‘Dhadak 2’ Tackles Bollywood’s Silence Round Caste and Romance

However there’s no level in having love with out drama—particularly in Indian cinema. In a rustic the place weddings are sometimes a manner of affirming social hierarchy (take final 12 months’s Ambani marriage ceremony, a billionaire’s outlandish show of wealth, fame, and capital), love might be constrained.

That makes filmmaker Shazia Iqbal’s not too long ago launched debut characteristic movie Dhadak 2 a mutinous enterprise, not simply towards a caste-divided Indian society, however towards the time-and-tested trope of common Hindi cinema the place the coda to a love story is a contented marriage. A remake of the 2018 Tamil-language movie, Pariyerum Perumal (directed by Mari Selvaraj), Dhadak 2 transplants the story of caste violence and prejudice from a city in Tamil Nadu to the guts of the Hindi heartland. Whereas it’s frequent for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam movies to be tailored into different languages, it requires important rewriting to suit the cultural and linguistic milieu—unsurprising given the range at play in a rustic like India.

Most notably, whereas Pariyerum Perumal restricted its results in friendship, Dhadak 2 tackles inter-caste romance straight. The movie’s title means actually heartbeat, a picture that hints at each infatuation and suspense. 

Dhadak 2 explores the burgeoning relationship between an upper-caste girl and a Dalit man (who belongs to traditionally scorned decrease caste) at legislation faculty. However not like most Hindi movies the place courtship is likely to be powerful however marriage means fortunately ever after, Dhadak 2 chooses to contemplate the aftermath of affection. What comes of intimacy in a society divided by notions of purity, superiority, and even who can and may’t be touched? Within the subcontinent, the place caste regulates entry to schooling, progress, and assimilation—the place Dalits are nonetheless punished with untouchability and violence—Dhadak 2 weighs the worth of affection.

To make sure, Indian movie industries aren’t solely averse to sad endings. Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet has been tailored many instances, from Ok. Balachander’s musical melodrama Maro Charithra (1978) in Telugu, the yuppie romance of Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), which marked Indian film star Aamir Khan’s breakout, to the explosively fatalistic Ram-Leela (2013) by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

These movies teased love as an all-consuming affair within the face of household apathy, however additionally they understood a deeply uncomfortable fact that has endured within the subcontinent: It’s almost unattainable to consummate a relationship with out household acceptance in India. The division between Capulets and Montagues—or the Rajadis and Saneras—makes an instinctive sense to Indian audiences.

However most Bollywood romances persist with the concept honest love can transfer mountains and even shift the stony resolve of an sad mum or dad. Hindi cinema’s best love story, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), which continues to be screened at a devoted movie show in Mumbai at present, is the tentpole right here. Exploring tensions inside the diaspora, the movie valorizes household values, that are held as absolutely the, grounding phenomenon in a society inching towards modernity—a sentiment shared by Sooraj Barjatya’s saccharine-coated romantic household drama Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), the place younger lovers Prem and Nisha forsake their relationship on the altar for the sake of their households.

Dhadak 2 is more durable minded, though it comes from Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, a manufacturing home that has turned out loads of routine romances. Within the multi-star ensemble autos of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… (2001) and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), set over 20 years aside, Johar and his firm caught to the normal joyful ending of a unified, upper-class household.

“In our society, we love solely after contemplating caste and faith. It’s very disturbing. You’re negotiating with your self as a result of your dad and mom have informed you to not fall for anyone or marry exterior our group. So even those that defy their dad and mom by loving somebody, they usually simply love inside their communities,” Iqbal informed International Coverage. “We wished to deviate from that trope.”

From the very first scene in Dhadak 2, Iqbal is intent on squashing the sanguine pleasures of Bollywood romance. The difference strikes the story away from the unique’s small-town setting to an unnamed metropolis in Madhya Pradesh. We see a pair in a humble residence below a portrait of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Structure and a distinguished Dalit chief. In one other film, they might be the protagonists, however instantly after the younger girl leaves, a anonymous man (Saurabh Sachdeva) seems. He promptly kills the younger man, ending a narrative earlier than it begins.

An Indian viewers instantly understands that is an honor killing, the place younger persons are killed by their very own households for loving exterior their caste or faith. This nightmare state of affairs rapidly underscores that Dhadak 2 is a really completely different form of film.

 “For the variation, our concept was to root it within the Hindi heartland. The town could possibly be Bhopal, Patna, or Jaipur. Quite than this being a narrative of a small place being restricted by its geography, we wished to increase it in scope, attraction to a wider viewers that this could possibly be occurring nearly wherever within the nation,” Iqbal mentioned.

