‘Shavagalu’: Moving film about a grisly job

It tells the tale of a Dalit man from a community that cleans and dissects bodies at the mortuary.

The film Shavagalu (Dead Beings) is a poignant tale of a carefree teenager who comes face to face with the realities of life when he witnesses his father cutting up bodies at a mortuary.

The film won the Best Film award in the international category at the International Film Festival for Human Rights, Colombia, and was selected for the Karnataka competition section at the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). 

Mahadev Hadapad and Charan Prasad in 'Shavagalu'.

Shavagalu, directed and funded by Mani, is an eye-opener about the grisly jobs the Dalit community is forced to take up. 

Mani made the 26-minute film after he came across a photo series by Arun Vijai Mathavan, a photographer from Chennai, who visited mortuaries across the country to document the problems of people working there. 

Arun saw people without any formal training cleaning and dissecting bodies. In many cases, they had no gear or tools to help them do their jobs with dignity. Many were traumatised as they had no training and orientation. Most came from the Dalit community; in some places, he found people from a particular sub-caste being hired for these jobs because, historically, they were the ones who disposed of corpses. 

Mani, director of the film.

Mani went through many articles and watched many videos before writing the film. “I was aware of caste-based jobs but the existence of a job like this disturbed me,” he told Showtime. 

Shavagalu is Mani’s third short — Patches (2020) and The Arrival of Factories (2022) are the other two. While Patches explores the hardships of the underprivileged to get basic health care, The Arrival of Factories discusses the impact of capitalism and urbanisation in a village. 

“There are a number of problems the underprivileged people face. These should have been solved long ago but they persist in this day and age. I think it is important to tell these stories,” says Mani.

The film is now acquired and presented by Neelavarana, an artiste collective and production house. It was set up on Ambedkar Jayanti in 2021 in Bengaluru and works towards inclusivity. “We saw a lack of representation in Kannada cinema, so a few of us young filmmakers came together to see what we could do,” says Mahisha, founder of Neelavarana. The group aims to bring in people from Dalit and queer communities and women to tell their stories. They want to encourage films by people of these communities. 

Screening of Shavagalu on Saturday, October 21, at Alternative Law Forum, Infantry Road, Bengaluru.