Monday, 27 June 2022

Beware of the circle of deceit!

Ardh Satya (Half-truth, Hindi; 1983)
Director: Govind Nihalani

This Indian movie is said to be a benchmark upon which other police dramas are compared. Acted beautifully by doyens of the silver screen of Bollywood then, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Smita Patel, Naseeruddin Shah and Sadashiva Amrapurkar, it paints a multidimensional view of the job of a policeman. 

Our social system is flawed. The very system that had been devised to be law and order is anything but orderly. Things that go under the guise of upholding the law are anything but by the book. There is an unholy alliance between law enforcers and law breakers. The political dogs who made the gangsters their running dogs have made a lapdog of the police. The police, it seems, under the pointers of the politicians and the umbrage of the baddies. In a world where money can right a wrong, the brunt of law enforcement is only felt by the poor. The rich can literally get away with murder. They can quash evidence or buy the best legal representation that money can afford.

With increasing pressure to fill up the coffers within a lifetime, everybody is becoming increasingly creative in creating revenue for their own pockets. The whole shebang, from the low-ranking staff to the administrative panel, has their hands dug deep into the cookie jar. It is a mess out there.

Law enforcement is a messy affair. Too much in the hands of enforcers is bad, for sometimes the innocent get caught in the crossfire. Giving in too much to human liberty and human rights makes policing more difficult. In this type of Catch-22 situation, our man in blue tries to make this country safe.

This movie is said to be one of the most balanced Indian police dramas made in India. Unlike most Bollywood movies which usually showcase lone honest cops fighting singlehandedly a putrefying system and putting the fear of God into the villains, this one explores the challenges a cop has to face to do what is right. Following the footsteps of his father and grandfather against his own wish, Anant joins the police force. After getting into the police force, Anant tries to do what he perceives as right.

He finds that all in his station are working under the thumb of a local politician/thug. Anant tries to keep himself away from the clutches of the gangster, but it becomes increasingly more difficult. He hits a wall when a convict he interrogates dies in custody, and Anant has to get the help of the thug to bury the wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Anant meets a literature lecturer who is his love interest and motivates him to do the right thing. Then there is a disillusioned drunk cop who was suspended because he fought the system. On his home front, Anant has to deal with an assertive father who wants to micromanage his son.

What is doing the right thing when exposed to the circle of deceit? Do we, like David, fight the Goliath of the system? Do we leave everything and start anew as if the grass elsewhere is any greener.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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A comedic tragedy?