Fandry (2013)

It is about a teenager from a Dalit (Oppressed caste) family, who lives at the village fringe, and falls in love with an upper caste girl.

Director:

Nagraj Manjule

Writer:

Nagraj Manjule

Stars:

Somnath Awghade, Rajeshwari Kharat, Suraj Pawar

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Somnath Awghade	...	Jambuwant Kachru Mane (Jabya)
Rajeshwari Kharat	...	Shalu
Suraj Pawar	...	Piraji (Pirya)
Kishore Kadam	...	Kachru Mane (Nana)
Chhaya Kadam	...	Nani
Nagraj Manjule	...	Chankeshwar Sathe (Chankya)
Jyoti Subhash
Pravin Tarde	...	Patil
Suresh Vishwakarma
Bhushan Manjule	...	Dada Patil
Vikas Pandurang Patil	...	Barber
Aishwarya Shinde	...	Surki
Sakshi Vyavhare	...	Dhurpa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sanjay Chaudhri	...	Teacher
Ramchandra Dhumal

Storyline

Love, the most beautiful emotion in all living creatures that God has made knows no bar, caste or boundaries, is the central theme of Fandry. A young lad (Jabya) falls in love with his classmate. Incidentally, he belongs to a lower caste, a family below the poverty line which does all sorts of jobs in the village to survive like catching Pigs and the girl belongs to a higher caste. His parents are working hard to arrange money for their daughter's wedding while Jabya is collecting money for new clothes to impress the girl. Fandry is a story of his aspirations, quest, sorrows, anguish and frustrations. Fandry also touches upon the age old monster of Caste System which is still lurking large upon the society.

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Plot Keywords:

chasing an animal | nest | tree climbing | teenage love | cell phone | 

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Genres:

Drama | Family

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nagraj Manjule auditioned many boys for character of Jabya.But saw Somnath Avghade in his village when he was playing the Halgi instrument and approached him.He was also convinced by the tone of his language which was required for the character.

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Connections

References Judaai (1997)

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Soundtracks

Bird Theme
Composed by Alokananda Dasgupta
Oud and Mandolin Performed by Tapas Roy
Cello performed by P.S. Ramachandran

User Reviews

Nagraj Manjule - In the shoes of MASTERS

When Fandry was released in 2013, it was critically acclaimed. I did not get chance to watch it then.

I saw Sairat, and later when Dhadak was released - I revisited Sairat and while reading about the Director Nagraj Manjule - came again across his first feature length film - Fandry.

The story is about 13 year old adolescents boy Jabya's dream - his unrequited LOVE towards Shalu, a girl studying with him. And Jabya's dis-interest in his untouchable lower caste's based role his father Kachru plays in the village doing menial jobs. The story eloquently leads us to the final set-up where embarrassed Jabya has to give a hand to his father to catch a piglet in front of his school mates inside a garbage ground.

It is an utterly heart-wrenching tale of realization of broken dreams of LOVE in front of whole village, especially in front of the girl who too laughs are the family's endeavors of catching a pig; where people humiliate and playfully laugh and make fun of Jabya.

After watching Fandry I also watched a short film of the director Nagraj - Pistulya (10 minutes short film)

Few things stand out as Director Nagraj Manjule's trademarks -

• His movies portrays his personal experiences of life,
• There is an angle of LOVE,
• The movies are based in smaller towns and villages,
• the protagonists are mostly new and unknown faces who are drawn into acting,
• There is social issues highlighted in the movie - castes, discrimination, honor killing, education
• The movies are a good mix of lighter moments,
• The music of the movies is good,
• The movies are made with much sensitiveness,
• One can see the glimpses of great master at work,
• It looks evident that a lot of work has been done at the script (writing) stage,
• There are moments in the movie that are heart wrenching,
• The endings of all the three movies are tragic

All the lead characters of the movie have enacted their roles beautifully. Applause to Somanth Awghade who plays Jabya and Kishore Kadam who plays Jabya's father Kachru.

The movie has won several awards including the National Award for best debut director and child artist.

The movie's cinematography is worth mentioning which has been captured with great still shots reminding us of internationally acclaimed directors like Terrence Mallick with sensibilities of Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali. The use of symbolism in beautifully interwoven with the flow of the script.

Director Manjule too has also done a small cameo as a mentor of Jabya. I will recommend this movie whole-heartedly. It was a stepping stone for Manjule to come out with the commercial block-buster Sairat - without compromising on the theme and his movie making style.

Great watch - Go, find FANDRY from somewhere - it is on Netflix too and watch it. The movie will change the way you look at life.

(I will go with 7.75 out of 10)

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Marathi

Release Date:

14 February 2014 (India)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Holy Basil Productions, Navalakha Arts, Media & Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1