As a matter of sheer coincidence, I had to attend an induction function of the ‘quota’ stream of MBA freshers in a leading management school in Coimbatore where I am a Visiting Professor at 4.30 pm. The institute had already completed the process of selection of the management quota and today we had the induction ceremony for almost an equal number of students which was enabled through a transparent and meticulous process done by the Government after the TANCET exams. As part of the function a short film on the institution’s founders and the yeoman service carried on by the fourth generation of the family was shown. As I left the convention hall I felt elated to be a part of a great institution and thanked God for providing me this opportunity to teach at the fag end of my career. I slipped out of the hall at 5.45 pm and drove at neck breaking speed on my good old scooter to the theatre.
The film impressed me in the first few frames itself. The interviewers ask the candidate his name and he says, “Deepak Kumar”. They then ask his ‘full’ name. For a few nano seconds I went back to my college days at Banaras Hindu University in the seventies. I had to face a similar situation there too. When getting ragged the seniors were not at all convinced when I spelt out my name as ‘Uday Shankar’. Uday Shankar kyaa? Tera poora naam kya hai? (Is it just Uday Shankar? What is your full name? ). For a person going out of Tamilnadu, where the suffixes on names were knocked off as part of the most successful social revolution post-independence India has seen, I was intrigued at the first place. Jaise naam ke saat Tiwari, Choudary, Sen, Bhattacharya jodthen hain, thum logon ke naam ke saat kuch nahi hai kyaa? (Just as we have Tiwari, Choudary, Sen, Bhattacharya as suffixes for names, you guys do not have any suffixes?) During my four year stint in the university I had never taken the extra mile to explain the social revolution that took place in Tamilnadu for the simple reason that, as years rolled on, I started to understand the local social nuances better and was astonished how feudal the UP society was with casteism deeply engrained in the psyche.
Saif has done full justice to his role. Hats of the costume designer for choosing the apt dresses and the dialogue writer for chiseling the right nuances into Deepak’s dialogue- straight, simplistic but hard hitting. The Hindi in the whole film is of good quality. No wonder Koel of CNN IBN made a frank comment about the Hindi on 12th August and said that ‘the Hindi in the film was far beyond her comprehension’. I was just wondering why then she was reviewing the film at all. I enjoyed every bit of all the dialogues. Hats off to Jha for paying attention on the language of the film.
The way the poor Brahmin student sticks on religiously to his chaste Hindi, come what may, like most others of his ilk in the country could be looked at from two angles. The casteist moorings of the boy and the deeply embedded psyche would be preventing him from talking the language, the masses understand. He may think, ‘why should I change?’ He may be right from a birth right point of view. But then ‘why not?’ is the other thinking. I often used to wonder about the ability of people whose mother tongue used to be Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and had settled in Tamilnadu for generations and the way they speak Tamil fluently. They may switch over to their tongue when with their ilk but when they talk Tamil, it is the Tamil which everyone speaks. That is not the case with the elite in the society. They deliberately desist from talking the language of the masses and blurt out their language even in the midst of a predominantly Tamil speaking crowd. This is not the case only in Tamilnadu but also in Karnataka. When working in Syndicate Bank and operating in Dakshina Kannada district, I had to move with Tulu speaking farmers. I picked up their lingo fast and one day when I was talking to my friend in the bank he wanted to test my Tulu speaking skill and asked me “Unus Aandda?” (Did you have food?). I replied, “Daala borchi” (Yes, I am through)) on which he immediately accosted me and said that it was the Tulu the lower caste people spoke and corrected me, “Daala Bothri” (Yes, I am through- the Brahmin version !). I was dazed and bewildered at the same time. ‘What difference does it make as long as I can communicate? Why this fetish for a so called refined language?’ I thought. Is it a ploy to identify their ilk in a crowd? Desmond Morris would have been the right person in such a situation to throw light on what he calls ‘the tribal behaviour of people’.
Amitabh Bachan’s role as a sincere educationist who is above all parochial behaviours and political decisions reminded me of my teachers those days. We did really have such good teachers. In fact, the character Prabhakar Anand is the cynosure of the whole movie. The selfless and secular approach of a true teacher may sound idealistic but then Jha has very nicely scripted the story to show how a true teacher has to be. After the first few frames, every other frame gave me a chance to relate it with my father who would fit in the role played by Bachanji. He was a rare breed from Tamilnadu. He had during the freedom struggle days learnt Hindi on his own and went on to do self study of Hindi at the bachelors as well as the post graduate levels and was employed by the Government of India as a Pradhayapak for central government employees. He was a very sincere teacher and had all the traits of Prabhakar Anand in the movie. He was also a strong antagonist of commercializing education- the central theme of the film. For Bachanji this film will remind him of his father too. I still remember how my father used to recite lines from Madhushala, Harvansh Rai Bachan’s magnum opus.
The film revolves around the family of Prabhakar most of the time. The reservation issue is only a spark that lights of a series of activities in the film which eventually fades into oblivion bringing in the issue of commercialization of education as the main theme for the rest of the movie. The film is caste-neutral and does not take any sides. All that it tries to send is a message that education should not become a money making commodity and that students of all caste, creed and religion have the right to get educated. The reservation issue also flares up an unwarranted rift between lovers Poorbi Anand and Deepak, between friends Sushanth, Poorbi Anand and Deepak, between Prabhakar and his protegee Deepak, the bright Dalit student. You feel bad when these bonds break and Prakash Jha keeps you wondering how all the mess is going to be set right. With this movie Jha has come a full round as a successful story teller based on contemporary issues. I saw Rajneeti and liked it too.
It was nice to see Tanwi Azmi as Prabhakar’s wife. It was a treat to see her back in such a good role. Deepika as Poorbi has also done well. She really does well in the situation where she questions her father and moves out. The most touching scene was of course the one in which she comes back and Prabhakar serves her favourite dish. I broke into tears as I have a daughter of that age. A lady next to me too broke into tears. On the whole the people around me seemed to enjoy the movie.
I also had the chance to watch the core team on TV in discussion with Rahul on Headlines Today. I was amazed by the home work Jha had done and the way he answered. It only showed the depth of interest he has in the theme of his films. I am happy that the AP government has cleared the movie for screening today. I hope that the two other state governments UP and Punjab too will follow suit immediately.
P.Uday Shankar
Coimbatore
13th Aug 2011.
