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{{short description|2011 Indian documentary film}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox film
|name = Jai Bhim Comrade
|image = Jai bhim comrade.jpg
|caption = DVD cover
|alt =
|native_name =
|director = [[Anand Patwardhan]]
|producer = Anand Patwardhan
|writer =
|music = Vilas Ghogre

|cinematography = Simantini Dhuru, Anand Patwardhan
|editing = Anand Patwardhan
|distributor =
|released = {{Film date|df=yes|2011|09||Film South Asia}}
|runtime = 199 minutes
|country = India
|language = English and Marathi
|budget =
}}
'''''Jai Bhim Comrade''''' is a 2011 Indian documentary film directed by [[Anand Patwardhan]]. The film begins with a description of police violence in the [[1997 Ramabai killings]]. It goes on to explore various aspects of the lives and politics of [[Dalit]] people in [[Mumbai]]. The film took 14 years to produce, and was released in 2011 after the conclusion of the court trials that followed the Ramabai incident. The film was widely shown both nationally and internationally, and received an overwhelmingly positive reaction. It has won numerous national and international awards.<ref name="Matzner 2014">{{cite journal|last1=Matzner|first1=Deborah|title=''Jai Bhim Comrade'' and the Politics of Sound in Urban Indian Visual Culture|journal=Visual Anthropology Review|date=Fall 2014|volume=30|issue=4|pages=127–138|doi=10.1111/var.12043}}</ref>

==Synopsis==

===Ramabai colony killings===
''Jai Bhim Comrade'' begins with a description of the [[Caste system in India|Indian caste system]] and its oppression of the [[Dalit]] community.<ref name="Bernier 2013 (2)">{{cite journal|last1 = Bernier|first1 = Catherine|title = Jai Bhim Comrade: tales of oppression and songs of resistance: A visual Essay|journal = Jump Cut|date =Fall 2013|issue = 55|url = http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc55.2013/BernierJaiBhim/|access-date = 1 December 2014}}</ref> The film includes a song by Dalit poet and activist [[Vilas Ghogre]], followed by a shot of a newspaper clipping describing his suicide in reaction to the [[1997 Ramabai killings|Ramabai killings in 1997]].<ref name="Bernier 2013 (2)"/> The documentary then describes the killings; on 11 July 1997 a statue of [[B. R. Ambedkar]] in the [[Dalit]] colony of Ramabai had a garland of footwear placed over it, an act considered to be a desecration. An initially peaceful protest was fired upon by a team of [[Special Reserve Police Force]] members, killing ten protesters, and other protests later in the day saw further police violence. Commentators stated that the violence was motivated by caste-based prejudices, as the leader of the police team stood accused of several cases of mistreatment of Dalit people.<ref name="HRW 1999">{{citation|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/India994-08.htm |title=The Ramabai killings |publisher= Human Rights Watch|access-date=1 January 2014}}</ref> The Dalit singer, poet, and activist Vilas Ghogre hanged himself in protest at the incident.<ref name="Outlook 2012">{{citation|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280573 |title=Between Red And Blue |publisher= Outlook India |access-date=1 January 2014}}</ref> After narrating the incidents surrounding the killing, the documentary follows Patwardhan on his visits to the families of those killed in the firing, as well as to Ghogre's wife.<ref name="Bernier 2013(1)">{{cite journal|last1 = Bernier|first1 = Catherine|title = Jai Bhim Comrade: tales of oppression and songs of resistance|journal = Jump Cut|date =Fall 2013|issue = 55|url = http://ejumpcut.org/archive/jc55.2013/BernierJaiBhim/text.html|access-date = 1 December 2014}}</ref> The film tries to reconstruct the incident by interviewing witnesses on both sides. The footage shot by a civilian bystander is used to contradict the description of the incident given by the police.<ref name="Bernier 2013 (2)"/>

The film then shows interviews with many of Ghoghre's colleagues, who discuss the state of Dalit politics in India. In a voice-over, Patwardhan describes the life of Ambedkar, and his activism against the caste system.<ref name="Bernier 2013 (2)"/> The interviews are interspersed with other Dalits describing difficulties and discrimination they face in their lives.<ref name="Bernier 2013 (2)"/> This section of the documentary also explores the relationship between the Dalit activist movement. The film describes the complicity of the [[Shiv Sena]] in the Ramabai killings, and shows [[Bal Thackeray]] at a public rally stating that Muslims need to be exterminated.<ref name="Matzner 2014"/> The film then contrasts the Shiv Sena's attempts to portray itself as the champion of the Dalit cause, with the speeches and songs of the Dalit leaders attempting to counteract this.<ref name="Matzner 2014"/>

