Film Aakrosh

[Denisha Simcoe]

Nihalaniwent on to be known for his dark and frighteningly real depictions of human angst in other landmark alternative films such as Ardh Satya and Tamas.[3] Aakrosh is listed among the 60 films that shaped the Indian film industry over a period of six decades.[4]

The story follows a peasant who faces oppression from landowners and foremen while working as a daily laborer to make ends meet. His wife (Smita Patil), is raped by the foreman, who then frames him for a crime he did not commit. Overwhelmed by shame, his wife commits suicide.

Following his father's death, the police escorts him to the funeral grounds in restraints to perform the last rites. As he stands by the burning funeral pyre, he notices the foreman casting lustful glances at his prepubescent sister. Anticipating her inevitable fate as a perpetual victim, he seizes an axe and beheads his sister to prevent her from suffering as he and his wife did. In the aftermath of this desperate and tragic act, the downtrodden man screams repeatedly into the sky.

Allegedly based on a true incident reported on page 7 of a local newspaper, the film was a scathing satire on the corruption in the judicial system and the victimization of the underprivileged by the able and the powerful.[5]

Here the victim is shown so traumatized by excessive oppression and violation of his humanity, that he does not utter a single word almost for the length of the film and only bears a stunned look,[6] though later he uses the same violence as a tool to express his own sense of violation and rage.[7]

At the end of the film we hear the victim's voice for the second time (the first is in a flashback, as he vainly attempts to rescue his wife), which is a device similar to Andrei Tarkovsky's showing of the icons in brilliant color at the end of his three-hour black-and-white film Andrei Rublev.

Some great action scenes are shot. One awesome foot chase with Ajay going after a goon, is brilliantly captured. In his debut film, Ajay had put his two legs on two motorbikes, and standing on these two moving bikes, he had made an appearance. That was a great scene. In Aakrosh, he stands atop a running jeep, in similar fashion.

Ajay Devgan is a perfect natural for such roles. He has done many similar characters in the past, and does very well, here as well. Akshaye Khanna is good too. Bipasha has a small role. Not much to do.

It is astounding to observe how subtly and maturely Govind Nihalani handled such ferocious social issues without falling prey to the need of insensitive commercial glorification. It is astounding to peel through the intellect of the makers who know and do not shy away from the complexity of the problems. It is astounding to see how cosmetic solutions are not rendered like an obligation to the audience. A filmmaker has none. It is astounding to see a filmmaker exercising it.

Aakrosh is a thematically Profound. Aakrosh is essentially one of the better sociopolitical films and it's fundamentally bcoz of its honest and aplomb approach in portraying the appalling reality of Society. The demonstration of case is imposed on us with certitude, supported with facts well....rather synthetic facts ? Nihalani, in his debut feature addresses handful of such subjects with

utmost sincerity.Nihalani cleverly raises the question on conscience, we instinctly pry into matters but fail to make most out of it due to the implications derived from "so called facts". There's whit of subtlety in the film, which makes it even more interesting.The climax sequence left me astonished.

No wonder Aakrosh is regarded as one of the most important indian films made, 40 years into its existence and It's still as relevant as it ever was.

It's been a long time since a Hindi movie has left me astonished. Stunned not by the refinement of it but the raw bitterness it exhibits. Forty years have passed and taking the current political scenarios of India has a bit of anything transformed? It is as it was, if not more. Nihalani upholds the authentic nature of the Indian society,the hatred and exploitation against the tribal people as well as how an idealist gets suppressed underneath the dirty and corruptive politics of the country.

There's a scene where Naseer saab eats his lunch and with Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye from Pyaasa playing in the background which is kinda spine chilling. Certainly, the work of a genius. The movie is elevated to a whole new degree by the performances of the stalwarts of Hindi cinema. Om Puri's tormenting eyes, Naseeruddin Shah's innocence and Amrish Puri's susceptibility juxtapose to make this an unforgettable affair.

A compelling slow-burn legal drama about a young lawyer becoming radicalized by the structural injustices of the Indian legal system. Sadly it seems that little has changed in 44 years. Nice writeup about the film here, and also here.

Anubhav Sinha's Article 15 opens with a group of lower-caste workers singing a revolutionary folk song about equality. The chorus goes: 'If we tell the truth, you might get offended.' Aakrosh (1980) does not attempt to tell you the truth about caste-related atrocities and their existence. It shows you a series of events and leaves you to make up your own mind. Set in the time and place that it is, oppression is much more invisible here. It permeates through the air and you can feel it with every breath you take, but it isn't quite visible, leaving the oppressed even more voiceless than they are today.

