Phule’s mission is incomplete, says director Ananth Mahadevan on his biopic on social reformer Jyotiba Phule

Ananth Mahadevan discusses his upcoming biopic on social reformer Jyotiba Phule, challenging societal norms through impactful storytelling.

“It’s an urgent film to make,” says Ananth Mahadevan amid an intense conversation on his upcoming biopic of the social reformer Jyotiba Phule. As an actor, Ananth often plays a mild-mannered man, but as a filmmaker, his choice of subjects is anything but soft. From Gour Hari Dastan to Mee Sindhutai Sapkal, he has raised many pressing issues through biopics of people who made a difference to society but are often reduced to footnotes in history. Prolific and pointed, his last film, The Storyteller, was a witty take on plagiarism.

Phule is not just a biopic. It reflects the quiet social revolution that Jyotiba and Savitribai started in 1850 to overcome caste and gender discrimination and provide dignity to widows. “The progressive mission that started 175 years ago has still not been completed. They knew it would not be completed in their lifetime and wanted someone to pick up the baton and carry on.”

Ananth says that Jyotiba, who inspired Bhimrao Ambedkar and was the first to address the oppressed outcastes as Dalits, has not been celebrated enough in popular culture. “He propagated the concept of Ahimsa before Gandhi talked about it. It is strange that apart from Acharya Atre’s black & white Marathi film made in 1954 and Shyam babu’s (Benegal) 23-minute episode on Phule in Bharat Ek Khoj series, there is not much credible work on the social reformer.” Ambedkar was present at the launch and attended the premiere of Atre’s film.

“We have forgotten the bigness of his achievements and the impact of his contribution on society. It pushed me to mount a 70mm screen sketch in Hindi that not only talks about his pan-Indian influence but also puts him in context with global leaders like Martin Luther King and draws parallels between his mission and the Abolitionist and anti-Apartheid movements. To me, he was a visionary,” says Ananth.

Some Brahmin groups have expressed reservations about the depiction of the community, and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has asked to dilute the references to caste. Ananth feels those who have objected “jumped the gun” after watching the trailer. “Many Brahmins stood by Phule and were part of the Satyashodak Samaj. There were many Brahmin teachers in his schools.” Interestingly, some Ambedkarites have shown displeasure over Ananth putting forth his Brahmin identity to defend himself.

“See, the bigger picture is not all Brahmins threw cow dung at Phule. He faced resistance from marginalised sections as well because years of caste discrimination and poverty had made them wary of change, like sending girls to school. What I wanted to express was that we need to be self-critical. If your child is doing something wrong, will you spoil him because he is your own, or correct him by reprimanding him? Let’s open up our conscience.”

On the CBFC episode, Ananth says that while the body agreed that caste and gender discrimination were facts, and did not question his research, they wanted him to remove the mention of specific caste groups and tweak statements like ‘3000 years of slavery’ to a more generic expression like years of slavery. “I hold that what was said in the film was not anti-national or detrimental to society in any way, but we didn’t argue beyond a point.”