{"id":28211,"date":"2025-09-06T03:53:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T07:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/dhadak-2-tackles-bollywoods-silence-around-caste-and-romance\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T03:53:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T07:53:05","slug":"dhadak-2-tackles-bollywoods-silence-around-caste-and-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/dhadak-2-tackles-bollywoods-silence-around-caste-and-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dhadak 2’ Tackles Bollywood’s Silence Around Caste and Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Boy meets girl. Cue: gentle breeze, the early hints of a tender ballad, a soft haze of light, the sounds of the world stopping in its tracks. Love, as many an Indian film has shown, is a showstopper. The blurring headiness of love has you doing the inane<\/a>, the impossible<\/a>, the jejune<\/a>\u2014even breaking out into song<\/a> in the middle of the street.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no point in having love without drama\u2014especially in Indian cinema. In a country where weddings are often a way of affirming social hierarchy (take last year\u2019s Ambani wedding<\/a>, a billionaire\u2019s outlandish display of wealth, fame, and capital), love can be constrained.<\/p>\n

That makes filmmaker Shazia Iqbal\u2019s recently released debut feature film Dhadak 2<\/em><\/a> a mutinous undertaking, not just against a caste-divided Indian society, but against the time-and-tested trope of popular Hindi cinema where the coda to a love story is a happy marriage. A remake of the 2018 Tamil-language film, Pariyerum Perumal<\/em><\/a> (directed by Mari Selvaraj), Dhadak 2 <\/em>transplants the story of caste violence and prejudice from a town in Tamil Nadu to the heart of the Hindi heartland. While it\u2019s common for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films to be adapted into other languages, it requires significant rewriting to fit the cultural and linguistic milieu\u2014unsurprising given the diversity at play in a country like India.<\/p>\n

Most notably, while Pariyerum Perumal<\/em> restricted its leads to friendship, Dhadak 2 <\/em>tackles inter-caste romance directly. The film\u2019s name means literally heartbeat<\/em>, an image that hints at both infatuation and suspense.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dhadak 2<\/em> explores the burgeoning relationship between an upper-caste woman and a Dalit man (who belongs to historically scorned lower caste) at law school. But unlike most Hindi films where courtship might be tough but marriage means happily ever after, Dhadak 2<\/em> chooses to consider the aftermath of love. What comes of intimacy in a society divided by notions of purity, superiority, and even who can and can\u2019t be touched? In the subcontinent, where caste regulates access to education, progress, and assimilation\u2014where Dalits are still punished with untouchability and violence\u2014Dhadak 2<\/em> weighs the price of love.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Indian film industries aren\u2019t entirely averse to unhappy endings. Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo & Juliet <\/em>has been adapted many times, from K. Balachander\u2019s musical melodrama Maro Charithra<\/em><\/a> (1978) in Telugu, the yuppie romance of Mansoor Khan\u2019s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak<\/em><\/a> (1988), which marked Indian movie star Aamir Khan\u2019s breakout, to the explosively fatalistic Ram-Leela<\/em><\/a> (2013) by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.<\/p>\n

These films teased love as an all-consuming affair in the face of family apathy, but they also understood a deeply uncomfortable truth that has endured in the subcontinent: It is nearly impossible to consummate a relationship without family acceptance in India. The division between Capulets and Montagues\u2014or the Rajadis and Saneras\u2014makes an instinctive sense to Indian audiences.<\/p>\n

But most Bollywood romances stick to the idea that sincere love can move mountains and even shift the stony resolve of an unhappy parent. Hindi cinema\u2019s greatest love story, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge<\/em><\/a> (1995), which continues to be screened<\/a> at a dedicated movie theater in Mumbai today, is the tentpole here. Exploring tensions within the diaspora, the film valorizes family values, which are held as the absolute, grounding phenomenon in a society inching toward modernity\u2014a sentiment shared by Sooraj Barjatya\u2019s saccharine-coated romantic family drama Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!<\/em><\/a> (1994), where young lovers Prem and Nisha forsake their relationship at the altar for the sake of their families.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n A man and woman dance outside. She wears a white gown and he wears white pants and a light blue shirt.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tA scene from 2001\u2019s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham\u2026<\/em>
\n\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n A man stands behind a woman with his hands on her shoulder and waist. They wear ornate red and gold clothing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tA scene from 2023\u2019s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani<\/em>. Dharma Productions<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n

