Netflix’s Serious Men: A Dalit Father’s Quest To Provide His Son Everything.

Sudhir Mishra’s latest “Serious Men” is a film that should be watched by all the privileged upper-class Indians & the primitive minds.

Starring the effortless Nawazuddin Siddiqui as an underprivileged Dalit office assistant to a Brahman who has seen enormous hardship & discrimination in his life vows to give his son a better life by hook or crook. He is street smart & well aware of his identity who does everything to keep himself at par with his privileged colleagues and most importantly never feels bad for being a Dalit.

The movie very well establishes the fact that he is underprivileged who has big plans for his child before the cold opening.

His son gets rejected in a catholic English medium school admission interview despite having a reference from his upper-class colleague who is the head of a government research organisation & also an alumnus of the school. We see how an employee at the school asks his full name to ascertain his caste which is extremely prevalent in India. It’s also learnt that the recommendation from his colleague was just to get rid of him.

The film takes a six-year leap and we see the son studying in the same school and realise that he has become a child prodigy who is getting recognition left right centre and his father doesn’t leave any opportunity to capitalise on it.

Based on Indian Journalist Manu Joseph’s 2010 novel of the same name, the film is beautifully adapted for the screen by Bhavesh Mandalia, Abhijeet Khuman, Niren Bhat and Nikhil Nair. It is a satirical dark comedy that subtly touches all aspects of problems and desire of an underprivileged man. The film shows the deep-rooted fear of a Dalit father who can go to any length to make sure his son doesn’t face the caste or any discrimination like him.

There are some scenes I am yet to absorb — the first being the nun of the catholic school trying to indirectly convince & convert his family to a Christian in lieu of scholarship benefits.

It’s a fast-paced film with little to no dull moments exceptionally driven by Nawaz. Indira Verma plays his wife and delivers a spot-on performance of a Dalit underprivileged mother who is kept away by her husband’s plan to make their child a genius. She is strong, independent and fierce. Akshat Das does a great job as the son as well. Although he doesn’t look like their (Dalit) kid.

There’s the same political angle in the film as well that is trying to capitalise on the child prodigy with the Dalit upliftment card. The politician is a typical Marathi man well played by Sanjay Naverker ( Sanjay Dutt’s friend from Vaastav) and Shweta Basu Prasad.

Every event of the film unfolds and shows the truth of regressive Indian society that just preaches about equality. There’s a scene at the end of the film where Nawazuddin Siddiqui opens up to his upper-class privileged boss ( played by multi-talented M Naseer) about his efforts to give his son a better life than him which is reciprocated well by his boss who ends up saying that “Your Angst is right but actions aren’t” — This is the highlight of the film for me because here a privileged upper-class Indian understands an under-privileged lower-class Indian who seeks nothing but equality in the society.

The film is also an important one for the parents who put their dreams and aspirations on their children potentially jeopardizing their career and health.

It’s a must-watch for everyone especially the Indian primitive minds who believe there’s no caste-based discrimination and demand the abolishment of reservation in India.