Ardh Satya

Govind Nihalani's directorial venture of Vijay Tendulkar's novel is brilliant. Om Puri plays an inspector Velankar who is forced to protect underworld don rama shetty, played brilliantly by sadahiv amrapurkar. This is Govind Nihlan's Most talked about movie. This is a very good and a classic film. Smita Patil plays the female lead opposite Om Puri. Naseeruddin Shah is brilliant in a cameo role. Although Sadashiv Amrapurkar has only 4 scenes in the movie he dominates the movie. This was Sadashiv Amrapurkars acting debut.Om Puri won a national award for this film for the best actor. Filmfare award winner for Best Film,Story,Supporting Actor(Sadashiv Amrapurkar).

An absolute classic !! The direction is flawless , the acting is just superb. Words fall short for this great work. The most definitive movie on Mumbai Police. This movie has stood the test of times.

Om Puri gives a stellar performance, Smita Patil no less. All the actors have done their best and the movie races on thrilling you at every moment. This movie shakes your whole being badly and forces you to rethink about many issues that confront our society.

This is the story of a cop (Om Puri ) who starts out in his career as a honest man but ultimately degenerates into a killer. The first attempt in Bollywood to get behind the scenes and expose the depressing truth about Mumbai cops. Kudos to Nihalani !!

After this movie a slew of Bollywood movies got released that exposed the criminal-politician-police nexus. Thus this movie was truly a trend setter. This trend dominated the Hindi movie scene for more than a decade.

This movie was a moderate box office hit.

A must-see for discerning movie fans.

Directed by Govind Nihalani, this is definite cop film of Indian cinema. May be the first one which portrayed the stark reality of corruption in the police force & politics with no holds barred & how it effects on a young cop. A man forced to join a career of a cop by his cop father. Agreed that we grew up watching lot of good cop/bad cop Hindi films but this is different. Today's generation, which grown up watching dark & realistic films like- 'Satya', 'Company' may be consider it inferior product in comparison but look at the time of its making. The film was made absolutely off beat tone in the time when people didn't pay much attention to such kind of cinema & yet it becomes a most sought after cop film in class & mass audience when it released. For Om Puri its first breakthrough in mainstream Hindi cinema & he delivered a class performance as Inspector Velankar. Its more than cop character, he internalized a lot which is something original in acting. Watch his scenes with his father whom he hates & Smita whom he loves. Smita Patil maintained the dignity of her character to the expected level. My God what a natural expressions she carried!!! Shafi Inamdar was truly a discovery for me & he's a brilliant character actor if given a chance & here in some of the scenes he outsmarted even Om. The movie is also a debut of a promising villain on Indian screen- Sadashiv Amrapurkar as 'Rama Shetty'. It's another story that he didn't get such a meaty role & almost forgotten today as one of the loud villain of Dharmendra's B grade action films. Watch the scene where Om 1st time becomes a rebel for his father (played by Amrish Puri) & next both are sharing wine together. How inner truth started revealing for both the character with confronting feelings of love & hate for each other. Two faces of Indian Police Force- Masculinity & Impotency and in between lies- half truth (ardh satya)…Kudos to Nihalani's touch. The film won 2 National Awards as Best Hindi Feature Film & Best Actor- Om Puri & 3 Filmfare Awards in Best Film, Best Director & Best Supporting Actor Categories.

Recommended to all who are interested in nostalgia of serious Hindi films.

Ratings- 8/10

Ardh Satya is an excellently made film. Govind Nihalani leaves no stone unturned in his portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the main character Anant Velankar. He never wanted to be a policeman, but he reluctantly accepted the job because circumstances forced him to as his domineering father did not give him any other option. Now, as a policeman, Anant is honest, hard-working and justice-seeking. No, not at all what we get to see in mindless action films with their exaggerated portrayals of policemen going all nuts over their profession and their fake patriotism being the main issue. Here you will not see any of the silly action sequences or the caricature villains. Ardh Satya is a realistic film, its authenticity is more present than anything else in it. It's a true depiction of the life of an Indian cop and it does not submit to stereotypes, which could have been the easiest way to go.

As Anant, Om Puri plays a man who tries to fight criminals and those who break the low, but ends up having to fight against injustice within the system itself. This movie is just his story, not necessarily as a cop. It's about his dedication to his job, his frustration, his deterioration and fall from grace. Nihalani directs this feature with great integrity, and Vijay Tendulkar's script and dialogues are fantastic. Anant's relationships with those who surround him are aptly portrayed. The sequences showing his interaction with Jyotsna, a young lecturer of literature, are stupendous and are of the best in the film, right from their first meeting which opens the film to the time when they are already considering a future marriage. There isn't a lot of romanticism about it, but there's a lot of humanity and respect. Even the portrayal of his relationship with his parents, in spite of the minimal screen time it is given, is spot on and is very troubling.

Ardh Satya is a one-man show, and needless to say, it is Om Puri who dominates the proceedings with his heartfelt, brilliant performance as Anant. Puri is an actor who has very rarely delivered something unworthy, although he has been given stuff unworthy of his talent. This performance ranks amongst the finest works of his illustrious career. He captures Anant's honesty, determination, anger and devastation with sheer intensity, and is always moving, credible and convincing. The acting in general is very good in this film, but the rest of the cast are just here to support him, and they do it well. Amrish Puri, as the tough, violent and authoritarian father, is unsurprisingly excellent. He manages to convey a lot of his character's essence through just a few scenes. The same can be said about Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who does a lot with so little. Shafi Inamdar is also pretty good as Anant's boss.

Last but certainly not least, Smita Patil is first-rate in a role that was totally in need of someone with her intellectual capabilities and would have turned into inconsequential by a lesser actress. This is not at all one of those powerful author-backed roles she was known for playing, but it's still a very special one in her career. She does not try to impress or steal the show. As Jyotsna, she is natural, pleasant and exudes a certain warmth that is missing in the film. Above all, she had the ability to listen. I highly recommend you to observe the scene in which Anant shares with her his deep devastation towards the end. This scene, devoid of clichés, is one of the finest in the film, showing Om Puri's highpoint but at the same time Patil's wonderfully unconventional reaction of just being there, quietly listening and ultimately lending him a hand of support. The film's climax is most unexpected, and Ardh Satya is overall an excellent, involving movie that is highly recommended.

Any story comprises a premise, characters and conflict. Characters plotting their own play promises triumph, and a militant character readily lends oneself to this. Ardh Satya's premise is summarized by the poem of the same name scripted by Dilip Chitre. The line goes - "ek palde mein napunsaktha, doosre palde mein paurush, aur teek tarazu ke kaante par, ardh satya ?". A rough translation - "The delicate balance of right & wrong ( commonly seen on the busts of blind justice in the courts ) has powerlessness on one plate and prowess on another. Is the needle on the center a half-truth ? "

The poem is recited midway in the film by Smita Patil to Om Puri at a resturant. It makes a deep impact on the protagonist & lays the foundation for much of the later events that follow. At the end of the film, Om Puri ends up in exactly the same situation described so aptly in the poem.

The film tries mighty hard to do a one-up on the poem. However, Chitre's words are too powerful, and at best, the film matches up to the poem in every aspect.