After the 1997 police shooting of 10 unarmed Dalit (formerly known as Untouchable) protesters and bystanders in Mumbai’s slums, the community’s rage over their 2,000 years of oppression boils over. For one man, singer, poet and activist, Vilas Ghogre, it’s more than he can bear; filled with despair over the pain and grief of his people, he hangs himself. Compelled by this tragedy, award-winning activist and documentarian Anand Patwardhan focuses his keen lens on the atrocities committed against the Dalits in this magnum opus 14 years in the making, incorporating their voice through their stirring resistance music and poetry. Denied basic human rights for centuries, condemned to clean the filth of the upper caste for pennies a day, then abhorred as lesser beings, the Dalit struggle is deftly counterbalanced by intimate family portraits, moments of inspiration, perseverance and glimpses of a better future.
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