Review Of Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya, Akrosh and Vijeta
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-20, 1984)
Ardh Satya is an important film in the history of Indian cinema. The widespread popularity achieved by this low budget, political film is not only an index of the acute dissatisfaction felt by most people in this country vis a vis the governmental machinery but is also evidence of the fact that the director has managed to get his message across in a powerful way without the usual pretentiousness of many“art” films. Ever since the emergency, people’s distrust of the various arms of the bureaucracy has found more open expression, but even before, this mistrust had been indicated by people’s tendency to avoid contact with this machinery, as far as possible. The rural poor, for instance, seldom go to the police station to report injustices against them. They seem to be freer of the illusion that the police force exists to provide justice. On the contrary, the reaction of many villagers and slum dwellers would be to run as far as possible from uniformed men, knowing that they are likely at the very least to extort bribes, and are also quite capable of perpetrating violence on innocent people while protecting criminals and oppressors…