Dhadak 2 <\/em>is tougher minded, although it comes from Karan Johar\u2019s Dharma Productions, a production house that has turned out plenty of routine romances. In the multi-star ensemble vehicles of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham\u2026<\/em><\/a> (2001) and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani<\/em><\/a> (2023), set over 20 years apart, Johar and his company stuck to the traditional happy ending of a unified, upper-class family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our society, we love only after considering caste and religion. It\u2019s very disturbing. You\u2019re negotiating with yourself because your parents have told you not to fall for somebody or marry outside our community. So even the ones that defy their parents by loving someone, they often just love within their communities,\u201d Iqbal told Foreign Policy<\/em>. \u201cWe wanted to deviate from that trope.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the very first scene in Dhadak 2<\/em>, Iqbal is intent on squashing the sanguine pleasures of Bollywood romance. The adaptation moves the story away from the original\u2019s small-town setting to an unnamed city in Madhya Pradesh. We see a couple in a humble apartment under a portrait of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution and a prominent Dalit leader. In another movie, they would be the protagonists, but immediately after the young woman leaves, a nameless man (Saurabh Sachdeva) appears. He promptly kills the young man, ending a story before it begins.<\/p>\n

An Indian audience immediately understands this is an honor killing<\/a>, where young people are killed by their own families for loving outside their caste or religion. This nightmare scenario quickly underscores that Dhadak 2 <\/em>is a very different kind of movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201c<\/strong>For the adaptation, our idea was to root it in the Hindi heartland. The city could be Bhopal, Patna, or Jaipur. Rather than this being a story of a small place being restricted by its geography, we wanted to expand it in scope, appeal to a wider audience that this could be happening just about anywhere in the country,\u201d Iqbal said.<\/p>\n

Then we meet the actual stars. Neelesh Ahirwar (in a brilliant turn from young actor Siddhant Chaturvedi) and Vidhisha Bhardwaj (Triptii Dimri) meet at a wedding. But this is far from the typical meet-cute. While Vidhisha\u2014Vidhi to her friends\u2014is in the thick of wedding festivities, Neelesh is at the wedding as a drummer in a band called the Bhim Baaja Dhol Boys. His troupe is made to stand separate from the celebration, a metallic gate concretely segregating Neelesh and his bandmates from the festivities. Vidhi dares to cross the threshold\u2014she wants Neelesh\u2019s number so he can play the drums at her sister\u2019s upcoming wedding. There is an undercurrent of flirtation, but the lines of social status have already been drawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a misconception people have that caste doesn\u2019t operate in urban areas. But that\u2019s not true,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cThere is a dialogue in the film, \u2018Those who don\u2019t experience it don\u2019t know that it\u2019s happening.\u2019 In villages, there is a clear separation in how upper and lower castes interact or keep away from each other. People accept it as a way of life. But in urban areas, with more mobilization, the discrimination happens in a more invisible way. So, it was a conscious choice to adapt the film in an urban setting, to tackle the insidious ways caste operates in this milieu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neelesh and Vidhi meet again, this time at a government law college. They\u2019re equals here; education is meant to level their playing field. But such equality is far from accessible. On the first day of class, students introduce themselves with their full name\u2014which, for Indians, contain an instant set of caste markers; a smattering of names like Bhardwaj, Agrawal, Rastogi, Gupta, Verma, and Upadhyay tells Neelesh he\u2019s surrounded by largely upper-caste classmates.<\/p>\n

From the onset, Neelesh is singled out for earning his seat via India\u2019s version of affirmative action, the long-standing government program of reserved places at top schools for members of backward classes. Despite having the smarts to be a lawyer, Neelesh is also alienated by the rigorous expectations of English-language education\u2014his education so far has been in Hindi\u2014and is virtually the only Dalit student in most social environments<\/p>\n

