Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal and based on individual experiences. This is not a MOVIE REVIEW

Somewhere during my internship, right in the middle of an ordinary day in court, and while watching these two movies, I realised the story never really ends where we think it does. You walk into these so-called educated spaces expecting sense and equality, and yet one small moment is enough to remind you how deep everything actually runs. That’s really where this whole piece began.

I watched Dhadak 2, a remake of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal, which courageously exposes casteism in modern societies. Casteism is often treated as a thing of the past by most of us. While we all either do not want to acknowledge the reality or just want to pretend that we don't believe in caste, well, the story does not end at caste; it goes much beyond it. We all practice various forms of prejudices; we lie to ourselves that we are progressive, educated folks. We do not believe in such a thing, but believe me, we are all prejudiced to some extent and to many things, knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously.

After watching this movie, I realised that the story does not end with caste, but if we deeply introspect, there is much more to it. However educated we become, we carry prejudiced things with us in the name of values, tradition, Sanskriti, and whatnot. Being educated does not necessarily mean that you cannot be regressive or prejudiced about certain things.

I am currently in my 2nd year of law, and as a law student and a passionate commentator, I would not hesitate to say that I consider myself a progressive person. Still, honestly I also do have some prejudices, I become conservative when comes to few things, like If I will have to marry someone I will never think about marrying a Muslim or for that matter even a Hindu, because it has been fed up by society to all of us to marry within same caste and religion, make friends within same class, we've been fed up all these since we were born in this world and clearly education is not cure of all these things, education is just a veil which helps us pretend as if we are so progressive or we are very open minded but beneath that veil everyone is regressive conciously or subconciously.

Along with casteism, classism is also very prevalent in our society. Today we live in a society where caste, class, colour, religion, everything is a thing of the past, but live in present at the very subconscious level of humans.

There's one thing I've realised over time: in most cases, I tend to make friends with those who don't come from an affluent background. I would like to talk to people who come from the same background as I do. And the same thing applies to almost everyone in most cases, I don't see privileged kids making friends with people who are not privileged, taking them out to fancy restaurants or cafes. Well, of course, I am not denying that there are people who are exceptions, or that things are not changing; I am referring to how most people behave, act, and live.

I am currently doing my internship in court, and I think almost everyone wants to know your full name (especially your last name), no wonder why and just two days ago, someone in the middle of a courtroom asked me in a low voice about my caste. I told him my category, but he shamelessly went on to say "aree yeh toh category hui, caste kya hai" (ohh this is category, what is caste?) I waved off his response. Of course, I know my caste people like him, who never let go of caste and never let others forget it.

I didn't counter him, but only later did I realise that I should have punched him in the face by saying, 'Arey, I thought you people believe in inclusiveness, and your dharma promotes equality, also, isn't your varna is based on your karma, or is it just a shield when someone arm-twists your religion and its texts? Well, I was right, thanks, Haan, for validating my beliefs. However, I didn't, and I regret it. This thing remained with me and bothered me that day and will continue to remain with me for long. And mind it, and the sad part is, all this is happening inside a court, a place we keep assuming is full of educated, sensible people. If this is the level here, so I wonder what the ground reality outside these walls must look like.

Homebound, another movie I recently watched. This piece would be incomplete without bringing it into the conversation. This movie highlights how discrimination is multifaceted, with multiple layers of oppression and inequality. Discrimination based on caste, religion and within that, in gender. Very subtly, yet it shows the reality we live in. The reality we would rather not acknowledge.

All these things tell us that not only were the British prejudiced against racism, but we too are, and we are prejudiced against many things, and we only know it when we introspect. So introspect, debate and understand yourself better.

On this note, I take leave. I hope you liked reading this one. The blog was initially written a day after watching Dhadak, and the latter part was added recently. As I recently watched Homebound, it was a great watch again. This was not a movie review, as it is now clear, but I drew reference from it to tell the story in a better way.

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Thank you for reading :)