Jaggi is a raw movie of Indian cinema. The subject of this movie is equally raw and sensitive, addressing the question of male impotency and the humiliation and suffering that follows, especially in rural India. The depiction of scenery and the originality of rural Punjab are masterful. The movie, directed by Anmol Sidhu, was released in 2021.
The story follows the life events of Jagdeep (Jaggi), who lives with his mother and father in a remote village of Punjab. He is a hardworking and obedient boy who balances school and farming work. His father is a drunkard cop who is impotent, evidently due to his alcohol habit. Because of this impotency, Jaggi's mother has an affair with his uncle.
Ramnish Chaudhary's acting as Jaggi is praise worthy for he is able to convey the emotional trauma of the character very effectively.
The very first scene is bold and surprising, opening with Jaggi masturbating, and the rest of the film seems to explore the context of this scene. The story then moves back in time almost six years, when Jaggi is still studying in a boys' school. In the boys school, sex is a common topic of discussion among students, as it is with Jaggi and his friends. The way the director and dialogue writer captured the originality, nuance, and profundity of this niche subject of boys' talk is commendable. Students in the school frequently talked about sex and masturbation. During a conversation with one of his friends, Jaggi revealed that he is not able to get hard and masturbate, and gradually rumors spread that Jaggi is gay.
He is devastated after realizing that he cannot get an erection and tries to masturbate almost every day to gain respect and to prove his masculinity among his friends, but all his efforts are in vain. Jaggi soon becomes an object of jest, mockery, and humiliation. His classmates start to abuse him both mentally and physically. He is also raped constantly by his senior classmates and subsequently drops out of school in the 9th grade, starting to live a solitary life at his farm where he constantly tries to arouse himself.
This movie lays bare the hypermasculine aspect of males, wherein those males are respected who are sexually and physically superior to others. This superiority is often calculated based on penis size or the frequency of masturbation. In this respect, Jaggi is considered inferior. All the students targeted Jaggi, who simply had the medical condition of erectile dysfunction, and told him that he is a gay to satisfy their sexual hungers.
The film also raises the question of the lack of sex education in rural India, where many myths about sex are held to be true, causing suffering due to this lack of information. Making a movie on this subject is very important and relevant. Besides this, OMG 2 is one such movie that had a similar theme, aiming to raise awareness about the same issue.
The background story involves the societal aspect of impotency. Still, in the largely patriarchal society of India, being impotent, especially if you are male, is often seen as a failing. Because of this, Jaggi's mother had an affair with his uncle under his father's nose. All of this happened in the past, and now we come to the present day, just before Jaggi and Ramana's wedding day. However, he cannot reconcile with the fact that he might bring only trauma and bitterness to his married life, just like his parents. So, at the climax, he takes a very frustrating action of killing. But whom that is, I want you to find out yourself.
Jaggi is unsettling, violent, and unflinching in its portrayal of sex, abuse, and the psychological impact of societal norms. All these things add another layer of authenticity of the subject of this movie.
Here is the trailer,
Thank you.
