Between 'slaying' and 'hacking'...

Vadh (Slay, Hindi; 2022)

Written and Directed by: Jaspal Singh Sandhu & Rajiv Barnwal

Whilst watching this film, I was curious about its title. I knew 'Vaada' in Hindi meant 'promise' and 'waqt' in Urdu meant 'time', but 'Vadh'...? So I asked my resource person. As her mother tongue is Hindi, she was quick to say 'chop', like chopping mutton! Only after watching the movie did it come to my collection that the correct word I was looking for was 'slay'. In my dictionary, 'slaying' is justifiable 'killing'. A saviour slays a demon. A mortal just 'kills' or 'hacks'.

This is a very interesting film without the usual flair and over-the-top hero-worshipping that is often found in most Bollywood movies. Unlike most movies too, the protagonists are no spring chickens. They are neither drop-dead gorgeous nor need to strut their sculptured six-pack torso to tell their story.

A retired teacher and his homemaker wife lead a lonely and miserly life after sending their only son off to the USA. It had been six years since he last visited them. Even their calls to him are often anything but cordial. They are still paying for the loans they took to send him, including one from the local loan shark. The debt collector becomes increasingly more menacing as he brings booze, meat and hookers to their vegetarian household. In one such intimidating visit, the debt collector actually threatened to rape the teacher's 12-year-old tuition student. One thing led to another, the old teacher jabbed a screwdriver into the gangster's neck. In an intelligent storytelling manner, but maybe too tall to be believable, the old teacher chops the victim's body into pieces and disposes them far away and makes any evidence disappear.

A corrupt local police officer is hot on the teacher's trail. So is the local godfather whose henchmen the teacher had slayed.

The question is when does one slay another person, and when does he kill, mutilate, hack or murder? When Krishna kills the Asuras, he does it to save mankind. He slays the demon, not murder them. When Rama kills Surpanakka or Ravana, he slays the evil in them. In the same vein, Nathuram Godse feels justified to gun down an individual he thought was instrumental in carving the nation into two. Godse exerted that he slayed the demon that broke up the Indian subcontinent.


So, if someone is so invincibly evil and cannot be defeated, can the murderer be reclused of all charges? The problem is that the common law is not applicable to the common man. Law is a weapon used by the powerful to suppress the powerless. The law makes the powerful more powerful and the powerless less so.

The ending of this film manages to tie all the loose ends and, in a way, makes the killing of the 'powerful' debt collector justified. In the end, the teacher and police officer end up in a 'win-win' situation as his death brings more 'Shanthi' to more people than otherwise.

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Krishna Slays Bakasura, the Crane Demon sent by Vamsa.

Putana, a powerful witch, was summoned by Vamsa, Krishna's uncle who was told that a male child in that land would dethrone him. Putana manifested as a beautiful damsel to enter the house. Upon entering, she let Krishna suckle her poisoned nipple. Baby Krishna bit her so hard that he sucked the life out of her. 

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