India, April 25 -- What Jyotiba Phule and his wife, Savitribhai Phule, did for the abolishment of the caste system in India in the late 1800s, apart from fighting for female literacy, cannot- and should not- be forgotten. With this being acknowledged right in the beginning, it gives the writer the liberty to talk strictly about the film at hand, and its merits/ demerits. Phule is intended to be a faithful biopic on the lives of the two reformers, directed by Ananth Mahadevan and starring Pratik Gandhi and Patralekhaa.

It begins with Savitribhai's humanitarian efforts for the people suffering from the Great Plague of Pune (then Poona) and then cuts to a flashback, where Jyotiba, married to the then-child Savitribhai, agrees to educate her...