Challenges of the Indigenous Movements Through Cinematic Lens: Studying Prakash Jha’s ‘chakravyuh’

Abstract

Indian history is tainted with episodes of bigotry towards the socially, economically, and  politically downtrodden indigenous. In order to perform a fair exploration on the extent of  this discrimination and the rise of the movement called Naxalism, a film was produced in  2012 by Prakash Jha titled ‘Chakravyuh’. The paper aims at intensively analyze the subject of  the challenges of the indigenous movement in the backdrop of the film. The film puts its  spotlight on the so-called Naxalites drawing parallels between the movement and the great  Indian epic of Mahabharata. The film portrays that to protect what is rightfully theirs the  indigenous majorly the scheduled tribes and castes as they are referred to today, have turned  into Naxalites who are forced to use violence against their own countrymen in order to fight  against abject poverty and relentless exploitation suffered by them for ages mutely.