Then we meet the precise stars. Neelesh Ahirwar (in a superb flip from younger actor Siddhant Chaturvedi) and Vidhisha Bhardwaj (Triptii Dimri) meet at a marriage. However that is removed from the standard meet-cute. Whereas Vidhisha—Vidhi to her buddies—is within the thick of marriage ceremony festivities, Neelesh is on the marriage ceremony as a drummer in a band referred to as the Bhim Baaja Dhol Boys. His troupe is made to face separate from the celebration, a metallic gate concretely segregating Neelesh and his bandmates from the festivities. Vidhi dares to cross the brink—she needs Neelesh’s quantity so he can play the drums at her sister’s upcoming marriage ceremony. There’s an undercurrent of flirtation, however the traces of social standing have already been drawn.

“There’s a false impression folks have that caste doesn’t function in city areas. However that’s not true,” Iqbal mentioned. “There’s a dialogue within the movie, ‘Those that don’t expertise it don’t know that it’s occurring.’ In villages, there’s a clear separation in how higher and decrease castes work together or stay away from one another. Folks settle for it as a lifestyle. However in city areas, with extra mobilization, the discrimination occurs in a extra invisible manner. So, it was a acutely aware option to adapt the movie in an city setting, to sort out the insidious methods caste operates on this milieu.”

Neelesh and Vidhi meet once more, this time at a authorities legislation faculty. They’re equals right here; schooling is supposed to degree their taking part in discipline. However such equality is much from accessible. On the primary day of sophistication, college students introduce themselves with their full title—which, for Indians, include an on the spot set of caste markers; a smattering of names like Bhardwaj, Agrawal, Rastogi, Gupta, Verma, and Upadhyay tells Neelesh he’s surrounded by largely upper-caste classmates.

From the onset, Neelesh is singled out for incomes his seat by way of India’s model of affirmative motion, the long-standing authorities program of reserved locations at high faculties for members of backward lessons. Regardless of having the smarts to be a lawyer, Neelesh can be alienated by the rigorous expectations of English-language schooling—his schooling thus far has been in Hindi—and is just about the one Dalit scholar in most social environments

On this ambiance, Vidhi seeks Neelesh’s friendship at first, and later his love, slowly turning into his one confidant. Vidhi, the outspoken daughter of a household of legal professionals, is of course argumentative. She’s a girl of the second, au courant with the newest web buzzwords. “Poisonous masculinity” she blurts out, when Neelesh asks her why her earlier relationship ended. “However you don’t have that sickness,” Vidhi assures him. Why would he? He’s learning at a university the place he’s informed repeatedly that he doesn’t belong. Removed from assured in his place on the planet, he’s simply making an attempt to get by.

This resignation additionally impedes Neelesh’s friendship with Shekhar (Priyank Tiwari), a Dalit scholar activist on campus, which is an alteration to the unique movie’s story. (Whereas Dhadak 2 stays loyal to its supply materials, there are a number of important adjustments within the screenplay by Rahul Badwelkar and Iqbal.) Shekhar’s character is conceptualized as an ode to Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD scholar on the College of Hyderabad who died by suicide in 2016, after claiming institutional harassment associated to his anti-caste activism. Shekhar is an outspoken scholar chief who’s unafraid to tackle upper-caste bullies on campus. Whereas Neelesh is clearly in awe of Shekhar, he resists activism, selecting as a substitute to go below the radar.

However Neelesh’s closeness with Vidhi doesn’t go unnoticed. It earns him the ire of Vidhi’s household. Vidhi’s character can be a surge ahead from the unique movie, wherein the younger girl is a passive, reluctant observer of the humiliation the protagonist is put by way of. Whereas Vidhi comes-of-age in her blossoming relationship, she is but simple-minded to the closeted intentions of her household, notably her doting father. She invitations Neelesh to a household marriage ceremony, frustratingly ignorant to their household’s deep sense of prejudice; right here, her household roughs up and humiliates Neelesh removed from the prying eyes of the celebrations. Vidhi slowly awakens to her circle of relatives’s culpability within the horrors afflicting Neelesh—in doing so, Neelesh and Vidhi are introduced nearer. Dhadak 2 strays from the unique movie by affording Neelesh and Vidhi a romantic observe—a choice that earned the film some flak for “Bollywoodizing” the story.  

“I felt that if we permit Neelesh to fall in love, then his journey turns into way more difficult. Within the unique movie, Pari [the analogous character] is overwhelmed up on the marriage ceremony, regardless of not even loving the woman,” Iqbal mentioned. “After we change that within the adaptation, when Neelesh is informed he has to stay away from Vidhi as a result of that might spell dying for each him and her, the stakes are a lot larger.”

