Peace of Mind

‘Jai Bhim’ is perhaps one of the boldest films to have come out of Tamil cinema. It doesn’t dare turn its back on hitting where it hurts the most, and its politics is not weighed down by the presence of a star like Suriya At one point in this nearly three-hour-long film, there is a goosebumps-raising moment that has a tribal woman — also the protagonist — turning her back on power, refusing to bow down to the system of dominance that has exploited the fruits of their labour, quite literally. Looking at it purely from the point of view of Tamil cinema’s masala conventions, it is essentially a “mass” scene written for a Dalit character to give her a chance to look at her oppressors in the eye and perhaps tell them: “You cannot break me.”