Anand Patwardhan's excellent documentary... shot over 14 years ... a masterpiece.

The movie documents the developments and setbacks in the Ambedkarite and the Leftist projects of Dalit emancipation, their evolution, their contradictions and unity, and exposes some of their shortcomings and betrayals.


Patwardhan's website : 
 
http://www.patwardhan.com/films/Jai%20Bhim%20Comrade.htm

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From the website:

For thousands of years India's Dalits were abhorred as "untouchables" denied education and treated as bonded labour. By 1923 Bhimrao Ambedkar broke the taboo, won doctorates abroad and fought for the emancipation of his people. He drafted India's Constitution, led his followers to discard Hinduism for Buddhism. His legend still spreads through poetry and song.

In 1997 a statue of Dr. Ambedkar in a Dalit colony in Mumbai was desecrated with footwear. As angry residents gathered, police opened fire killing 10. Vilas Ghogre, a leftist poet, hung himself in protest.
'Jai Bhim Comrade' shot over 14 years, follows the poetry and music of people like Vilas and marks a subaltern tradition of reason that from the days of the Buddha, has fought superstition and religious bigotry.


AWARDS

Best Film, Films South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal
Best Film, Mumbai International Film Festival
Best Documentary, Hong Kong International Film Festival
Bartok Prize, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, France
Special Jury Award, National Awards, India


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