Phule Movie Cast/Actors: Pratik Gandhi, Patralekha, Vinay Pathak, Joy Sengupta, Amit Behl, Alexx O’Nell, Sushil Pandey & Others
Phule Movie Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Phule Movie Production House: Zee Studios, Dancing Shiva Films & Kingsmen Productions
Phule Movie Release Date: 25th April, 2025
Phule Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Zee5 OTT Platform)
Phule Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Phule Movie Runtime: 2h 9m
Phule Movie Critic Review:
In a dark, bleak world, somebody lights a lamp.
In the dock this time are not the British atrocities of the 19th century. It’s a centuries old slavery that Indians have practised against their own. Writer-director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and dialogue writer Muazzam Beg paint a weary, dystopic India where no one smiles. Brahmins like Vinayak Deshpande (Joy Sengupta) and the Head Priest (Amit Behl) are always wound up and angry – the streets belong to them during the day, how dare the lower castes walk the same path as them and defile the area? English-educated Jyotiba Phule (Pratik Gandhi) whose father Govindrao (Vinay Pathak) got land from the British is moneyed. But every day is a confrontation with the upper caste.
At home, father has a perpetual frown. Why is son Jyotiba educating and encouraging his barren wife Savitri (Patralekhaa Paul) to step out with him? Govindrao has two distress points. The dharma of a wife is to stay home and bear children which Savitri is incapable of. At one stage he summons Jyotiba and “permits” him to take on a second wife. Jyotiba replies logically, “What if something’s wrong with me? Would you permit Savitri to take on another husband?” He adds a more sensitive remark. “It’s the woman who feels her barrenness, the absence of a child in her life, more than the man.”
The tension is eternal, inside and outside the house as Govindrao’s second conflict point is that Jyotiba and Savitri have teamed up to teach children, especially the girl child of lower castes, empowering them with education. It’s confrontational – men like Vinayak Deshpande oppose it with vehemence as interference with the prevalent social order.
A child has to be brought to Phule’s school hidden in a handcart. Own families and society around look at it as a ‘paap’, a sin to educate girls. That too of a lower caste.
The above scenes should suffice to visualise the suffocating world that Ananth Narayan successfully creates where everybody’s tense, there’s no cause for cheer on any face, whatever the caste.
Ananth brings in a pair of Muslim siblings, a Brahmin and a couple of others who staunchly stand by the Phules in their mission to educate and empower the young.
Between Jyotiba and Savitri, the work they did in their lifetime was extraordinary. To spread education, using their own property and funds with help/protection from the British, the shelter they gave widows of upper castes whose heads were forcibly shaven to lead a life in the shadows, young widows who were sometimes sexually misused by men in their families. Jyotiba advocated widow remarriage too, to give a young widow a second chance at domestic bliss.
Therefore, the work that the Phule couple did to light a lamp in such darkness, was exemplary and needed to be documented. Pratik Gandhi and Patralekhaa turn in performances as per the mood of the film. Nothing is lively, spirited and worthy of happy cheer. Darsheel Safary (the child artiste from Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par) gets a turn as Yashwant, the adopted son of the Phules, but doesn’t have scenes that can leave an impression.
However, the constantly cheerless narration that goes on and on gets weary very soon. Ananth is relentless as he continues right till Jyotiba’s death and after. Then it’s The Great Plague of 1987 when it’s Savitri’s time to succumb. By then, the viewer is too restless to stay on and check the lasting impact of Phules’ selfless work on Indian society that comes with the end credits.
Jyotiba Phule (surname from their family origins in the flower business) was an outstanding social worker, light years ahead of 19th century society. But there were controversies too surrounding him, especially of how he willingly played into the hands of the British for favours received. For spreading their McCaulay culture. For fighting the caste system by quietly converting to Christianity.
Ananth does fleetingly mention them. But the narration itself is heavy. Beg’s dialogues use words like dharam, dharambhrast, sanskriti and behaya (for a Muslim woman who works alongside Savitri). Ananth overuses BG songs – one when Savitri (and companion Fatima) do a teacher’s course and their husbands have to cook and take care of themselves. Another when the Phules dig a community well in their property where all castes are welcome. A third when Jyotiba writes his book. Yet another when he’s paralysed and ‘Saathi…’ plays on while she tends to him.
It is a dull way to tell a sparkling story.
Phule Watch Or Not?: More fit for a documentary, watch it on OTT to learn the impact of the Phules on the education of the girl child and comments on 19th century Indian society.
Phule Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Phule Official Trailer:
Credits: Zee Studios
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