In this atmosphere, Vidhi seeks Neelesh\u2019s friendship at first, and later his love, slowly becoming his one confidant. Vidhi, the outspoken daughter of a family of lawyers, is naturally argumentative. She\u2019s a woman of the moment, au courant with the latest internet buzzwords. \u201cToxic masculinity\u201d she blurts out, when Neelesh asks her why her previous relationship ended. \u201cBut you don\u2019t have that illness,\u201d Vidhi assures him. Why would he? He\u2019s studying at a college where he\u2019s told repeatedly that he doesn\u2019t belong. Far from confident in his place in the world, he\u2019s just trying to get by.<\/p>\n

This resignation also impedes Neelesh\u2019s friendship with Shekhar (Priyank Tiwari), a Dalit student activist on campus, which is an alteration to the original film\u2019s story. (While Dhadak 2 <\/em>remains loyal to its source material, there are a few significant changes in the screenplay by Rahul Badwelkar and Iqbal.) Shekhar\u2019s character is conceptualized as an ode to Rohith Vemula<\/a>, a Dalit PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad who died by suicide in 2016, after claiming institutional harassment related to his anti-caste activism. Shekhar is an outspoken student leader who is unafraid to take on upper-caste bullies on campus. While Neelesh is clearly in awe of Shekhar, he resists activism, choosing instead to go under the radar.<\/p>\n

But Neelesh\u2019s closeness with Vidhi doesn\u2019t go unnoticed. It earns him the ire of Vidhi\u2019s family. Vidhi\u2019s character is also a surge forward from the original film, in which the young woman is a passive, reluctant observer of the humiliation the protagonist is put through. While Vidhi comes-of-age in her blossoming relationship, she is yet simple-minded to the closeted intentions of her family, particularly her doting father. She invites Neelesh to a family wedding, frustratingly ignorant to their family\u2019s deep sense of prejudice; here, her family roughs up and humiliates Neelesh far from the prying eyes of the celebrations. Vidhi slowly awakens to her own family\u2019s culpability in the horrors afflicting Neelesh\u2014in doing so, Neelesh and Vidhi are brought closer. Dhadak 2<\/em> strays from the original film by affording Neelesh and Vidhi a romantic track\u2014a decision that earned the movie some flak for \u201cBollywoodizing\u201d the story. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that if we allow Neelesh to fall in love, then his journey becomes far more complicated. In the original film, Pari [the analogous character] is beaten up at the wedding, despite not even loving the girl,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cWhen we switch that in the adaptation, when Neelesh is told he has to keep away from Vidhi because that could spell death for both him and her, the stakes are much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n A man drives a scooter with a woman behind him, arms around his waist and head on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

A scene from Dhadak 2<\/em>.Zee Studios<\/span> <\/p>\n

Dhadak 2<\/em>\u2019s scenes of intimacy and its romantic ballads are lovely, and for Neelesh, they\u2019re also dangerous and freeing. As he grows closer to Vidhi, Neelesh is maturing politically thanks to characters like Shekhar and the college principal, a member of a lower-caste Muslim community almost never seen in mainstream Hindi cinema. There is an imbalance even in the way Neelesh and Vidhi approach each other. While Vidhi feels entitled to Neelesh\u2019s space and company, Neelesh is restrained, thinking before reacting. Vidhi pursues him, while Neelesh shies away\u2014much more aware of the real-world dangers that Vidhi\u2019s internet-coached progressivism overlooks.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have noticed how the film has a very strong feminine gaze, not just in worldbuilding but also in the way the characters that have changed from the original,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cThere is a certain way Neelesh operates\u2014it\u2019s not very masculine or assertive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neelesh\u2019s mother is a former political leader, cautious of her son\u2019s new friend. His father (Vipin Sharma, in an empathetic turn) is a traveling drag performer, himself vulnerable to the kind of violence he fears for his son at a big law college. The experience of terror informs their every gaze, gesture, and cautionary word of advice.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the first time we meet Vidhi\u2019s family, they\u2019re arranging a marriage proposal for their elder daughter. There is some confusion\u2014both families trade back and forth to determine if their castes are compatible; if they\u2019re the kind of Brahmins who \u201cfit.\u201d When Vidhi invites Neelesh to her sister\u2019s wedding, her family\u2019s fear is two-fold: the idea of having to cavort with a Dalit man, and the prospect of their outspoken daughter potentially bring dishonor on their family name through an inter-caste relationship. The contract killer from the first scene of the film appears several times, carrying out honor killings in the background. He is the predictive thread of the film\u2014however sophisticated Vidhi\u2019s family might seem, his presence suggests that they might not be above hiring his services.<\/p>\n