A scene from Dhadak 2.Zee Studios

Dhadak 2’s scenes of intimacy and its romantic ballads are pretty, and for Neelesh, they’re additionally harmful and liberating. As he grows nearer to Vidhi, Neelesh is maturing politically because of characters like Shekhar and the faculty principal, a member of a lower-caste Muslim group virtually by no means seen in mainstream Hindi cinema. There’s an imbalance even in the way in which Neelesh and Vidhi strategy one another. Whereas Vidhi feels entitled to Neelesh’s house and firm, Neelesh is restrained, considering earlier than reacting. Vidhi pursues him, whereas Neelesh shies away—way more conscious of the real-world risks that Vidhi’s internet-coached progressivism overlooks.

“Folks have observed how the movie has a really sturdy female gaze, not simply in worldbuilding but in addition in the way in which the characters which have modified from the unique,” Iqbal mentioned. “There’s a sure manner Neelesh operates—it’s not very masculine or assertive.”

Neelesh’s mom is a former political chief, cautious of her son’s new buddy. His father (Vipin Sharma, in an empathetic flip) is a touring drag performer, himself weak to the form of violence he fears for his son at a giant legislation faculty. The expertise of terror informs their each gaze, gesture, and cautionary phrase of recommendation.

In distinction, the primary time we meet Vidhi’s household, they’re arranging a wedding proposal for his or her elder daughter. There’s some confusion—each households commerce backwards and forwards to find out if their castes are appropriate; in the event that they’re the form of Brahmins who “match.” When Vidhi invitations Neelesh to her sister’s marriage ceremony, her household’s concern is two-fold: the concept of getting to cavort with a Dalit man, and the prospect of their outspoken daughter doubtlessly carry dishonor on their household title by way of an inter-caste relationship. The contract killer from the primary scene of the movie seems a number of instances, finishing up honor killings within the background. He’s the predictive thread of the movie—nevertheless refined Vidhi’s household may appear, his presence means that they won’t be above hiring his companies.

This portrayal shatters the illusory attraction of Bollywood cinema’s happily-ever-after. By exposing the fractures inherent to dominant caste household dynamics and establishments—the place girls are allowed freedom to review however not select their companions; the place the family is curated with domineering male figures and compliant girls; the place violence is a recourse to having one’s manner—Iqbal salvages love from the social consummation of household. After many years of posturing innocent, even idealistic, upper-caste households, Dhadak 2 dares to rupture the subtle veneer of the joyful household.

That the movie chooses to finish with Neelesh and Vidhi within the classroom, taking an examination, somewhat than on the marriage altar, can be a subversive rejection of the quintessential Bollywood climax.

“That is that form of forbidden love, proper? You’re preventing the dad and mom, you’re preventing the society,” Iqbal mentioned. “The battle there’s usually class and infrequently caste, and ultimately they both persuade the dad and mom and dwell collectively or die in the long run. We wished to deviate from that but in addition finish on hope. There are caste killings occurring all through the movie, so it’s tethered to harsh actuality. However we wished to present the viewers some hope for the long run. It’s not a decision; the struggle isn’t over but.”

Dhadak 2 earned its title as a religious successor to Dhadak (2018), which was itself a remake of Sairat (2016), a gripping Marathi-language romantic drama directed by Nagraj Manjule that tackled caste hierarchy and violence. However Dhadak softened its story, whereas Dhadak 2 hardens it. Not all the things works: The intuition to model the movie as a part of a caste cinematic universe feels contrived, as do among the aesthetic decisions, like making the lead’s pores and skin darker to convey that he’s Dalit, feeding into centuries-long misconceptions about pores and skin colour and caste hierarchy. However these are uncommon bitter notes in a grippingly efficient portrayal of caste and an indictment of the trade’s personal complicity.

“There’s a sure erasure that occurs while you cease speaking about the place folks come from. Identification will get tacked on to us, and in India, it’s not potential for everybody to rewrite their identification,” Iqbal mentioned. “Someplace Bollywood has moved previous it. As a result of I believe folks within the trade come from a sure privilege, they’re telling their very own tales of the place they arrive from, and sadly, the place they arrive from, identification doesn’t function in the way in which it does in a extra underprivileged group. That’s why these tales have been misplaced in the previous few many years.”

At a time when mainstream Hindi cinema is about reclaiming misplaced Hindu glory, with movies both centering the dominant caste expertise or actively rewriting historical past, Dhadak 2 registers defiantly. It asks us to contemplate the price of love in a deeply fractured state, and the struggle for survival.