In the case of Indian realist works landing in mainland theaters one after another, audiences have a deeper understanding of Indian society through movies.
It's a big country with the same population as we are.
But social classes are firmly controlled by the caste system.
When we study history, we all know that the Indian caste system once ruled India for nearly 3,000 years, even after the independence of India in World War II, the abolition of the caste system was written into the constitution in black and white.
But in today's Indian society, the caste system is still prevalent.
The movie that Xiaomei wants to recommend today unveils this terrible and cruel side through one thing -
Article 15
<h1 class="ql-align-center">Article 15 </h1>
Article 15 of the Indian Constitution clearly stipulates that all persons are equal and that various caste classifications and discrimination are considered illegal.
But what is the reality?
The story of "Article 15" is inspired by real events, and at the beginning of the release, it was also protested by the Brahmin community, which shows that the plot should be quite sensitive.
The male protagonist, Ah Yang, is the newly appointed police chief, who has studied, speaks fluent English, and exports chapters.
Most importantly, he was jealous and hateful.
Played by Ayan is Ayusman Kulana, a "blind pianist" who once performed brilliantly in "The Tuner".
As soon as he appeared, he was dressed in a suit and leather shoes + cold-faced sunglasses, which was very capable, and the subordinates who received him were all fat and greasy.
The new officer took office with three fires, and the subordinates of the police station did not dare to slacken off, and they brought tea and water and held a welcome party.
However, on the body, a group of ragged villagers tried to break in, it turned out that three girls in the village were missing, the report was not accepted at all, there was no way, they would block here.
Ah Yang immediately reprimanded his subordinates and questioned why he did not file a case.
The answer was: don't care, they "this kind of person" often engages in this kind of trick.
Such a person? What kind of person?
In India, the caste system is from top to bottom: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vedas, and Sudras.
Ayan is a Brahmin, so he can get a good education from an early age, and his career is also smooth. Most of the police station staff headed by the captain were brahmins and shatis, and even if they were bad, they had to be vedas.
What about the villagers who come to report the crime?
They do not belong to any of the four major castes above, they are people who are excluded from the caste list, collectively known as "untouchables".
The water that the untouchables touched, they did not drink.
The food that the untouchables have touched, they don't eat.
They can't even tolerate the shadow of the untouchables falling on themselves.
Therefore, if the children of the Untouchables are lost, they will not care.
However, tragedy struck, and the next morning, two young girls were found hanging from branches at the head of the village.
It was two of the three teenage girls who had come to report their disappearance last night.
The disappearance turned into murder, but when Ah Yang pressed the case, the captain told him that the two girls had done something to make the family shameful, and when their father found out, they hanged themselves in anger.
Oh, the day before was still looking for the daughter, the next day he hanged the daughter with his own hands, is this possible?
Intuition told Ah Yang that the case was not so simple.
He immediately arranged for a forensic doctor to conduct an autopsy on the deceased, and at the same time began to investigate the circumstances of the day the murdered girl disappeared.
If you don't check it, you don't know, and when you check it, even Ah Yang himself was shocked.
In this barbaric village, these young girls do not go to school and can only earn money by working in a tannery.
But what about wages? Just 25 rupees a day.
1 rupee = 1 cent.
In other words, these children can only get 2 yuan and 5 cents a day!
On the day of the disappearance, the three girls and the head of the class had a dispute over the salary, and they demanded that the salary be increased from 2 yuan to 2 yuan 8.
You read that right, it went up 3 cents!
But what he got was a loud slap from the head of the class.
Three girls, two dead and one missing, such a big thing that not a single media outlet was being seen in the whole of India.
Ayan was furious, and he demanded that all the people the girl had come into contact with before her death be investigated.
On the other hand, the autopsy of the deceased had been completed, but just as the forensic doctor was preparing to write the report, the captain, who had been flattering Ayan, arrived first.
It was clear that he was threatening the medical examiner to think clearly before writing.
Two girls were sexually abused, raped, and even gang-raped by more than three people during their lifetime.
But when the report was handed over to Ah Yang, the rape had been completely deleted.
The deceased was hastily buried without a decent funeral, and even the father of the deceased, who had previously cried out for wrong, admitted that he had hanged his daughter.
Obviously, all the clues pointed to the head of the tannery, but just as Ah Yang was interrogating the head of the class, the boss called him to release him.
Ban tou was a Brahmin, and Ayan was of the same caste, but he was even higher in rank than Ayan, and no one dared to mess with him.
Everyone is advising Ayan to do more than less, just go ahead.
But Ah Yang could not and could not accept such a bad case being manipulated.
As the minutes and seconds passed, was the third little girl, who had not yet been found, still alive?
"Cruel" and "real" are the most direct perceptions that this movie brings to Xiaomei.
Those discriminations that go deep into the marrow of the bone are accepted by everyone except Ah Yang.
These people do not pay attention to the case, but speak the head of their surname to the caste.
At the beginning of the movie, On the way to office, Ah Yang naturally asks the driver to get out of the car to help him buy a glass of water, but the driver says that he does not dare to touch the untouchables.
At the welcome party, Ayan's water cup was covered with a layer of tin foil because of the presence of dalits who were afraid that the water would be polluted.
Sewers are blocked, sewage flows at the entrance of the police station, and no one wants to dredge it, except the untouchables.
Without any protection, they sank into the sewers and dug them with their hands, and when they couldn't hold back, they floated up and took a few breaths, and then sank again.
Two girls were killed, in fact, the murderer could have lost their bodies or secretly buried them, but he chose to hang the corpses in the village where the untouchables lived.
The purpose is to "frighten" the untouchables and make them obedient.
For thousands of years, the rule is that no one is allowed to break it, so they will obstruct Ah Yang's investigation and ruthlessly kill those who try to break through the racial system.
In addition to the murder of young girls, other social groups are also depicted throughout the film.
Some politicians have used the caste system to make a big fuss, feeding each other on stage with the Untouchables and claiming to be integrated with the Untouchables.
But privately, the meal he fed the drama was brought by himself. Because he does not eat the food made by the untouchables.
Of course, not all dalits are willing to be oppressed, and a few stand up and challenge the world for thousands of years.
They set up organizations, spoke everywhere, and as a result were taken away and shot.
The climax of the film is when Ayan, despite being suspended, finds ropes and blood stains of abused teenage girls in her school classroom.
At the same time, one of his old classmates was condemned because of his conscience, and under the threat of Ah Yang, he told the truth about the disappearance of the girl.
The three girls were taken to their bodies to entertain and rape the scum, and among those who committed violence were the head of the tannery, the captain who had been obstructing the investigation, and even Ah Yang's trusted personal entourage...
Fortunately, the end of the story was not so dark, and Ayan withstood the pressure, and he sent all the documents and evidence to India's home affairs minister.
As for the missing third girl, her strong will to survive led her through a swamp that adults were afraid to cross, and was finally found in the woods, becoming the only survivor of the case.
The ending of the film is particularly interesting.
The girl was rescued, and the police officers who had been busy in the swamp for several days and nights finally breathed a sigh of relief, and everyone spat and ate the cake sold by the roadside grandmother.
Only Ah Yang asked after returning to God: Grandma, what caste are you?
But Grandma's answer was covered by the whistle of the speeding car, and it probably didn't matter what she said.
The film passes a lot in the two-hour period, but in the end, the irrational caste system will eventually be overwhelmed by modern civilization.