Ever wondered how #NanaPatekar got cast as the psychic and crazy antagonist in AgniSakshi? Someone must have visualised him in that role and it would have made sense, I guess. Back in 1991, he acted as a lower caste servant in a film set in South Karnataka. As you see him emote, you can clearly see the same sparks of earnest madness which he brings to his roles.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #ArunKaul’s #Diksha, based on Jnananpith Award winner #DrURAnanthaMurthy’s story “Ghattashraddha”. The film is part of the parallel cinema movement and dwells on the upper caste Brahmin community and the ramifications of the caste system prevalent in the India of the 1930s. The film is available on #MUBI.
1. Narayan Bhatt or Naani as he is called is an eight-year-old Brahmin boy. He is left at the house of Udup Pandit (#ManoharJoshi) by his father. He is joined by two other boys and they set forth on their journey of education on the scriptures. The story also features the Pandit’s disciple, Srikar (#KKRaina) and Koga (#NanaPatekar), a lower caste servant in the village. The Pandit goes away for a few days and everything goes wrong. His widowed daughter (#RajasreeSavant) gets pregnant, the villagers led by Manjunath (#VijayKashyap) ostracise and torture her and the boys are taken away by their parents. Amidst all this, the Pandit returns and pronounces his living daughter dead. Srikar and Koga protest and spell out their thoughts in defiance. Who is the upholding the loftier Brahmin thought here and whose thought is base and unholy?
2. I am sure the book would have been difficult to translate to a visual form and #ArunKaul is brilliant as he deftly captures the South Kannada milieu and the characters with some deft strokes. The caste dynamics are spelt out with some excellent situations. #ManoharJoshi is stellar as he portrays the strict disciplinarian with gravitas.
3. Dr Anantha Murthy was a pioneer of the Navya movement and wrote about the psychological travails of the Brahmin folk in Karnataka. His writing is subtle and makes his points intelligently. In #Diksha, he raises the question “Who is a good Brahmin? Can someone be a good brahmin if he is first not a good father” Interestingly, some of these questions are posed by Koga the lower caste servant. Koga tells him “I managed to save your daughter from forest, snakes and wild animals but was not able to save her from Brahmins”. The sarcasm is not lost on the audience. Elsewhere we notice, that Koga is able to recite the scriptures better. It is thus clearly a matter of practice rather than privilege.
4. It is delightful to see one-time character actor greats like #KKRaina and #VijayKashyap in their roles. The “Diksha” is actually taken by Srikar and Koga as they renounce the Brahmanical proclamation of Udup Pandit and voice their support for the daughter. The film gives you a graphic view of how the caste system also drove patriarchy and kept women subjugated in society.
5. Keep an eye out for #NanaPatekar as he delivers a superb performance. The sing-song Southern accent could have been eschewed although the generous sprinkling of kannada words is welcome.
#Diksha is perhaps a tad too long but for the connoisseur this is pure gold. The film won the critics award as well as the National Award in 1992. #ArunKaul was a Kashmiri scriptwriter and director and it is wonderful to see how he gets the South Karnataka milieu so right.
