical and immoral; and conclusion is often shaped when the hero achieves victory over his rival or situation, at least metaphorically or emotionally. In this way such movies provide the objective and milestone to one’s life as well as meaning and purpose to live our lives in broad sense. Indian film fraternity has always remained a key source of fun, entertainment and enjoyment. With this it has been served the purpose of idea sharing and social reformer among different levels of classes. Moreover, it has done some remarkable changes in Indian society with its direct impact (in both way-Audio/Visuals) on Indian Mass. Since long we have been witnessed different genre ad types of Hindi movies. Sometimes it has entertained us with the touch of Hollywood movies as well as movies of others regional languages. Now- a-days one genre of movies which has proclaimed a sere amount of success is BIOPIC. In full term it’s a biographical movie based on the life and events of any great contributor or famous personality. There was a time when virtual animated movies had covered the most of the part of movie genre but since then contemporary biopic cinema has experienced a heap of changes. But occasionally it’s hard to unite the both of the types of biopic-the old and the new. It has been said and true to some extent that movies based on History, Autobiographies, and documentaries are generally not easy films to make. There are some group of audience which are in favour and appreciate such movies while rest are chiefly interested in commercial movies. Thus the number of such audience has been increasing day by day in large amount. With the movies like Gandhi, My Father (2007), Sardar (1993), Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar(2000), Loknayak(2004), Rang Rasiya(2008), The Legend of Bhagat Singh(2002), July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 46 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Sameer Solanki/ Page 45-54 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero(2004), Mangal Pandey: The Rising(2005), Bajirao Mastani(2015) and Jodhaa Akbar(2008) the film director tried to depict and share the rich background of Indian history, Art and Politics. On the other hand films such as Mary Kom(2014), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag(2013) and Hawaizaada(2015) highlights some of the great achievement done by the Indians in sports and scientific discoveries. There are some biopic which have been made on certain controversies and social issues and the Indian film directors are brave enough to have such story as a plot for their films like Paan Singh Tomar(2010), Godmother(1999), Main Aur Charles(2015) and Bandit Queen(1994). The Rise of Dalit Heroism in Indian Movie Along with all others genre of Bollywood movies, biopic stands out to be one of the fast growing and popular type in Bollywood, the genre which is rapidly achieving recognition. In contemporary times, this genre of Movie has started a trend of weaving the life story of several eminent and iconic figures. Due to such efforts, now Indian public get to know about such tremendous person through the films like PAAN SINGH TOMAR, THE DIRTY PICTURE, RANG RASIYA, BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG and MARY KOM. These are the certain films which open up the real life stories to Bollywood audiences. One more feather adding into this genre, MANJHI - THE MOUNTAIN MAN, is a biopic of the late Dashrath Maanjhi, who is popularly known as the 'Mountain Man'. This is something new in the field of Dalit movie as well as characterisation of Dalit where the audience will find a Dalit character as a heroic leader or reformer. Since long, it has been remaining a trend both in Movie and Novels to depict Dalit as oppressed, suppressed, marginalised, downtrodden, outcast, poor and weak. As India, a nation progressing towards Digital India and Start up India this trend has been transformed largely in many ways and terms. If we see some of the old Dalit movies we will definitely have scenes describing their helplessness and their manipulations done by upper caste people. But in the latest movies the characters like Ajay Devghan as Sooraj Kumar in Rajniti(2010), Aditya Lakhia as Kachara in Lagaan (2001), Sanjay Dutt as Pannalal Chohar in Eklavya(2007), Saif Ali Khan as Deepak Kumar in Aarakshan(2011). The man who moved a mountain– Dashrath Manjhi As per the latest analysis and data, in India over 120 crores of people live in either in rural India or in urban slums. Every day we read news regarding the struggling face by this July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 47 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Sameer Solanki/ Page 45-54 fellow Indians who are continuously in search of a life of dignity. We have reached the Moon, discovered the Marsh and also planning to excavate whole space but still we cannot deny the social evil which is still prevailing in our society. One of this is caste/gender bias. And out of these very few has tried something extraordinary to prove that belonging to low caste is not a curse but with effort a Dalit can leave his mark to this world. Some start this reformation and ends with disappointment but the man like Dashrath Manjhi, who not only think to do something but also decide to help those people who are not being helped by those who are in power. This is the story of a Man, who wanted to do it by himself, an icon who moved a mountain so his fellow villagers could get the most needed civilised facilities like water, school, doctor and etc. The movie begins with a monologue of Dashrath Manjhi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) with a gigantic mountain, in which he condemns it for a reason and aggressively cursing it. The next scene in the movie leads the audience in to the flashback of the life of Dahsrath Manjhi and presents every event that leads him to the present day situation. The cause of his cursing the mountain is related to his personal grief. The flashback takes the audience into the life of a young Dashrath, who belongs to a community of down and out, and due to one of the social issue like child marriage, got married to Phaguniya (Radhika Apte) at a very early age.