Manu Nayak’s iconic movie Kahi Debe Sandesh used to be ancient in additional tactics than one. Now not most effective used to be it some of the first to talk about caste discrimination in India, it additionally gave delivery to Chhatisgarhi cinema.
There are some motion pictures that go away their mark in time, and Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1974) is one vintage instance. The movie’s achievements prolong past the confines of bagging 3 Nationwide Awards. Thru its gripping storyline, it sparked debate about the caste device and its evils in India throughout the optics of the ones maximum victimised by means of its results.
The movie highlights the arc of feelings that Lakshmi (a Dalit lady dwelling in rural Andhra Pradesh and essayed by means of Shabana Azmi) is going via as she starts operating for an upper-caste zamindar’s son Surya, who does now not delve an excessive amount of into the caste distinction. The film brings to the entrance problems with patriarchy, caste, elegance and gender in a story this is each stunning and unhappy.
Over the many years, Indian cinema has touched upon the pervasive caste device in India via many motion pictures — some deemed debatable but milestones, like The Bandit Queen; some that resonated with wider audiences like Article 15 and Jai Bhim; and a few that used humour to remark at the gravity of caste discrimination, like Chameli ki Shaadi.
A number of the motion pictures that set the precedent for those motion pictures used to be the apparently difficult to understand manufacturing Kahi Debe Sandesh, a Chhattisgarhi movie launched in 1965, which was some of the first in India to brazenly talk about evils like untouchability and caste discrimination.
In a 2018 interview with filmmaker and documentary photographer Aayush Chandrawanshi, the director of the movie Many Nayak recalled, “I used to be very decided to make a movie within the Chhattisgarhi dialect and to call it Kahi Debe Sandes. I had a theme in my thoughts which used to be impressed by means of my formative years studies.”
What made Nayak’s movie so outstanding used to be its willingness to take at the subject of inter-caste marriages — one thing this is nonetheless discouraged and frowned upon in lots of portions of the rustic. In some ways, it used to be some of the first inventive items of labor to open dialog about subjects we nonetheless skirt round lately.
A movie forward of its time
In the meantime, within the early Sixties, the Indian movie trade used to be ruled by means of Hindi-language motion pictures, thus offering little to no alternative for regional script motion pictures. This spell resulted in 1963 with Kundan Kumar’s Bhojpuri movie Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, a poignant movie on widow remarriage. In Madhya Pradesh, a tender movie fanatic Manu Nayak used to be so influenced by means of this that it pressured him to make a Chhattisgarhi movie on an issue that he used to be captivated with.
Directed by means of Nayak and launched in 1965, Kahi Debe Sandesh used to be the debate of town for extra causes than one. Now not most effective used to be the movie’s plot thought to be debatable, nevertheless it used to be additionally the primary movie within the Chhattisgarhi language at a time when the movie trade used to be ruled by means of Hindi motion pictures. It will have to even be remembered that this match used to be a lot prior to Chhattisgarh got here into life as a state in 2000.
The movie detailed the affection tale of Nayandas and Rupa, a boy from a scheduled caste and a Brahmin woman respectively. The storyline confronted the ire of conservatives and leaders around the country, significantly from the Brahmin group in Raipur. Nayak recalled, “Swiftly there used to be an issue, the place a piece of the Brahmin group accused the movie, announcing that it disrespects their group. They protested the discharge of the movie in Raipur….”
As those teams pressured posters of the film to be taken down, many distinguished voices spoke up in contrast. One among them used to be former high minister Indira Gandhi. Nayak later recalled in an interview to The Instances of India that lend a hand got here from two “innovative” politicians. “I used to be informed Indira Gandhi (then I&B Minister) additionally noticed parts of the movie and stated the movie promotes nationwide integration. The protests died down after that.”
The group powered throughout the backlash and controlled to have the movie premiere in April 1965. Paradoxically, the hullabaloo that the movie created drew extra consideration with other people flocking to cinema monitors to catch it. It opened the home windows for society to take cognisance of the evils of the caste device.
Actually, the movie additionally served because the launchpad for Chhollywood (because the movie trade of Chhattisgarh is popularly identified) and used to be screened in Raipur in 2015 at a movie pageant to mark the jubilee of this match. For Nayak, this match held super importance.
At the back of the scenes
Whilst Kahi Debe Sandesh blew up the movie trade with dialog about motion pictures centric on social problems, Nayak had by no means within the slightest imagined it might have this impact. In 1957 an adolescent Nayak had run clear of his homeland Raipur to Bombay with a dream to paintings in motion pictures. His pastime in cinema got here from his rising years of surfing via movie magazines at native stands, a role he stated saved him up to the moment with the arena of films.
As destiny would have it, he landed a role with Anupam Chitra, a movie manufacturing area that used to be co-owned by means of director Mahesh Kaul and creator Pandit Mukhram Sharma.
It used to be right here that he learnt to duplicate dialogues in Hindi, whilst studying the fineries of script writing from the maestros. With a wage of Rs 60 monthly and extraordinary delight, Nayak dreamt of constructing a film one day.
Chandrawanshi wrote that Nayak’s reason in the back of making this movie used to be as follows — “Kahi Debe Sandes (1965) is a statement on social problems reminiscent of Untouchability and Caste discrimination. I had observed it taking place even in my very own area. On every occasion my buddies from the decrease castes (Satnami caste) used to come back to my house, my mom used not to say anything else however quickly once they had left she used to wash the doorway of the home. This and a couple of different circumstances deeply affected me and I realised that till caste discrimination is addressed correctly to the loads, society would now not development.”
And so intent on those problems seeing the sunshine of day, Nayak started his quest of casting.
Following a tune recorded with legend Mohammed Rafi — Jhamkat nadiya bahini laage — a snappy casting of theatre actors who had been prepared, and a file 22-day packed shoot time table, Kahi Debe Sandesh used to be able to roll.
As Nayak says in an interview with The Instances of India, “I spent the following two years paying off my money owed. However I had the delight of constructing the primary Chhattisgarhi movie.”
Nowadays, the movie continues to face by means of its legacy of being some of the first to make clear caste discrimination.
Indian cinema has come some distance with regards to the narratives highlighted in caste motion pictures, as Sanjiv Jaiswal, director of Shudra (2012) emphasized in an interview with Outlook India. “Once we dare to make motion pictures like those [Shudra], we’re in a position to position the highlight at the discriminated communities. There’s a marked shift in how those motion pictures are made lately. The storylines give the communities depicted higher company and gear over the tale. It is a giant exchange from the previous, when both their complete life could be overlooked, or portrayed in deficient mild, inflicting extra hurt than just right for those sections.”
Edited by means of Divya Sethu
Assets
How The First Chhattisgarhi Movie Tackled Casteism In The Sixties by means of Disha Bijolia, Printed on 20 March 2023.
Medium and the Message by means of Caravan Mag, Printed on 2 December 2022.
When Indira stored first Chhattisgarhi movie from ban by means of Avijit Ghosh, Printed on 30 April 2015.
Ayush Chandrawanshi’s photobook