Khalid Mohamed examines the deepening crisis faced by India’s farmers and how their ongoing struggles are overshadowed by contemporary films and web series, urging storytellers to confront rural distress and restore focus on the nation’s agricultural backbone.

It’s no secret that terrorists, criminals of a variable kind – be it serial killers, a corrupt police force, venal politicians (particularly on the eve of the next elections), traffickers of minor girls to be sold to the highest bidders, and cruel zamindars in the rural belt -- have taken over the landscape of popular and even off-mainstream cinema, not to forget the blitzkrieg of web series.

Advertently or not, cinema reflects the conditions of the times, even if it’s in the form of entertainment with a sub-text of political purpose. In this context, the ongoing plight of the incalculable numbers of the farming community across the land appears to have been blindsided. Even if it’s brought to the fore by works in southern languages, the high degree of mythology, horror and revengeful elements have subverted the core of the plotlines.

Grim Statistics From The Fields

Meanwhile official statistics are alarming, to put it mildly. According to research studies cited on the internet, in the first nine months of 2025, Maharashtra alone recorded a total of 781 farmer suicides, a figure confirmed by the state's relief and rehabilitation minister in the legislative council. The full annual number for 2025 in the Marathwada region alone was 1,129 deaths, the highest annual toll in five years.

Overall farmers in India, while forming the backbone of the economy and feeding the population, face severe challenges, including widespread poverty, high debt, and dependence on monsoons, with climate change causing droughts, floods, and reduced yields. Over 80 per cent are marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land, struggling with fragmented holdings, lack of modern technology, and low income.

Cinema That Confronted Reality

Despite contributing about 17-18 per cent to India's GDP, the income of agricultural households remains low, leading to migration towards urban jobs. Perhaps those are the welter of reasons that I’m bringing up a 2021 Tamil film, Jai Bhim, which I chanced upon on the Prime Video channel. Arguably here’s the most forceful take of the 2020s so far on the rank exploitation of the Dalit tribe workers, hired at a pittance by landowners to control the infestation of rats and poisonous snakes in the farms and fields.

Directed by T.J. Gnanavel, Jai Bhim is culled from the true life-story of Justice K. Chandru (enacted avatar by Suriya) who strove for securing justice for the workers, the dramaturgy dwelling on the helplessness of a pregnant woman (excellently portrayed by Lijomol Jose) whose husband has been arbitrarily imprisoned.

Fashioned in the conventional framework of mainstream cinema – with melodrama, stirring dialogue and shock tactics – the film blasts the lid off deeply-entrenched social inequities. The question is whether there will be many more such exposes, given the hopefully reformist repercussions of the farmers’ protests of 2020-21.

Documentaries And Early Rural Narratives

Clearly, documentaries are already in the works, a valuable template for which could well be any of Anand Patwardhan’s oeuvre of documentaries, or journalist P. Sainath’s documentary Nero’s Guests (2009), which discussed the tragedy of farmer suicides.

I may add that fortuitously, there have been attempts to focus on rural unrest, right from the pre-Independence era. Two prominent examples are Moti Gidwani’s Kisan Kanya (1939), on debt-burdened farmers derived from a story by Saadat Hasan Manto, and K.A. Abbas’ debut-making Dharti Ke Lal (1946) which tracked the Bengal famine of 1943. Unfortunately, these have been largely forgotten since they didn’t find a receptive audience during the tumultuous final phase of the freedom struggle.

Post-Independence Visions Of The Village

Post-Independence, with optimism high, the attempt was to emphasise that the traditional rural system could co-exist with the Nehruvian ideal of industrialisation. There would be insurmountable obstacles but they could be overcome with resilience and pragmatism, as best exemplified by Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin (1959), in which a farmer family, headlined by Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy, aspire to save their two acres from a mill owner.

Influenced by Italy’s Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist The Bicycle Thieves, here’s a certified classic which still rings true. Sorrily, its near-transcript Jio Hotstar series Dedh Bigha Zameen (2024) with Pratik Gandhi went by largely unseen. Two years before Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin, Mehboob Khan had premiered his epic Mother India, in which a single mother (Nargis) combated a lecherous money-lender and the chauvinism at large among the rural backdrop.

Characters had to be either white (virtuous) or black (evil) then. Going against the norm, Khan presented one of the sons (Sunil Dutt) of the eponymous mother in strong grey shades, thus investing a certain complexity and depth. The director had never been quite satisfied with his earlier offering Mother (1940), and vastly improved upon the original with Mother India – incidentally its plot premise was to be rejigged within an urban backdrop by the Salim-Javed scripted Deewaar (1975), which created the ‘angry young man’ sobriquet for Amitabh Bachchan.

Literary Adaptations And Forgotten Films

Literary sources were tapped by Heera Moti (1959) directed by Krishen Chopra. Inspired by a Munshi Premchand story, it narrated the plight of a farming couple (Balraj Sahni-Nirupa Roy) who must save their oxen from a tyrannical zamindar. And there was Trilok Jetley’s Go-Daan (1963), with Raaj Kumar and Kamini Kaushal, also adapted from a Premchand story, which sided with the tillers of the land, embellished with music by Pandit Ravi Shankar.

There is scant information, however, about Hindustan Hamara (1950), featuring Dev Anand and directed by the German filmmaker Paul Zils. It is doubtful whether the print still exists. As the years rolled, farmers for a considerable length of time were presented as heroes with an indomitable never-give-up spirit. 

The public favourite turned out to be Manoj Kumar’s 1967 colourful musical Upkar (which amplified prime minister Lal Bhadur Shastri’s ‘Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan’ slogan). After this there was a lull, with the 1970s focusing on vendetta and showdowns, packed if not with Bachchan then with the most marketable actors on the scene.

Intermittently, there have been Dulal Guha’s Dharti Kahe Pukaar Ke (1969), Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001), Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live (2010) and Nila Madhab Panda’s Kadvi Hawa (2017).

Parallel Cinema’s Sharp Lens

In the off-mainstream sphere, among the two most striking films on the conditions of the rural have-nots, are Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket (1973), a throwback to the Great Famine of 1943 in Bengal during World War II. Ray’s most strenuous work, it has been listed in the New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Films. Shyam Benegal’s Manthan (1976) is also enshrined in memory, with Smita Patil’s bravura performance in the retelling of the story of the setting up of a milk cooperative in Anand, Gujarat. It was crowd-funded by 50,000 people who donated Rs. 2 each.

Time To Return To The Roots

To be sure, there are scores of films on the ‘haq’ of farmers. My aim is not to make a listicle at all. Neither is it humanly possible to access them all. The point is that with the repeal of the farm laws, there’s so much scope for relevant content today, be it in cinema or on streaming platforms. And now, the trade deal with the US which the government is in discussion with threatens to be a big blow to Indian farmers, shouldn’t storytellers deep dive already and gather material for contemporary stories about the annadaatas of our land?

Honestly, it’s time to return to the roots. If reality stings, so be it. After all, every form of the art form should.  

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