Dalit, Deity, and Deliverance

Like everybody else I knew, I grew up watching melodramatic movies in which actors sang, danced, cried, and fought.  The movies were in Tamil because of the accident of my birth in Tamil Nadu; I imagine that kids my age in Andhra Pradesh watched similar movies but in Telugu, or those in Karnataka watched Kannada movies.

At some point, thanks to my sister, I started watching melodramatic movies in which actors sang, danced, cried, and fought, while talking in Hindi, which I did not understand.  The beautiful female actors made it all worthwhile for the tween whose body was beginning to feel the testosterone within.

The Hindu and a few Tamil and English magazines often featured movies and actors and directors that were all different from the movies and actors and directors of those melodramatic Tamil and Hindi movies.  From what I read, those unseen art movies appealed to me.

The one-channel (state-owned) television that was introduced regularly telecast some of those art movies.  I  could finally watch movies that I had only read about in newspapers and magazines.  The movies that rarely ever played in cinema houses but won awards both at home and abroad were now available for my viewing right from home.

I finally was able to watch movies by the likes of Adoor Goplakrishnan, Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, and more. Even Tamil movies like Yarukkaaga Azhudhaan (For whom did he cry?) that weren't screened in the cinemas.  Unlike the typical movies, these had no song-dance sequences.  No songs, period.  I loved them all.  I found them engaging.  They made me think about the human condition.  There was so much to learn about the world, and the art movies were wonderful teachers.

I wondered if some of them might be available in YouTube.  After all, technology has made it possible for us to watch movies from all corners of the world.

I remembered an old Satyajit Ray movie about Dalits and Brahmins in a village.  But, what was the title?

In the old days, we struggled to recall details of events and places and peoples when our memories failed.  Like a cumin seed in a camel's mouth.  We might go on for days trying to solve the puzzle.  We asked friends if they remembered.  And then, suddenly, the details would arise from deep within the mind.  We would then feel an enormous sense of relief, as if an irritating peppercorn bit had been dislodged by the tongue after hours of struggle.  

Now, Google solves those problems within seconds.  The struggles are gone.  The Satyajit Ray movie was Sadgati. 

Google also informed me that it starred Om Puri and Smita Patil.  Now they were actors, unlike most of them in those song-and-dance melodramas!

Watching Sadgati was an intense and moving experience as it was decades ago.  I will refrain from discussing the movie, which is not even an hour-long, if an occasional reader is tempted enough to watch the movie on YouTube.  (It is subtitled in English.)