Strange That We Still Have To Speak About Women Empowerment, Emancipation Today: Phule Director

Director Ananth Mahadevan’s film, “Phule” based on the lives of social reformers Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and Savitribai Phule has been delayed due to objections raised by the Brahmins. After the trailer was unveiled, some members from the Brahmin community raised objections stating that they have been portrayed in poor light.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has issued "U" certificate to the makers and also asked them to remove certain dialogues and words like Mang, Mahar and Peshwai, replace the visual of a man carrying a broom. They were also told to modify the line ‘3000 saal purani gulami’ as ‘kai saal purani’. among a few other tweaks.

However, director Ananth begs to differ from reports that CBFC has asked the filmmaker to make certain cuts in the film.

No, there are no cuts. There were some recommendations and amendments which the first committee made. We followed them and we got a clean,’U’ certificate. There were more amendments rather than cuts. They were playing safe, probably by awarding other words. It's not that the impact is reduced, but it's just that I wish they had left it as it is. I mean, I don’t think anybody would have objected to it. We re-dubbed them and put those words that they recommended up with the words that we thought would soften the so-called vitriolic feeling that they get.

No, I think it was just a knee-jerk reaction after seeing the trailer. They probably thought that we had maligned Brahmins, we had sort of humiliated them in the film, but no, the bonding between the Brahmins and the symbiosis between them is so strong in the film because right from the beginning when Jyotiba very clandestinely starts his first school, it is the Brahmins who support him by giving them their premises. So, you cannot sort of alienate the Brahmins from his life, but in every community, there is always some, group or some kind of ideology that creates differences unnecessarily and revolts against reform and progress of the the lower classes, what they feel as the lower classes they do not want them to come up to their level. So, when Jyotiba tries to educate the discriminated classes and the suppressed people, there are a few groups of people who sort of, try to put a poke in the wheel.

Probably yes, See, I did tell them, but they have to watch the film, how they take my word for it, you know. Like I said, even here in the film, he does not say that my intention was not to bring down those groups of Brahmins, but to uplift my own society. So, they shouldn't feel that we are against them. In fact, we have all got to be together. So, he was a strategic planner and a social visionary of an incredible kind along with his wife.

I'm looking forward to the audience watching it, not just as a film, but with an analytical eye because ironically or strangely, this is a film for today’s youth. Because even Jyotiba and Savitri started off in their teens and for today's youth, it is an eye-opener. The kind of daring that they did in their teens, was fearless, strong and with a futuristic vision. Do the youth of today have that kind of social commitment? Do they have that kind of, selfless approach towards life or are they self-centred and materialistic? It's a question that will arise in the minds of youth and that's why it's a film which aims directly at the youth of today because very rarely does history appeal to the youth, but here for change, it becomes very relevant.

You see, technology and the pressure to perform have blinded the youth to social reforms in many ways. And now they are only a single-minded target. Where do I bring myself up in this very competitive world? I don’t care if the other guy falls, as we all run in the race and I will not pick him up and help him because that would mean that he would become competition to me. So, unfortunately, it’s a very closed kind of view that people are having. But there are, like you said, people with civic sense, people who follow a certain discipline, but that has to be inculcated by the parents and the teachers. We do. So that’s why I think the film, “Phule,” might make a difference because they would realise that this happened 200 years ago and two people actually did this. If they can do it in an age where we were being ruled by the British, surely enough in so-called, I mean, today’s independent society and free society, they are at a better position and an advantage to bring about revolutionary changes.

It's strange that we still have to speak about women empowerment and emancipation today. That was what the couple were fighting 150 years ago. Does it mean that we still haven’t eradicated that evil from our society? I feel, this is something that won't go for another 100 years. So, we still have to keep fighting it and hoping that this situation will improve.

The film 'Phule' is set to release on April 25, 2025.