"Fandry": Falling in love is not a sin but discrimination definitely is

(am) FANDRY is a Marathi movie that was shown on day 2 of the 11th Indian Film Festival in Stuttgart on 17.07.2014. This movie was directed by Nagraj Manjule. It is based on a love story in the Maharashtrian village Akolner where a school boy falls in love with a girl from his class.

„Fandry“ seems to be a normal love story because love is the single theme on which all the directors, writers, artists are earning by selling their work. Why the movie had such a weird nomenclature („Fandry“) which literally means „pigs“ in a Marathi dialect was the main question.

(c) Filmbüro Baden-Württemberg

Indeed, love is the most beautiful emotion which can bring two completely different personalities together in just a few moment. Falling in love does not judge the distinctions in sex, caste, creed, race, region, religion or appearance. Love just happens with a movement of a magic wall.

Yes, this kind of imaginations turn into reality in fairy tales but not in India. Jabya, the teenaged village boy who falls in love with Shalu, always dreamt of her and catching a black sparrow. With his friend Pirya he kept running with his catapult to hunt a black sparrow but his ardent desire for a black sparrow was lately disclosed in the movie. When Jabya was busy in his studies, focusing on how to hunt a sparrow and how to win Shalu’s love, his grandfather, parents and two elder sisters were busy in earning some money.

Jambya’s parents worked as masons, labourers ploughing fields, weaving baskets and many wretched jobs like killing pigs to run their daily lives. Surekha was Jambya’s sister for whom his parents had to arrange for dowry for her forthcoming marriage. Jambya was willing to do everything to impress Shalu, he wanted to wear new Jeans & T-shirt, he was reluctant to help his family in their work rather he started to sell ice-lollies to earn a little. He was so deeply grappled by his immature teenage love that he even believed in some myths for which he wanted to hunt a black sparrow. Chankya, a village cycle repairing shop owner told Jambya that by blowing ash of a black sparrow on Shalu he could hypnotise her.

But all his fantasies of expressing his love to Shalu through a perfectly hand-written letter, impressing her by wearing new clothes and hypnotising her by sprinkling some ash of burnt black sparrow came to a halt one day. Kachrya with all his family members on an early morning went to trap and remove all the pigs from the village as ordered by the village head. There was a village fair at that time and nobody wanted to be touched by a Fandry (pig) which is meant to be inauspicious. Jambya never wanted to assist his family in chasing and trapping pigs which was disgraceful for him especially in front of his school friends – and Shalu. But he had to help his old father when he was thrashed in front of the whole village by Kachrya. The bystanders were deriding and mocking at Jambya and his family tagging the whole event as a ‚Fandry match‘, cracking ignoble comments on his sisters. Losing his temper and being unable to digest this humiliation in front of Shalu, Jambya started pelting stones on them. This was the outburst of aggression against humiliation, frustration and agony that Jambya had been facing from a long time.

Fandry is not only depicting Jambya’s family but many such families in India who have been termed as untouchable Dalits. Even after education has reached the doors of the remotest village in India, it is still unable to uproot such ignorant prejudices about caste discrimination. Indian government has introduced the reservation system which is widening this gap between castes further. If we really want to move ahead in this world we should always keep the fact in mind that just like a bird cannot fly with one wing, a society cannot rise by slashing down a section of it just because they are lower in caste than others. Just because a Dalit boy falls in love with a girl from an upper caste, the society has no right to banish him. Falling in love is not sin but discrimination definitely is.

theinder.net had the opportunity to talk with film producer Vivek Kajaria about „Fandry“ and his upcoming projects. The video interview will follow soon.

Trailer