Papilio Buddha

Shankaran drops out of Jawaharlal Nehru University due to his deep insecurity, which the film presents as contrasting sharply with his father Kandal Kariyan's unwavering political conviction. His inability to match his father's certainty about collective struggle and identity leads him to leave academia, returning to Meppara as a confused young man searching for purpose.

Shankaran's romantic relationship with Jack, a white American gay lepidopterist, challenges the Dalit community's traditional norms around sexuality and identity. The relationship becomes controversial because it involves a Dalit man with a foreign white man, which conflicts with both cultural expectations and the community's focus on dignity and identity politics rooted in Ambedkarism.

The friendship begins innocently as Shankaran helps Jack catch butterflies in the forest trails, foreshadowing their deeper connection.

Kandal Kariyan struggles with Shankaran's relationship with Jack because it represents both a personal betrayal of family expectations and a threat to the community's fragile identity. As a committed communist who has fought for equal rights, he faces the irony of his own son's relationship with a foreigner challenging the very dignity and identity he has fought to build.

Manjusree confronts the lecherous union leader because he sexually harasses her, an act that epitomizes the multiple layers of oppression she faces as a woman in a male-dominated profession. Her confrontation is both a personal act of resistance and a statement against the harassment that Dalit women endure from those in power.

Shankaran's arrest for illegally catching butterflies becomes a catalyst for radicalization. The crackdown fuels resentment against authorities and exposes how oppression operates at multiple levels. This incident, combined with Manjusree's confrontation, sparks violent responses from community members who begin questioning Gandhi's peaceful methods and embracing more defiant tactics.

The community abandons Gandhi's peaceful methods because escalating oppression makes nonviolent resistance feel ineffective. The arrest of Shankaran and the harassment of Manjusree demonstrate that peaceful acts still provoke harsh retaliation. This pushes the community toward more militant forms of protest as desperation for justice grows.

The Dalits adopt Buddhism as a response to caste oppression because Ambedkarism uses Buddhist ideals as a framework for rejecting Hindu caste hierarchies. Converting to Buddhism provides the community with a unifying identity that affirms dignity and offers an alternative to the religious system that has justified their oppression.

The film connects environmental degradation to social oppression by showing how outside forces exploit the Western Ghats' pristine habitats, threatening the land that the Dalit community depends on. This ecological harm parallels the community's political marginalization, as both represent exploitation by powerful establishments against vulnerable populations.

Queer members of the Dalit community are pushed toward radical activism when they experience双重 oppression, as Dalits facing caste discrimination and as queer individuals facing social disapproval within their own community. The violence and policing following Shankaran's arrest and the confrontation with authorities radicalize them to demand broader rights beyond traditional Dalit liberation.

The rare Papilio Buddha butterfly serves as a symbol connecting Shankaran's personal journey to the broader themes of freedom and marginalization. His work helping Jack catch butterflies represents both his search for purpose and his attraction to something beautiful and different from his harsh reality. The butterfly's beauty mirrors the complex, fragile nature of identity, freedom, and resistance.