Jai Bhim Comrade
| Jai Bhim Comrade | |
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DVD cover
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| जय भीम कॉम्रेड | |
| Directed by | Anand Patwardhan |
| Produced by | Anand Patwardhan |
| Music by | Vilas Ghogre |
| Cinematography | Simantini Dhuru, Anand Patwardhan |
| Edited by | Anand Patwardhan |
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Release date
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Running time
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199 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | English, Hindi |
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.
Jai Bhim Comrade begins with a description of the Indian caste system and its oppression of the Dalit community. 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 Ramabai killings in 1997. 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. The Dalit singer, poet, and activist Vilas Ghogre hanged himself in protest at the incident. 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. 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.
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. The interviews are interspersed with other Dalits describing difficulties and discrimination they face in their lives. 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. 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.
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