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The story of the oppressed
A still from Mahadiga
A DOCUMENTARY film, `Mahadiga - The Man Descending from Above,' shot in video format by Lelle Suresh, a Dalit theatre performer hailing from Andhra Pradesh, evoked much response at a film festival here recently. It documents the life of the Madigas, a Dalit community of Andhra Pradesh who occupies the lowest rungs of the caste system.
The film is an attempt to document the life of an oppressed people, by themselves, as Mr. Suresh himself hails from the Madiga community. It is centred round dappu, the percussion instrument that is an integral part of the Madigas' community life. Mr. Suresh celebrates dappu, through extensive sequences of song and dance, performed by Chindu, the theatre group led by him.
Forms of expression
`Mahadiga,' throws up a couple of key questions regarding people's basic approach to different forms of expressions arising from the oppressed segments of society. What stance should such works take? Should there be well-defined parameters regarding the political stance of such works? If so, who should set those parameters?
The film had evoked mixed response from the audience when it was shown at a film festival organised by the Cochin Film Society last month. Significantly, most of the responses were either blind appreciation, or equally blind disapproval. And one major ground for the criticism was the excessive use of song and dance sequences. The 42-minute documentary is liberally interspersed with the lilting songs performed by the Chindu troupe members, with Suresh himself in the lead.
He has also described in minute detail the processes behind the making of a dappu, right from the slaughter of a buffalo, to the skinning, curing of the skin and stretching it upon the wooden frames. The close-ups of the slaughter and the blood might appear a bit shocking to the refined urban eyes, but the film stresses that this was part of the Madiga's reality. Suresh even depicts how the Madigas' eating beef has relegated them to the status of untouchables by the upper caste Hindus who shun beef.
Although the film does not give any hard data regarding the present day status of the Madiga community, it voices the remonstrations of its members against the caste system, which condemned them to a life on the fringes. `In the dominant caste system, we are the untouchable hunger,' translates one of their songs. Verapogu Ramulu, member of Dakkali community, another sub caste of the Madigas, who make a living through the bardic recital of the mythological origins of the Madigas, reads out from palm leaf manuscripts narrating the community's story.
Life of the outcastes
A member of Mastini community, another sub caste of Madigas who make the wooden frame of the dappu, outlines the relationship of the two communities that continues even today. Members of the Mastini community had taken up making the wooden frame as the other communities refused to work for them.
The dappu is present everywhere, even in rural churches, where the people sing hymns to its beat. Playing dappu comes instinctively to the Madigas, the film tells us. `Do we need to be taught to call our mother?' asks an aged member. Although women traditionally were never allowed to play the dappu, girls working with the leftist theatre groups that have emerged in rural Andhra Pradesh, have started to play it.
Mr. Suresh, who had completed B.Tech. in 1987, had been actively associated with the cultural activities of the left organisations. He has also dabbled in journalism, writing for Chooppu, a Telugu journal of subaltern studies. His team had presented a dappu performance at the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.
By Renu Ramanath
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
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