It's a shame that, well over a century later, even making a film on the fight against caste oppression has to be considered 'brave.' And a bigger shame that despite being a mediocre film at best, this is likely the only one we'll get on such an important part of our history.

Hopefully, the protests against the film have already made some of us read up on Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule.

The movie feels like a chapter in a school history textbook that touches upon different parts of the historical personalities' lives in disconnected paragraphs. It's not like you don't see the logic. But you jump from one instance in Jyotiba and Savitribai's lives to the next without any attempt at a connecting line.

It's not that I didn't learn anything new from the film about their lives. I got a brief backstory about the lack of support at home. I understood how they managed the finances. But, this still gave a feel of scratching the surface. Anyone who knows even a little more, about the history of the time, than I do is likely to know at least this much.

And, of course, the film had a huge gap. You just don't get the extent of the atrocities committed by Brahmins under the garb of Hinduism. This could be owing to the censor board cuts. Or it was a call at the writing stage. For what has reached the screen, though, it assumes the viewer already knows the degree of injustice.

It doesn't help that the performances are just about par. While Pratik Gandhi pulls it off as a social reformer, Patralekha is more distracting than anything else. From a weird accent to the botoxed lips to a new sari in every scene, it just doesn't feel like she belongs in the milieu. None of the other cast members have a big enough role to be memorable, other than Jyotiba repeatedly thanking them for their involvement and support. We hear, we don't get to see.

And Phule, the film, probably had one of the worst endings, for an otherwise decent film, I've seen lately. I wonder what Phule, the man, would have to say about it. Anyway, it's not like we should watch films like these to learn about history. But, as the film repeats a few times—we ought to learn from history and not repeat it. So, even if the film prompts some of us to read up on Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, their supporters, and their work, the film has succeeded. Hopefully, the protests against the film have already made that happen.

- meeta, a part of the audience