Marathi film celebrates BMC employees who bettered their stock with education
MUMBAI: People who overcome odds make for compelling stories, but rarely do they emerge from the rough and tumble of lives of Class IV civic employees.
One such tale of grit and determination, backed by mentorship, has made its way to the silver screen.
In June 2017, 23 Class IV Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) workers—sweepers, manhole cleaners, road and pipeline repairmen, and water department labourers – between ages of 30 and 50 who toiled through the day and attended night school successfully cleared their SSC exam. Twenty one men and two women achieved this feat, backed by then assistant commissioner Udaykumar Shiroorkar.
The story inspired a Marathi film 'Aata Thambaycha Nai', which is releasing on May 1, with filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar essaying the role of Shiroorkar.
The idea of a civic officer going beyond his brief to educate the teens who had abandoned formal education years ago and returned to it subsequently, inspired director Shivraj Waichal. The film revolves around five individuals who achieved the feat. Waichal was struck by their story as it encapsulated a crucial thought of life – 'not to stop but to keep moving forward, as the tile of the film suggests'.
Earlier, the turning point in the civic workers' lives came when Shiroorkar visited the Dongri Municipal Night School for his driver's admission and learned the school was about to shut down due to lack of students. Determined to keep it running, he encouraged his ward employees to complete their education, even helping them with filling out admission forms and other logistics. Their success brought not only salary hikes of up to ₹3,000 but also boosted their morale and inspired many more to pursue education.
'This is an emotional film,' said Shiroorkar, after attending the premier on Tuesday. 'The 23 that cleared their exams not only received a hike in pay and promotions, some of them eventually became Class III workers (for which SSC is mandatory). They did something that others felt was way beyond their capabilities.'
Shiroorkar, now retired, works in an environment consultant and is an advocate attached to the Bombay high court. He was accompanied some of the students from the Class of 2017 at the premier. One of them, Nilesh Sawant, studied till Class 12. He said, 'I had failed to clear my SSC exams in my teens, but it is only years later that Shiroorkar helped me correct that. I continue to repair roads and carry out the BMC's demolition of encroachments, but I've had several promotions, enhancing my earning accordingly.'
He also sent an example for his daughter no never give up on academia. 'She was in Class eight when I took the SSC exams, she got 85% in her Class 12. She is a working professional now,' Sawant added.
Yogita Zadukhata 'felt surreal when she saw her character Akshara Jadhav on screen'. She managed to study for SSC, while working, managing her children's classes and looking after her father when he was in the hospital. 'I juggled all that that year. Although I could not study further as my mother was put in bed rest due to gangrene, passing the SSC has helped so much in my life,' she said.
'My son helped me read English. Now he is in the 12th grade and hopes to study more,' she added. Apart from an increase in her salary and promotions, she also earned people's respect, 'despite my role as a sanitation worker'.
In the film, veteran actor Bharat Jadhav portrays the lead role of a senior civic Class IV worker and Om Budhkar plays the dedicated teacher.
'This story needed to be told,' said Waichal. 'People often criticize BMC employees without recognizing the challenges they face and the good work they do. This movie portrays how they balanced hard labour and educational aspiration, eventually bettering their stock.'
Kiran Dighavkar, deputy municipal commissioner, praised the film's focus 'on the lives of labourers, which could motivate more Class IV employees to continue their education'.
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So they gave a cancel order, and the books were—I was told that they were pulped, which means that they were literally, physically destroyed. But thankfully, we live in a very interconnected world, so it's no longer the case that if a book isn't being published by an Indian publisher, it's inaccessible. You can get it imported through a lot of other places. So it's not a full ban, but it has made it harder because the book is much more expensive. In your story, the character of Ravana is different—he is Sita's father and is protective of her. How much of this draws from existing versions of the Ramayana versus your own invention? This is not the Ravana in the original Valmiki Ramayana. But there are Ramayanas spread across South India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. Each of these different areas put different spins on the story according to their own principles, traditions, and how they viewed the world. 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I studied colonial history a lot in school, and I like to tell women's stories of rising up and fighting back. I do this in Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, a reimagining of a portion of India's independence movement. And you are working on a fourth book as well? It's called We Dance Upon Demons, and it is about a young woman who works at an abortion clinic that's being threatened by demons. So it is very much diving into American politics, and specifically the abortion fight, on which we are an incredibly backward country. I used to volunteer at an abortion clinic, and one of my areas of civil rights law that I have worked on is abortion rights. Given all the controversy and even threats you've faced, what gives you the courage to keep writing these challenging stories? What do you hope readers ultimately take away from your work? You should tell my mom that, because she is very much like, Please stop writing, stop writing these dangerous books. She is very supportive, but she's just worried about me. I'm interested in women's rights, gender justice, voting rights, how democracy works and the interest in those topics transcend law, so they go into my writing quite a bit. I'm interested in women's stories, in their side of the story, in hearing their voices. I'd love for readers to think about motivation behind actions, and to think about different perspectives and for readers to have conversations across generations on these issues. That's exactly what you dream of as an author. (Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@ The views expressed are personal.) Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
