Jai Bhim Comrade / जय भीम कॉम्रेड
2012 | Color | 169 min
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.




Production, Direction, Camera, Editing: Anand Patwardhan
Production Assistance: Simantini Dhuru, Monica D’Souza, Shashi Mehta, Tripti Kanade, Nikesh Koregaonkar, Santosh Patankar
Sound: Simantini Dhuru, Vipin Bhati
Sound Mixing:PM Satheesh
Music: Vilas Ghogre, Kabir Kala Manch, Sachin Mali, Sheetal Sathe, Sagar Gorkhe, Anand Shinde, Prabhakar Pokrikar, Krishnakant Jadhav, Atmaram Patil, Saraswati Bhonsle, Shantabai Gadpaile, Vithal Umap, Sambhaji Bhagat
Awards
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Film Reviews
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A Soulful Song Of The Nowhere People
Dr Anand Teltumbde | Countercurrents

Tales of oppression and songs of resistance
Catherine Bernier | Jump Cut

India’s uncomfortable truths on film
Sukhdev Sandhu | The Guardian

Where The Republic Still Lives
Javed Iqbal, DNA

Jai Bhim Comrade-Anand Patwardhan
Mumbai Paused

Songs of justice that threaten the State
Satyen Bordolai | SIFY

Stigma and labour: remembering Dalit Marxism
Anupama Rao | Seminar

“It is an epic subject, and in Patwardhan’s hands, it receives epic form.”
Trisha Gupta | The Sunday Guardian

Caste and Credit: The Jai Bhim Saga
Jyoti Punwani, Times of India

Filmmaking style, music and the apathy of the Oppressor
By Panchsheel Gaikwad
