Like many other EMU students and faculty, I made my way to Harrisonburg’s Regal Cinemas for a free showing of “Origin.” The newest film from filmmaker Ava DuVernay, the woman behind 2014’s “Selma” and 2016’s award winning documentary “13th,” “Origin” revolves around author Isabel Wilkerson and the research and writing of her 2020 book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” DuVernay and producer Paul Garnes had booked a private showing of the movie as EMU sociology professor Dr. Gaurav Pathania features prominently in the film as Indian anti-caste reformer Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
Right out of the gate, my favorite part of this movie was seeing Professor Pathania give a stellar, measured performance on the big screen. Though he appears late in the film and has no spoken dialogue, the character of Dr. Ambedkar nevertheless has an outsized presence, serving as a connection to India and its discriminatory and horrific caste system. The movie, using Wilkerson’s life as a framing device, jumps between vignettes of the leadup to the Holocaust, the American Civil Rights Movement, and Dr. Ambedkar’s India, using all three eras to show how caste has provided the framework for discrimination all over the globe for millenia. In doing research for this piece and finding photographs of Dr. Ambedkar, I found it incredible how much Professor Pathania looked like him in the film. It was an impressive transformation that made it easy to lose myself in that section of the movie. The whole theater let out a huge cheer when he appeared on screen for the first time and it was a really nice moment altogether. Check out our supplementary interview with Dr. Pathania in the News and Features section.
“Origin” is obviously a very important movie and overall does a good job in making its point about the global interconnectedness of caste. The movie at times though seems like you’re reading a textbook about caste and I was left wondering why it wasn’t a documentary. Wilkerson’s life, while well done and emotionally gutting at times, sometimes took me out of the movie. One scene especially, with Nick Offerman playing a plumber whose intentionally visible red Make America Great Again hat seems a bit too obvious of a choice, doesn’t pay off in any way later and seemed to just act as a vessel to get Offerman shoehorned into the movie as a big name. While I hesitate to suggest that anything should have been taken out of the movie (it all serves an essential function in the end), it does drag at times and I definitely did feel the over two–hour–long runtime. However, I was greatly moved by some scenes, especially the historical scenes showing Germany, India, and the American South during the Great Depression and the mid 1900s. The scene with the kids at the pool might have been my highlight of the film and will probably be the piece that sticks with me the longest. I think the film could have also benefited from slightly more scenes in India, both historical flashbacks and contemporary scenes, showing more of the modern world’s most prevalent and ugly caste system. These important scenes sometimes felt overshadowed by the sections on Wilkinson’s life, which, while good, were not what I wanted to see the most. Overall, I found Origin to be a well made, if at times confusing, movie. I think the choice to make it more of a biopic could have been done better and I’m curious as to why certain scenes were included. Other scenes were terrifying and visceral but I wonder why Wilkerson’s book was adapted in this way. I will still take a lot away from the experience, like how America’s Jim Crow laws inspired the Nazis and how the Indian caste system continues to be an awful problem. I would still recommend this movie and would also recommend those interested further in seeking out its source material, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” 3.5 out of 5 stars.