Thursday, February 19, 2009

Ardh Satya(1983): Half Truth


For Govind Nihalani this was the second venture after '' Aakrosh". Till this movie, the indian film industry never had a seperate audience for documentaries.If it was a documentary film it has to be shown at the film festival that was the norm prevailing before this film hit the boxoffice. This film became a path-breaking one or a trend setter in bringing out more system-bashing stuff in the later years to come. This movie, in the year it was released , had to fight against the big banners of the bollywood films like coolie, betaab, Hero,to find its space, and to make its presence in the box office.
The plot of the story was very simple. A straightforward cop was unable to cope with the realities . As a result, he became isolated. Unlike in other films, as in every masala film, in this one heroine(Smitha Patel) was not used for running around the bushes or rain- drenching sequences. In fact, she almost played the role of a harbinger of hero's conscience. A brilliant performance.Though the Hero of the movie, Om Puri, was willing to adjust with the realities ,but , after a certain point, it became unbearable. An inspector-turned-alholoic character played by Shafi Inamdar brought out the qualities of the person who just spoke against the " system". This one happened to be the first film for Sadashiv Amarapurkar he won an award for best supporting actor by the filmfare

EK PALDE MEIN NAPUNSAKTA
EK PALDE MEIN PAURUUSH
AUR THEEK TAARASU KE KAANTE PAR
ARDH SATYA

this poem exactly depicted the trails and tribulations that Hero getting experienced to the real system. The hero has to do jugglery between realities and conscience.This film won several national awards . WORTH WATCHING even after almost two and a half decades.

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