Jhund is indeed a cultural war cry on the most Brahminical battlefield, i.e Hindi cinema, a.k.a. Bollywood.
Jhund begins with a one-sided conversation between a husband and a wife in a less than 100 sq ft house where she is scolding him for getting drunk. Out comes the hero, a.k.a. Don, and the way the camera captures him shows the difference between the docile protagonists of Aakrosh (1980), Damul (1985) and Jhund (2022).
Director Nagraj Manjule here does not paint Ankush or his friend black the way Jai Bhim’s director painted one of the co-leads black. Besides, Nagraj does not need to paint anyone black either as these kids have shown that they are capable of telling their stories.
Life in these slums is riddled with daily hand to mouth struggles and to tackle those struggles the kids engage in stealing. But that is an option forced down their throats by the Brahminical society through generations of poverty.
In most of the films prior to Jhund, Hindi film-makers would show the slum-dwellers having no celebration of life. But here we can see the kids jamming to music and also playing football with a can.
All of these things are a matter of gaze and nothing else. The wall is used as a metaphor to describe the huge social filter which is next to impossible for these children to escape. Football is an example of a great leveller which allows a person to break away from social barriers. If given an opportunity then what is possible is shown in a match between the school kids and the slum-dwellers.
The film asserts itself through identities from time to time. Also, there is this scene where it also very critically asks questions on the Jayanti celebrations. The idea of India has still not reached today as I type as a particular scene rightly points it out. What has hurt people the most is that these slum kids have occupied their big screens which were only reserved for their Tanmay-Chinmay’s.
This is just a start and there will be a plethora of films in future. Whenever in future the history of non-Brahminical Hindi films is written, then it will always be pre-Jhund and post-Jhund.
Kudos Nagraj.