Name of the Film – Ambedkarite Artist Kadubai
Director – Omey Anand
Art/Creative Head – Aniket Mohite
Research Head – Prashant Usha Vijaykumar
DOP – Omileelansh and Abhishek
Light – Sagar Pakale
Kadubai Kharat is Dalit folk artist who lives in Aurangabad, Maharastra. She sings songs of Babasaheb in various Dalit localities in Aurangabad and runs her family. Kadubai has become a famous name in whole of Maharastra through social media for some time now. In her videos she sings about Babasaheb’s contribution to society, especially towards Dalits. The Ambedkarite people fall in love with her voice and extend their hands to support her. People know everything, especially about her economic condition.
The Nijaat collective went there to shoot some songs of Babasaheb but after that we realized that Kadubai shares the similar situation to other Dalit artists who are living in unnoticeable areas of rural and urban spaces like Siddharth Nagar and Annabhau Sathe Nagar. Also there is the history of hundreds of Dalit Artists, Writers and Activists who died without any recognition. They are famous but not successful. They struggle with the society using their art as a tool. After researching on Kadubai’s life, we get a peek into her life, inspired by Babasaheb’s ideology, how her songs are raising questions to the society about education, health, politics, infrastructure etc.
Kadubai lives in an encroached area of Aurangabad city. Our camera reached there and took information from about 500 people who live in that encroached area. This is not a problem that arise in a day, this is the outcome of hundreds of years old history of caste and class. Kadubai doesn’t want our sympathy, but a movement against this casteist society through her songs on Babasaheb. With the help of our film we tried to conclude how the politics of caste played a vital role in the life of Kadubai.
We, The Nijaat Collective, a group of Dalit artists are trying to reach the unnoticed and oppressed section of the caste society by raising a new anti-caste movement. Our camera is our weapon to destroy caste and create a new world based on Babasaheb’s thoughts.
Just like Kadubai we are also artists, as Kadubai has her ektara we have our camera and we need your support for building an egalitarian society. We request you to extend your support through any kind of medium.
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Omey Anand can be contacted at Omeysathe19@gmail.com
[Via Somnath Waghmare]