This portrayal shatters the illusory appeal of Bollywood cinema\u2019s happily-ever-after. By exposing the fractures inherent to dominant caste family dynamics and institutions\u2014where women are allowed freedom to study but not choose their partners; where the household is curated with domineering male figures and compliant women; where violence is a recourse to having one\u2019s way\u2014Iqbal salvages love from the social consummation of family. After decades of posturing harmless, even idealistic, upper-caste families, Dhadak 2 <\/em>dares to rupture the sophisticated veneer of the happy family.<\/p>\n

That the film chooses to end with Neelesh and Vidhi in the classroom, taking an exam, rather than at the marriage altar, is also a subversive rejection of the quintessential Bollywood climax.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is that kind of forbidden love, right? You\u2019re fighting the parents, you\u2019re fighting the society,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cThe conflict there is often class and rarely caste, and eventually they either convince the parents and live together or die in the end. We wanted to deviate from that but also end on hope. There are caste killings happening throughout the film, so it is tethered to harsh reality. But we wanted to give the audience some hope for the future. It\u2019s not a resolution; the fight isn\u2019t over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dhadak 2<\/em> earned its title as a spiritual successor to Dhadak<\/em><\/a> (2018),<\/em> which was itself a remake of Sairat<\/em><\/a> (2016), <\/em>a gripping Marathi-language romantic drama directed by Nagraj Manjule that tackled caste hierarchy and violence. But Dhadak <\/em>softened its story, whereas Dhadak 2 <\/em>hardens it. Not everything works: The instinct to brand the film as part of a caste cinematic universe feels contrived, as do some of the aesthetic choices, like making the lead\u2019s skin darker to convey that he\u2019s Dalit, feeding into centuries-long misconceptions about skin color and caste hierarchy. But these are rare sour notes in a grippingly effective portrayal of caste and an indictment of the industry\u2019s own complicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a certain erasure that happens when you stop talking about where people come from. Identity gets tacked on to us, and in India, it\u2019s not possible for everyone to rewrite their identity,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cSomewhere Bollywood has moved past it. Because I think people in the industry come from a certain privilege, they are telling their own stories of where they come from, and unfortunately, where they come from, identity does not operate in the way it does in a more underprivileged community. That\u2019s why these stories have been lost in the last few decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when mainstream Hindi cinema is about reclaiming<\/a> lost Hindu glory, with films either centering<\/a> the dominant caste experience or actively rewriting<\/a> history, Dhadak 2 <\/em>registers defiantly. It asks us to consider the cost of love in a deeply fractured state, and the fight for survival. \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy meets girl. Cue: gentle breeze, the early hints of a tender ballad, a soft haze of light, the sounds of the world stopping in its tracks. Love, as many an Indian film has shown, is a showstopper. The blurring headiness of love has you doing the inane, the impossible, the jejune\u2014even breaking out into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11611],"tags":[18487,18488,18486,12263,505,2143,51,15590,977,1621,6717],"class_list":["post-28211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spyballoon-global-news","tag-bollywoods","tag-caste","tag-dhadak","tag-fp-weekend","tag-india","tag-media","tag-politics","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-romance","tag-silence","tag-tackles"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/dhadak-zee-studios-caste-india-2.jpg?w=1000",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"SPYBALLOON GLOBAL NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Boy meets girl. Cue: gentle breeze, the early hints of a tender ballad, a soft haze of light, the sounds of the world stopping in its tracks. Love, as many an Indian film has shown, is a showstopper. The blurring headiness of love has you doing the inane, the impossible, the jejune\u2014even breaking out into…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28213,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28211\/revisions\/28213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}