The movie “Fandry’ is about a Dalit schoolboy named Jabya (Somnath Awghade) who lives on

the outskirts of a village and struggles against the caste system by daring to dream, and
eventually rebelling against the perpetrators of that system.

He harbours a crush on a fair-skinned, Brahmin classmate, dreams of buying fancy new blue
jeans, and uses talcum powder to try to make his dusky face fair. The powerful climax gives the
audience a glimpse into Jabya’s insecurities, his reluctance to accept his identity, before he
finally snaps, retaliating against those ridiculing him and his family.

“Fandry” reflects many of the problems of the caste system, which began as a way to classify
people by occupation and became a medium for discrimination and abuse of lower classes and
Dalits, the untouchables who are considered to be outside the caste system.

Jabya’s family lives on the outskirts of the village, and is allowed to do only menial work, such
as catching and killing rabid pigs that infest the village. Because they were untouchables, they
are the only ones allowed to touch the pigs. Hindus see them as unhygienic and therefore,
unholy. Higher-class villagers avoid any contact with the animals. If someone so much as
brushes past a pig, that person must be purified with holy water. The rest of the villagers, despite
the service that his family provides, treat them with contempt, calling them names, jeering at
their profession and never allowing them to enter their homes.

Caste and race are hotly debated topics in India, where the system is banned. Despite that, this
discrimination is still visible in many regions of India, from honour killings, in which families
sometimes murder their children if they marry outside their caste, to assaults on Dalits
for drawing water from the same well that other castes drink from. Caste also can play a role in
buying a house and other financial decision.

Today, such topics are avoided by the film industry. Many Bollywood films emphasize unity
among Indians, regardless of religion or caste, even at the expense of reality. In popular film,
characters are often shown to have vastly different backgrounds or different castes, and still
manage to have a mostly unfettered life, something that would be unlikely in real life.

In the film, Sairat, Parshya son of a fisherman is madly in love with Archi a rich upper caste girl.
They study in the same college. Archi too responds to Parshya’s feelings. When Archi’s family
finds about their love Parshya and his friends are beaten badly by her brother Prince and
pressures his family to leave the village. Then they flee away and start a new life.

Traditionally, Bollywood films, which have the biggest reach, either show characters from the
same economic and social strata falling in love, or pretend that those differences don’t exist at
all, skipping important issues like caste, discrimination and social inequality altogether. Barring
a few examples, filmmakers don’t portray poverty, preferring either to romanticize it or creating
characters that belong to prosperous families.