Written by Vijay Tendulkar, Aakrosh is the directorial debut of Govind Nihalani, one of the stalwarts of parallel cinema in India, known for his collaborations with Shyam Benegal. Lahanya Bhiku (Om Puri) is an Adivasi, charged with the murder of his wife Nagi (Smita Patil) in a town in Maharashtra. Bhaskar Kulkarni (Naseeruddin Shah) is the government-appointed defence lawyer and the prosecutor is Dusane (Amrish Puri), Bhaskar's mentor who also happens to belong to an Adivasi tribe. The film plays out as a social drama, with elements of an investigative thriller as we follow Bhaskar trying to get to the bottom of the the case. He faces numerous obstacles, not the least of which is his client's unending silence. Bhaskar gets nothing out of his client, who doesn't speak a word during any of their meetings and is forced to look for answers elsewhere, which puts him through a journey of discovery about his surroundings.

The oppressed don't plead their case here. There is no case to plead. They have been told about their place in the world the moment they entered it and justice isn't something for them to dare to wish for. We don't get dramatic scenes where the victims and their kin, after having been silent for too long, finally reach breaking point and face up to their oppressors with an unflinching monologue, leaving behind all their fears and providing us with satisfaction and catharsis. The writing is much more loyal to reality than that and it ensures a frustrating viewing experience for the viewer.

The film is shot through a middle-class lens. It puts us right in the shoes of Bhaskar, a middle-class idealist with preconceived notions about 'these kinds of people'. It doesn't attempt to make Bhiku something he is not in order to gain your sympathies for him and his people. Bhiku doesn't speak a word through out the entire film barring a couple of flashbacks which serve as glimpses into his marriage and thereby his character. And in those flashbacks, we see him being drunk and violent. The film doesn't take the route of making the victim likeable in any sense for you to buy into his plight. You inevitably do.

Om Puri gives the performance of his life, with not more than 100 words of dialogue. Acting with the eyes always felt like a bit of an exaggerated idea until I watched this performance. They didn't gloss over the pockmarks on his face, which was not usual at the time.

Throughout the film, we see Bhaskar's idealism clash with Dusane's practicality. They have student-mentor meetings throughout the film where Bhaskar keeps trying to link various inexplicable and sinister happenings to the case in an attempt to look deeper than the surface and is always met with Dusane's laughing dismissal. Dusane dismisses this as nothing but conjecture and the nave enthusiasm of a first time lawyer. He urges him to stick to facts and what's in front of him. Dusane swears by the book and worships the letter of the law. He believes the truth to be what can be proved inside the courtroom.

The climax has one of the most uncompromising and comprehensive scenes, which conveys hundreds of years of plight in one bone-chilling action better than hundreds of pages of dialogue ever could. In the aftermath, both jaded and enlightened by the realities of the world he grew up in, Bhaskar has one final confrontation with Dusane. He asks whether he would dismiss Bhaskar's death as an unrelated event, if he were to die while investigating the case. Would he look further than the surface or would he refrain from conjecture? Dusane says he will stick to his philosophy. Bhaskar walks away and the film ends.

This is when you realise that Bhaskar's idealism is also his privilege and Dusane's practicality is a result of the sword of Damocles hanging over his head. In a world with systemic oppression, sticking to the rules of the system ensures the same, inevitable outcome every time. The design is that of protecting the oppressors and preventing the underprivileged from ever rising. It is impossible to prove the obvious in a system like this. Dusane's uplift in social status is a precarious illusion of social mobility. This illusion can be shattered if he ever puts a toe out of line or ruffles the feathers of the people above him. It is this reverence for the rulebook written by the powers that be that has enabled him to elevate himself from one kind of slavery to a more sophisticated kind.

The film is extremely well directed. Govind Nihlani is one of my favorite Hindi director and Aakrosh is a film which further instills that faith. With films like this Ardh Satya and Droh Kaal he carved a niche for himself and helped to establish an identity of Bollywood side by side with the obnoxious and cheap commercial cinema with which the world has come to know Indian Cinema. Aakrosh is a burning example of how an intriguing story, good performances and deft direction can elevate and make a story that is very much one dimensional into an interesting and gripping film. From the beginning to the end, the plot of Aakrosh is fairly simple. We know and we understand that Bhiku is not the murderer and that he is a victim but still there is a sense of discovery and understanding in every scene of the film.

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