In an industry which operates within the logic of art as a marketable commodity and entertainment as the performance of consumption, the recent movie Jugnuma (The Fable) by director Raam Reddy, with Manoj Bajpai as lead role is different. Within the given structures of the film industry, it appears and symbolises movie making as practicing/seeking freedom. 

The movie has a fable-like tone, just like the name suggests. It often invokes the realm of magic from the very beginning of the movie when the lead character Dev (played by veteran actor Manoj Bajpai) jumps off a peak with the artificial wings and flies like a hawk over the valley. This jump and flight initially appears to signify control and check over the ancestral five thousand acre estate of the lead character in the Himalayas. However, it is only in the end that the meaning is realised, where not only the protagonist but his entire family of four members takes a flight in the sky over the valley.

The flight signifies where the battle of universals are invoked and resolved, in which any student of social science will be interested in.

Does this flight symbolise liberation, or mukti, in the line of Kabiri genre songs, where swan (hans) is often signifier of soul and the world (jag) is only a temporary fair (mela) to be visited? Or is it a bit more than that, where the real liberation for an estate owner of an apple orchard is realised through distributing his property to the labourers and the local manager of the orchard? The life of firefly (jugnu) is not only discussed and understood, but realised and implemented. 

I argue that the universals imagined and articulated within the sacred genre are often empty universals. The Upanishadic idea of Brahma or later Shiva (post Shankaracharya) imagined a grand universal of ‘one-ness’, however, within the believers of such an ideal, caste and class based hierarchies with the practices of untouchability continued. We can argue the same for the Kabiri genre of songs. 

The two songs (the famous nirvan-sukta by Shankaracharya, popularly known as shivo’ham shivo’ham and the Naiharawa hamka na bhaave from the Kabiri genre), presence of Lama and an adult girl exploring her sexuality which resolved within the sacred idiom, and the flying man – these are all invocations to the realm of other-worldly kind.

These are all very attractive invocations and keep the audiences thinking on many planes throughout the movie. These quests are operating in the backdrop of the crisis related to fire in the estate or apple orchard. 

The sacred realm gives a touch of magic to the movie. These are those universals which are so distant that they can only be talked and discussed in a separate language of either the song genre or magic (the way jugnu are invoked and shown in the film). These are momentary enchantments which can enchant an individual and relieve them in catharsis. Often it can suit the structural exploitator in an exploitative regime. The momentarily relieved class-individual can go back to routineness of structure in which they enjoy structural benefits. 

However, in the end, the movie breaks the wall and two types of universals meet in a beautiful way. The owner (Dev) of a large estate gets liberation by distributing his apple orchard to the labourers who worked in the orchard. The sacred idiom meets the profanic world and the distant utopias of the song genre gets realised in the real-world-universal. 

The structural exploitator’s liberation is not possible in individualistic quest and momentary relief in the cultural code of shiva (see the Shankar’s verses of Vedantic kind mentioned above) or hans (of kabiri genre). It gets its meaning within the social through collective liberation. The Upanishadic Brahma meets the material/mundane world of property distribution and a realisable universal is achieved. It is no longer the realm of mystery but perhaps of truth. The cultural idioms and the associated universals become the backdrop on which the final mukti of being propertyless is realised. 

The director of the movie thinks that these age old universals can inspire these real world outcomes. The exploitator’s liberation is never individual but always possible in the collective – on the social plane.

The message conveyed by Raam Reddy is that in the structures of power and property, the ones who hold the advantageous position too are suffering. The end of their suffering or their mukti/liberation lies in abandoning their privileges. The available advantageous position in class structure allows this liberation for the family in the movie through the gift of property to have-nots. 

But what will mukti for the other characters in the movie entail – for the recipient of the property, Mohan (played by Deepak Dobriyal), who is the caretaker and manager of the estate as well as narrator in the movie, and to Keshav and his family – especially Keshav’s wife (played by Tillotama Shome)? Is this mukti specific to the upper-middle classes or is it universal? How will the property-less get their liberation? What will Jugnu signify for them? 

The answer lies in a powerful poem written by Nagarjun that uses the trope of Jugnu in Hindi. Here’s a rough translation of the poem below: 

The monsoon season

And the dark night.

How unique

of blue colour, are

these shades of light (jugnu).

Spreading flawlessness 

in the forest 

Integral to the 

joyousness of rain 

looks like they only will win 

in the game of power.

They are in thousands

lakhs, 

Can we count them!

they are uncountable. 

Together they blink, 

together they die.

They bring life to the jungle 

Juganu these are,

their own light. 

Extinguishes in moment,

like Phosphorous! 

How unique is their contribution 

in the joy of rain.

They will definitely win 

The rassling of darkness

Do not dare to call them 

wretched!

They are the torch-bearers 

The life of forest 

[The small eternal suns

of night.]

The jugnu here are the working classes, the have-nots, like the Keshav and other workers who were working in the estate of Dev in the movie. They will collectively fight for their liberation, not remain passive recipients of the property as charity. They will fight for it even if structures are so overpowering like darkness of infinite kind. They will not lose hope, they are the symbols of hope. In fact, the movie may possibly even be made from the vantage point of Keshav’s wife. 

Who will think, articulate and act for her liberation/mukti? What will be the meaning of liberation for her? Will the cultural tropes useful for the middle class Dev be useful for her in her liberation? 

The movie invokes some sort of moral resolution for the middle-class estate owner who gets jugnu-fied or enlightened or free by giving up the property. A thought provoking idea for alienated audiences who have lost the meaning of life in the race for consumerism. It asks a question: can life be freedom? 

Jugnu cannot hold the same meaning for those whose struggle is simply to survive, for whom freedom or liberation means nothing more than the constant security of the physical body.

Chandrabhan P. Yadav teaches history at NLSIU, Bengaluru.

(Author’s acknowledgement: I am thankful to Ajay and Santosh ji for bringing my notice to the poem by Nagarjun.)

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