This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-37, Nov-Dec 1986)
This film is one more in the genre which was inaugurated by Amitabh Bachan with Zanjeer. A whole Spate of them followed such as Sholay, Aj ki Awaaz, Insaaf ka Tarazu, Bahu ki Awaaz, Mard, Coolie and Kanoon Meri Mutthi Mein as also the TV serial Rajani.
Like Insaaf Ki Awaaz, all these films revolve around superman or woman who, with scarcely any assistance, confronts and destroys the corrupt and debased machinery of law and justice, the cynical machinations of politicians, the unholy alliance between politicians and profiteers. The profiteers do not merely indulge in exploitation through intermediaries. They are portrayed as active participants in crime, or at the very least, as themselves hiring criminals, both uniformed and otherwise, for their nefarious purposes. Ordinary people —workers, poor peasants and even many members of the law abiding middle class—are shown caught in their web. But these films hardly ever dwell on the lives and struggles against victimisation of ordinary people. Such people are merely used as a foil to the saviour function of the superman or woman protagonist who emerges to challenge social injustice…