===Kabir Kala Manch===
The second part of the film focuses on contemporary Dalit activism, chiefly the activities of the [[Kabir Kala Manch]], a troupe of singers using their performances to raise awareness and support for their cause. Many clips of songs and protests are shown, together with interviews with the leaders of the troupe.<ref name="Outlook 2012"/> The film describes the initial successes of the troupe during the protests that followed the [[Khairlanji massacre]] in 2006. The ideology of the group was a mixture of that of Ambedkar fused with [[Left-wing politics|left-wing ideology]]. However, the group was soon branded a [[Naxalite]] outfit, and led to it being targeted by the [[Anti Terrorist Squad (India)|Anti-terrorist squad]]. Several members were forced to go on the run, while others were arrested.<ref name="Outlook 2012"/> The film ends with interviews with the mothers of two of the members of Kabir Kala Manch that had been forced to go underground.<ref name="Bernier 2013(1)"/>

==Production==
''Jai Bhim Comrade'' was filmed over a period of 14 years, from 1997 to its release in 2011. Part of the reason it took that length of time was that Patwardhan wanted to wait for the outcome of the trials that followed the Ramabai incident before finishing the documentary.<ref>{{cite web|author=Priyanka Borpujari |url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2836663.ece |title=Arts / Cinema : A film with a difference |work=The Hindu |date=28 January 2012 |access-date=22 April 2012}}</ref> The documentary also uses a significant amount of archival footage from Patwardhan's previous documentary ''Bombay Our City'', released in 1985.<ref name="Bernier 2013(1)"/> Music is featured heavily, almost as much as spoken words. Patwardhan stated that one of the reasons for the film's 200 minute length was that he felt like he could not cut any of the footage while editing it, as it all contributed to the atmosphere of the film.<ref name="Turner 2013">{{cite journal|last1=Turner|first1=Matt|title=Human Rights Watch: Jai Bhim Comrade Review|journal=Front Row Reviews|date=23 March 2013|url=http://www.frontrowreviews.co.uk/reviews/human-rights-watch-jai-bhim-comrade-review/21734|access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref>

==Reception and analysis==
In a review of the film, [[Human Rights Watch]] criticised its style, saying that the use of music got repetitive, and that the length of the film made it inaccessible. However, the review stated that the content was "astoundingly important," and that "''Jai Bhim Comrade'' is an incredibly important work that brings to attention a broad culture of atrocious oppression, dismantling entirely any argument that caste-discrimination is a thing of the past."<ref name="Turner 2013"/> A review in [[Outlook (Indian magazine)|''Outlook'' magazine]] suggested that an important aspect of the film was the exploration of the tension between the Ambedkarite Dalit activist movement, and the mainstream left-wing movement exemplified in the various communist outfits. The Dalit activists shown in the film, such as the Kabir Kala Manch, represented the true intersection of Dalit and left-wing activism.<ref name="Outlook 2012"/> The review also commented that some Dalit activists had begun to associate with the [[Shiv Sena]] despite its leader Bal Thackeray making hate-speeches against Muslims, and contrasted them with the Kabir Kala Manch, which was the "new hope on the horizon."<ref name="Outlook 2012"/> The scholar Balmurli Natarajan, writing in the journal ''[[Economic and Political Weekly]]'', stated that the film spoke to the need for solidarity between the Dalit movement and the leftist movement, and that the unpunctuated title of the film spoke to this.<ref name="Natarajan 2013">{{cite journal|last1=Natarajan|first1=Balmurli|title=Punctuated Solidarities Caste and Left Politics|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=9 February 2013|volume=48|issue=6}}</ref> A review in ''[[The Guardian]]'' said that the film "exposed the glaring realities...about the continuing oppression of the poorer castes," and that it could be seen as "a capstone to Patwardhan's extraordinary career."<ref name="Sandhu 2012">{{cite news|last1=Sandhu|first1=Sukhdev|title=India's uncomfortable truths on film|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/08/india-film-documentary-maker-patwardhan|access-date=2 December 2014|work=The Guardian|date=8 June 2012}}</ref> The anthropologist Deborah Matzner said that the film contrasted the "thetrical Hindutva" of the Shiv Sena with the "poignant and defiant" political music of the Kabir Kala Manch, and said that "blatant and appalling hate speech [of Bal Thackeray] serves as the dark corollary to Dalit leaders’ skillful, rousing oratory and song."<ref name="Matzner 2014"/> A review in the film magazine ''[[Jump Cut (journal)|Jump Cut]]'' stated that "This film explores and valorizes one of the best examples of cultural and political struggle today."<ref name="Bernier 2013(1)"/> Film critic [[Mark Cousins (film critic)|Mark Cousins]] wrote that the film "is about the [[Dalit]] people like [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]] is about London. It’s a [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[Musical film|musical]] that bubbles like a stream and then – over its 3 hour running time –opens and deepens like a river." He called Patwardhan "the greatest Asian [[Documentary film|documentarist]]" and bemoaned the fact that "[m]ost [...] major film festivals in the West" rejected the film, writing that they "often show docs about small parts of Western life, yet [...] couldn't find space for this polygeneric film of much greater amplitude that covers decades, generations, great iniquity and the historical [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]]." He goes on to suggest the film's complexity and many Westerners' unfamiliarity with the subject matter as possible reasons for it being ignored.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://patwardhan.com/?page_id=2453|title=Full of Eastern Promise|first=Mark|last=Cousins|language=en-US|journal=Sight & Sound|pages=12–13|access-date=8 March 2019|date=September 2012}}</ref>

