Recently a Tamil movie was released on Amazon prime named Jai Bhim. It is directed by T .J. Gnanavel. The movie is based on the real-life story of how the primitive Irula tribe in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu faced custodial torture by Tamil Nadu Police in 1995. This case was fought by a lawyer named Justice Chandru, former judge of the Madras High Court in Madras High court. He was one of the founders of SFI, a student organization affiliated with CPM. In his college days, he ran the Students’ Socialist Forum (SSF) before joining the CPI(M), where he and his friends were absorbed into the Students Federation of India (SFI). He also inaugurated the SFI unit at Pondicherry University in 2018. So, justice Chandru is a well-known communist in Tamil Nadu. Actor Suriya very well plays the character of Justice Chandru in the movie.

The movie starts with a heart-wrenching scene in which Irula tribes were catching rats to eat that’s was the way of their survival.

Now let me address the elephant in the room. This movie is nothing to do with Ambedkarism and Jai Bhim. Numerous incidents you will see in movies like addressing people as a comrade, protesting on roads by Suriya with a communist red flag. There is a scene in the movie in Suriya was says important leaders like Gandhi and Nehru are here.

How come Ambedkar alone is not here? That’s was the only mention of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Jai Bhim movie.

Who is responsible for spreading illogical narratives, naming, and modifying content according to the need to sell? Where is Dr. Ambedkar in the movie? Throughout the movie, the scenes are painted with red flags. To sell the product, the name is kept Jai Bhim; otherwise, we know that we are Dalit, we know what pain is, we know what struggle is, we know what exploitation is. To know all these, we do not need to watch movies. This is part of our daily lives. What shall Dalit do? What is the solution, and how to achieve those goals of equality?

Another misappropriation instance of putting Babasaheb picture with Karl Marx is present in the movie. Babasaheb was a strong antagonist of communism. In his Kathmandu (Nepal) speech, on 20th November 1956, he clearly said Buddhism is a complete answer to your questions and warned of the danger of communism.

Although the movie is good, with good cinematography including a storyline, it has nothing to do with the Ambedkarite movement. My humble request is that everyone do not treat our historic slogan Jai Bhim or our icons as a commodity. My ancestors laboured for the legacy of Jai Bhim. You can not name your movie Jai Bhim just to in cash the money from Bahujan.

If you are making a movie on custodial death, torture by state, and you didn’t give space to our history and culture, please find something else title for your movie.

Jai Bhim is pride. We will continue to protect it from leftist influence. Laal Salaam and Jai Bhim are two different poles of politics.

Author can be reached on Twitter at @Bahujan_connect