— ✍️ Vikash Raj

New Delhi- The convergence of the movie Dhadak-2 with the incidence of honour killing in Bihar recently sparked a debate around inter-caste love, parenting, and prevalent social injustices. Caste becomes the mechanistic unit in the socio-political and institutional setup that needs to be engaged with fiercely. Both of these reel and real episodes highlight the everyday life of the depressed class in the making, against the realization of Indian fraternity and humanism in general.

Thus, the questions arise: In what ways can love relationships, as a site of resistance to caste-based discrimination, be antithetical to the oppressor-oppressed dichotomy in society? How far does a girl become the face of family pride? Do depressed individuals in Indian society aspire for those moments of ek dhadak? If yes, how are they crushed? I think this movie helps us deeply explore such terrain.

Dhadak-2 is a romantic drama film themed on inter-caste love amid social intricacies and is considered a remake of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal (2018) by Mari Selvaraj. This 146-minute feature film, released on 1st August 2025, was written and directed by debutant director Shazia Iqbal. Her experiment to set the film in an urban landscape, where caste practices are camouflaged, is remarkable. In this new age of social life, where things are overtly presented, such a realistic movie perhaps sensitizes us as citizens in building a discrimination-free society across all spectrums.

In the lead roles, Siddhant Chaturvedi as Neelesh Ahirwar and Tripti Dimri as Vidhi Bhardwaj played their characters authentically. Neelesh belongs to a Scheduled Caste, whereas Vidhi has Brahmin lineage. Vidhi’s first encounter with Neelesh occurs at her sister’s marriage function, where Neelesh was a paid drummer (Baja Wala). Later, Neelesh managed to get a scholarship and enrolled in a law college, where Vidhi and her brother were also enrolled. During his admission, Zakir Hussain as Haider Ansari, the Principal of the college, warned him against indulging in politics, otherwise labeling him as a "quota child" would demean him further. In the following parts, Haider Ansari—a lower-caste Muslim (Pasmanda) who himself has been a victim of caste-based discrimination—gives Neelesh straightforward advice: "Indeed, I stop you from doing politics, but if you have to choose between death and fight, you must choose to fight," i.e., jeena hai to marna seekho, kadam kadam par ladna seekho.

Neelesh’s entry into college was seen as an opening door for power and liberation, a belief his mother instilled in him during her perilous life. On the first day of college, while he was being ragged, he was immediately rescued by Shekhar—an Ambedkarite student activist who tried hard to recruit him into his organization, but Neelesh was afraid to join. Due to their involvement in campus politics, some student activists had their fellowships revoked, and as a struggle to continue their fellowships, their organization staged a sit-in protest. In such hopelessness and under administrative assault, Shekhar ultimately lost his life. He was a brilliant student and a star of the Ambedkarite galaxy, who once taught Neelesh that if you don’t join the struggle together, it will be hard to find solidarity for yourself in the future. I assume here that Priyank Tiwari, in the role of Shekhar, symbolizes the life of Rohith Vemula of the Ambedkar Students’ Association at the University of Hyderabad, where he hanged himself over similar issues.

The same day, Neelesh also encountered Vidhi and reminded her of their first meeting. They became good friends, spent time together, and Vidhi became his biggest strength. Thereafter, their story spans from household discourses to happenings at the Law College (National University of Law), where both protagonists unearth the endemic Bahujan discourse of socio-linguistic discrimination in teaching pedagogy, maligned reservation debates, and the re-emphasized agenda of casteism from the status-quoist ecosystem. It captures the nuanced imagery of our everyday practices in sustaining an inequitable society.

Neelesh and Vidhi are deeply in love and struggle to remain compatible lovers throughout, but the hindrances from Vidhi’s family were so disastrous that Neelesh was nearly murdered by someone named Shankar. Saurabh Sachdeva as Shankar, a special character portraying a Brahmin assassin whose goal was to eliminate low-caste people, espoused: "Main criminal nahi hoon, samaaj ki safai kar raha hoon. Poonya ka kaam hai." I think he was an ideational embodiment of caste cruelty, a freak child of Brahmanism that hates and kills untouchables wherever they come into contact with him. Therefore, Shankar’s death at the end of the movie resonates with the destruction of such hateful ideology.