British-Ghanaian writer and filmmaker [[Kodwo Eshun]] voted for the film on ''[[Sight & Sound]]''<nowiki/>'s poll of "The Greatest Documentaries of All Time", as did two other critics (Julia Lesage and Cheuk To-Li).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/greatest-docs-full-poll/#/?poll=combined&film=51197c74eef03|title=The Greatest Documentaries of All Time – all the votes {{!}} Sight & Sound {{!}} BFI|website=www.bfi.org.uk|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>

==Awards==
* Ram Bahadur Grand Prize, Film South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2011<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.filmsouthasia.org/film/jai-bhim-comrade/ |title=Ram Bahadur Trophy for Best Film, Festival of South-Asian Documentaries, 2011 |publisher= Film South Asia |access-date=1 January 2014}}</ref>
* Best Film/Video, [[Mumbai International Film Festival]], India, 2012<ref name="DNA 2014">{{cite news|last1=Kaur|first1=Puneet|title=Anand Patwardhan's documentary 'Jai Bhim Comrade': Voicing the unheard|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-anand-patwardhan-s-documentary-jai-bhim-comrade-voicing-the-unheard-1953461|access-date=30 November 2014|work=DNA|date=19 January 2014}}</ref>
* Firebird Award for Best documentary, [[Hong Kong International Film Festival]], 2012<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000331/2012 |title=Golden Firebird Award, Hong Kong International Film Festival, 2012 |publisher= IMDb |access-date=1 January 2014}}</ref>
* [[National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Non-Feature Film)|Special Jury Prize]], [[National Film Awards]], India, 2012<ref name="59thaward">{{cite press release|url=http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page.asp?relid=80734|title=59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced|publisher=Press Information Bureau (PIB), India|access-date= 1 January 2014}}</ref>
* Bartok Prize, Jean Rouch Film International Film Festival, 2012<ref>{{citation|url=http://comitedufilmethnographique.com/palmares-award-winning-films/ |title=Palmarès / Award-winning films 2012 |publisher= Jean Rouch Film International Film Festival |access-date=1 January 2014}}</ref>

=== Nominations ===
Docufest Competition, 48th [[Chicago International Film Festival]], 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://diy-film.com/2012/10/02/48th-chicago-international-film-festival-announces-films-in-competition-2/|title=48th Chicago International Film Festival Announces Films in Competition {{!}} Chicago DIY Film|language=en-US|access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links==

*{{IMDb title|id=2157192|title=Jai Bhim Comrade}}
*[http://www.patwardhan.com/films/Jai%20Bhim%20Comrade.htm Official website]

[[Category:Indian documentary films]]
[[Category:Indian films]]
[[Category:2011 films]]
[[Category:Anand Patwardhan]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of B. R. Ambedkar]]

Jai Bhim Comrade - Revision history

14.139.125.36 at 10:44, 24 August 2021