In the heart of India, where the ancient city of Varanasi nestles on the banks of the Ganges, life is a fragile tapestry — a Jhini bini chadariya, a finely woven cloth — embroidered with struggles, resilience, and faith. Ritesh Sharma’s debut film, Jhini Bini Chadariya, also titled The Brittle Thread, brings this poetic metaphor to the screen, exploring the lives of Varanasi’s marginalised citizens with a nuanced and unflinching gaze. Through the stories of Rani, a street dancer, and Shahdab, a weaver, Sharma opens a window into a world where tradition and modernity clash, and where people, like the city itself, are caught in a constant struggle to preserve their identities.
A city of contrasts and confluences
Varanasi is a city that wears many faces. To the pilgrim, it is a land of spiritual transcendence. To the tourist, it is an exotic tableau of riverboats, evening chants, and temple bells. But for those who live in the city’s hidden bylanes, the ones whose lives Sharma brings to the fore, it is a place where faith and survival walk hand in hand, where the Ganges carries not just the sacred ashes of the dead but also the remnants of unfulfilled dreams and quiet struggles.
It was during a visit to Manikarnika Ghat in 2015 that Sharma found the seeds of inspiration for his story. He witnessed a young girl dancing for a disinterested crowd, her movements strained yet captivating. In an interview with Feminism in India, he recalls, “I saw hundreds of men looking at her with passion in their eyes... amazed to see how people can torment a girl while she is simply doing her job.” This haunting scene planted the first seeds of what would become Jhini Bini Chadariya, as Sharma realised he wanted to tell the stories of those whose lives were woven into the fabric of Varanasi yet are often ignored by the outside world.
Two souls caught in a web of struggle
In Jhini Bini Chadariya, Rani’s story is one of raw survival. Played by Megha Mathur with a fierce vulnerability, Rani is a single mother to Pinky, her deaf daughter, for whom she dreams of a better life. Her performances on stage are an expression of both defiance and despair, a daily battle against a world that reduces her to a mere object. Rani’s body is a battleground upon which society’s patriarchal hypocrisies play out, especially in her interactions with two men — Baba, a possessive lover who controls her through emotional manipulation, and Shiv Shankar Tiwari, a local politician whose power is an iron cage around her spirit.
In stark contrast, Shahdab, portrayed with delicate sensitivity by Muzaffar Khan, lives a quiet life of invisible labour. A sari weaver, he carries the burden of his family’s tradition while struggling against the forces of modernisation and religious intolerance. Shahdab’s unlikely friendship with Adah, an Israeli tourist, is a fragile respite from his stifling reality. The tentative bond they form is a testament to the resilience of the human heart, even as it struggles under the weight of bigotry and social divisions. His memories, scarred by the Babri Masjid riots, linger as a silent echo of the violence inflicted upon his community — a reminder of the enduring scars of communal hatred in India.
A tapestry of poetry and pain
Sharma’s visual storytelling paints a vivid portrait of Varanasi, bringing out its complexities in all their contrasting hues. Priyashanker Ghosh’s cinematography captures the soul of the city with a poetic eye, using frame-within-frame shots to symbolise the layers of entrapment that define Rani’s and Shahdab’s lives. The muted colour palette reflects the grimness of their world, while the city’s breathtaking beauty serves as both a backdrop and a contrast to the dark realities faced by its inhabitants. The viewer is invited to witness Varanasi not as a postcard of temples and ghats, but as a living, breathing organism — a place where sacred rituals mask a deeper unrest and where the ancient rhythms of the city clash with the noise of modernity.
The title Jhini Bini Chadariya, derived from Kabir’s poetry, evokes the image of a delicate cloth, finely woven and ever vulnerable to being torn apart. As Sharma explains, “The phrase represents a finely woven cloth, which became a powerful metaphor for how people are interconnected and how life is always in the process of weaving itself.” The film, like the fabric it draws from, is a reminder of life’s transient beauty — a beauty that exists in the face of hardship and that often goes unnoticed by those who choose not to look closely.
The making of an independent film
Crafted on a shoestring budget, Jhini Bini Chadariya is a testament to the determination and creativity of its makers. Sharma, who began his journey as a theatre performer, brings an empathy to his storytelling that is palpable. His experiences in Varanasi, including six months spent conducting research among the city’s residents, gave him a deep understanding of the challenges faced by those who inhabit its margins. He was also supported by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who praised the film for its emotional depth and authenticity. “Anurag is supporting this film from the time he watched it in Dharamshala,” Sharma noted in a recent interview, acknowledging Kashyap’s role in amplifying the film’s visibility on various platforms.
The film’s journey has not been easy. Sharma reflects on the challenges he faced in the Indian entertainment industry, noting that independent filmmakers often struggle against systemic barriers that prioritise profit over storytelling. “We had to manage our limited resources creatively,” he shared, emphasising the lengths to which he and his team went to bring their vision to life. For Sharma, films are more than just a medium of entertainment — they are a means of exploring society’s deeper issues, of sparking conversation and, perhaps, of effecting change.
A reflection on the soul of Varanasi
In Jhini Bini Chadariya, Varanasi emerges as a character in its own right — a city caught between the ancient and the modern, where the past lingers even as the future threatens to sweep it away. The rhythmic clanging of Shahdab’s loom, a sound deeply woven into the city’s identity, is gradually drowned out by the relentless march of construction and commercialisation. The sacred ghats, with their promise of spiritual renewal, stand in stark contrast to the lives of those who find no solace there, whose struggles are too immediate, too pressing, to allow for transcendence.
The film’s title is not just an artistic flourish; it is a poignant reminder of the fragility of human life. The “finely woven cloth” of Kabir’s poetry speaks to the interconnectedness of all things, to the way lives are woven together in a fabric that is both resilient and vulnerable. Sharma’s film is a celebration of this resilience, a call to see beauty in the lives of those who endure hardship with quiet dignity.
A call to reflect and resist
At its core, Jhini Bini Chadariya is a film that challenges us to look beyond the surface, to see the struggles of those who are often invisible. In telling Rani’s and Shahdab’s stories, Sharma holds a mirror to society, asking us to confront our own complicity in perpetuating divisions. It is a call to reflect on the ways in which we, too, are woven into this fragile tapestry, and a reminder that the threads we share are both precious and easily broken.
As Sharma concludes, “We should pay more attention to the message of the film, which is to help people understand the problems of social class and stratum.” Jhini Bini Chadariya is not just a story about Varanasi, but a story about all of us — about the strength and beauty that lie in the small, often overlooked moments of human connection, and about the quiet courage required to keep weaving, even when the threads begin to fray.
In Jhini Bini Chadariya, we find not just a film, but a meditation on life’s delicate fabric — a fragile, beautiful cloth, stitched together by the hands of those who dare to hope in the face of hardship. It is a film that calls us to pause, to look closely, and to remember that in each fragile thread lies the potential for both beauty and resilience.
After a successful run at film festivals worldwide, Jhini Bini Chadariya was presented by Anurag Kashyap, and was released on the pay-per-view platform MovieSaints on October 2nd.
Shahin Akel is an independent journalist and researcher covering caste conflict, religious violence, and Adivasi culture. He is currently pursuing Law at Govt. Law College, Ernakulam.
Disclaimer: This article was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.