Vipin Sharma as Neelesh’s father is a cross-dressing dancer who supports his family’s livelihood, and his mother’s resolute character depicts the sudden realities of depressed-class households in varying ways. His mother’s conviction, that according to the rule of the jungle, you either die or make others die for survival, is so stimulating that it corresponds to ek dhadak in the life of the depressed class, once in a while.

The Case of Tanu Priya Jha and Rahul Kumar Mandal

In Bihar, at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Rahul Kumar Mandal, aged 25, was a 2nd-year B.Sc. nursing student, and Tanu Priya Jha was a 1st-year B.Sc. nursing student, staying in the same campus hostel. Both fell in love and later got married unconventionally through a court marriage.

Rahul Mandal belonged to an extremely backward caste group from Supaul district in Bihar, and his father, a working-class man, took informal and formal loans to bear the cost of his only son’s medical education. On the other hand, Tanu Priya Jha was a Brahmin girl whose father, Prem Shankar Jha, runs a private clinic in Saharsa, a district in Bihar. Prem Shankar Jha and his family were not ready to accept their daughter’s inter-caste marriage (pratiloma) with the "lowly" Rahul Mandal. During a college event, just three months after their marriage, Prem Shankar Jha himself carried a gun and shot his son-in-law on the campus premises in front of hundreds of students. As Rahul was shot, he ran toward his wife, Tanu Priya Jha, and collapsed in her lap. She screamed loudly in shock upon seeing her accused father, who had just killed her husband. Nearby students thrashed Prem Shankar Jha until the police arrived, protected him, and sent him to the hospital.

All of this happened in the name of honour killing and caste pride. How and how long will Rahul’s parents get justice? His only breadwinner is lost forever, and this case is not unique but representative of many similar cases. Don’t you think it replicates the essence of Dhadak-2?

Similarities Between Dhadak-2 and the Tanu-Rahul Case in Bihar

In both reel and real scenarios, the case is of inter-caste love (pratiloma), where the girl’s family is higher in social and economic status. Caste inequality and discrimination breed the arrogance of caste pride, and this very understanding never allows oppressor-oppressed relations to become equitable in practice. Here, Rahul lost his life, but Neelesh also faced similar hurdles. In both situations, the Brahmanical ecosystem played a powerful role in maintaining caste inequality and discrimination as an unhindered norm. Even the subordination and unfreedom of a girl in the family are considered hallmarks of family pride.

Parenting – There is a need to critically understand "parenting" to comprehend biological and social relations comparatively. How can one parent love their child while simultaneously hating or oppressing others? "My parent is my world" is the microcosm of the outer world we inherit; thus, problems in the outer world are only magnified reflections of our family world. Parenting is doubtful when it domesticates and paternalizes you into the same socially oppressive structure. It requires evolution—to celebrate their children’s choices and teach human compassion across positive stratifications.

The movie has a real-time essence, surfacing the prevalent caste discriminations and violence against depressed classes on an everyday basis. It also highlights that many suicide cases we hear about are not all true; rather, some are murders or cases of institutional murder, for instance, Rohith Vemula and most Dalit student suicide cases. Many times, those from marginalized backgrounds, upon gaining economic mobility and individual upliftment, try to fit into the same straightjacket and replicate the same oppressive treatment they once suffered. As per the movie, affluent caste people think that depressed classes dreaming of intermarriage and inter-dining is social disharmony, shedding light on actual Brahmanical practices in India. These retrograde ideologies place responsibility on women for family pride, and those who disobey face honour killings. Even contemporary democratic practices fail to address such crimes against humanity.

Neelesh’s realization, that we can change our conditions but not our caste, and that this situation may alter more through power than money, is a revelation of social conflict. Thus, the onus is on the privileged class inflicting social evils to stop soon; otherwise, the guiding soul of Thomas Jefferson takes charge: "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Hence, fighting for social justice and making love a social asset is the crux of the movie. In the journey toward an egalitarian society, how far things telepathically work, I leave up to you.

Vikash Raj is pursuing a PhD from DU and works in the areas of the politics of social justice.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any affiliated institutions. The film Dhadak-2 and the real-life case discussed are presented for critical analysis, with no intent to defame individuals or communities. While efforts have been made to ensure factual accuracy, readers are encouraged to independently verify details. The article aims to provoke thought on caste-based discrimination and honour violence, urging societal reflection and reform.