If dark, realistic cinema is your pick, then perhaps Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya would appeal to you. It allows an unvarnished peep into all the nepotism and condescension going on in the police force, and the politics affecting it. It is the story of Anant Welankar (Om Puri), a young police sub-inspector who shows a lot of promise in his career and makes his mark as a “tough cop”. But he is a very artistically inclined person who wanted to be a professor. He was rather pushed into joining police by a domineering father (Amrish Puri) who takes pride in the policing tr
aditions in the family. Anant carries with him all the childhood horrors of seeing his mother being beaten up by his father, a fact that seriously affects his psychology. All the cooped up anger inside him bursts out in the fits of rage that he has quite often, especially whenever there is a crime against a woman.
Anant tries hard to rise to the circumstances affecting him, but fails miserably since compromise is not something he is accustomed to. But there is one person who
exerts a moderating influence on him, Jyotsna Gokhale (Smita Patil), the woman he loves. Cheated out of his chance to win a gallantry award, Anant loses his cool completely and commits a crime himself, a fact that brings his career, his love, and above all, his whole life, under jeopardy. He finally decides to face the law instead of bowing low before it.
Ardh Satya is the film that launched Om Puri to stardom. He successfully gets into the skin of the character and makes acting look like real. The late Smita Patil convincingly plays Jyotsna, a woman fully in control of herself. Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s stint as Bollywood’s “bad guy” started from this movie.
Winner of four Filmfare and two National awards (for best film and best actor), Ardh Satya is a definitive cop film in the history of Indian cinema. After watching it, I tried putting myself in Anant Welankar’s shoes and imagine as to what I might have done, given the circumstances. Probably, it is better to fight against adversity than to lose your soul in compromising with it. It is like a beam balance: on one side is manhood and on the other is cowardice, and hanging in the middle is Ardh Satya.
Ardent history buff, movie fanatic, frustrated lover of literature and the Indian cricket team, romantic fool of the highest order, struggling journalist, die-hard quizzer, random thinker, well-known chatter-box, brilliant architect who builds castles in the air, self-proclaimed philosopher, a truly wandering soul with a desire to leave his mark in the sands of time.
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Hazarika
It was really a movie that makes u think even in ur dreams.
rachi
“Ardh Satya’- I have came across very few people who like this movie. May be because it has no dances and colors like that of commercial cinema. And, your review is definitely in the vein similar to that of the movie-simple and plain with no commercial stint in it. Stark but honest to the point!
Smita Patil, though she is not the lead character and yet she leads the LEAD character(Om Puri) in the times of despair, when he falters and staggers down, muffled in between the nexus of police-politics-underworld.
The poem recited by Om Puri-
“Chakravyuh mein ghusne ke baad,
mere aur chakravyuh ke beech,
sirf ek jaanleva nikat’ta thi,
iska mujhe pata hi na chalega………..”
“…Us roshni mein jo nirnay ki roshni hai sab kuchh s’maan hoga kya?
Ek palde mein napunsakta,
ek palde mein paurush, aur theek taraazu ke kaante par ardh satya.”
The naked reality of the socio-political world hits hard and make you wonder- is it really possible to stand upright for our values and morals? Seems everyone is living a life where one has to bent down to ‘Ardh Satya’- the reality of being alive into the world where being reduced to nothingness is the supreme rule.
Nice Post!
Relaxing Buddha
Brilliant end to the movie too. Just a plain simple declaration:
“Sir, maine Rama Shetty ko maar dala.”
Stark and minimal.
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