The Telugu film Mallesham, directed by Raj Rachakonda, is a milestone in the history of contemporary low-budget, off-beat cinema.
Among biopics, which tend to be about well-known names and figures, it is path-breaking in the sense that it depicts the life story of an ordinary man named Mallesham, and his hard work and talent which led him to become an artist among weavers.
While Indians are familiar with the handloom sarees of Pochampalli, known for their their intricate designs, Mallesam acquaints viewers with the lives of the men and women who make these. The sarees are popular among the urban upper-middle class, yet their makers struggle to make ends meet. The film acts as an invitation to its viewers to sample life on the other side.
Suicides of poverty-stricken weavers in Andhra Pradesh, who are burdened by large debts, forms the backdrop of both the film and Mallesham’s life story.
Ambition against all odds
Asu poyatam or the work of setting the pattern of the thread before the weaving even begins is a painstaking task, done mostly by women. Doing this results in a loss of bone density, which is something thousands of weaver women suffer from. Mallesham, since he was a child, thus becomes determined to fashion a device which could ease this task.
The film also notes how meagre the returns are in weaving, a caste-based profession in Telugu states, confined to the lower castes of Padamshalis, Shalis and Devangas. There is no assurance of minimum wage. Weavers are at the mercy of the market. The traditional set-up of any village, where upper castes monopolise the market and money lending businesses, also works to the disadvantage of the weavers.
Mallesham thus faces significant challenges like lack of resources, lack of education and lack of access to the English language. He is a primary school dropout who only has the ability to use his innate engineering skills. It is his ambition, however, which fuels him to make the machine at a very low cost.
Role of women
Women’s issues have a significant role to play in the story. Mallesham, despite all his economic drawbacks, refuses to accept dowry to marry the woman whom he falls in love with, just as he refuses to bow before an upper-caste moneylender who was his classmate.
What else can I say? ??? pic.twitter.com/Pb7wHHPeWF
— Mallesham (@priyadarshi_i) June 1, 2019
Mallesham’s wife Padma inspires him, helps him by taking up work as a tailor and migrates along with him to the city. She is his partner and not a woman character whose role is limited only to courtship and marriage. She is equally determined to make this dream come true for the benefit of the larger community.
Critique of merit
The film is critical of modern education and the concept of ‘merit’ that is not determined by skill and actual knowledge but by grades, marks and percentages. The semi-literate young Mallesham has the ability to use the concepts of engineering to solve the weavers’ problem.
However, he professes no knowledge of English or the scientific theory that is taught in technological institutions. The film is a fascinating critique of the gap between education and its relevance to immediate society.
The film also fleetingly touches upon the phenomenon of engineering students whose concerns are marks and degrees but who do not have skills to tide through in their profession.
A vast number of middle class youth in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana opt for technological education over the social sciences and humanities. Their numbers add to the unemployment rate in the country, thanks to factors like privatisation which no longer ensures quality in education, parental pressure to have every child get a BTech, and so on.
Kancha Ilaiah’s theories on ‘skill versus merit’ are depicted with rigour in the film. Men and women of the lower castes who possess the skills suffer the stigma of being unmeritorious while those of the upper castes boast of their irrelevant merit which can only be measured with grades and not with the benefit it can do to society.
Also read: Caste Wasn’t a British Construct – and Anyone Who Studies History Should Know That
Systematic subjugation of lower castes
The state wants to preserve the professions of the artisan classes in the name of protecting heritage, but it overlooks the suicides of weavers who find themselves in huge debts.
While Dalits suffer the stigma of being assigned humiliating professions like manual scavenging, the professions of the artisan castes are glorified as those which preserve culture and heritage. However, the truth is that caste-based occupations subjugate those belonging to the lower castes in such a way that they find neither an escape nor relief from poverty.
Mallesham could be seen as a political intervention of the lower castes whose members have come forward to tell a story that is unknown to mainstream Indian society.
Finally, the film works because of talented actors such as Priyadarshi who plays the lead role. He, along with actors Ananya, Jhansi, Chakrapani Ananda and Laxman Aelay, make the film the success that it is.
Mohan D. teaches at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Hyderabad, India.