Moving away from the angry young man of the 70s, director Govind Nihalani came up with his own interpretation of a rebellion in AAKROSH meaning cry of the wounded, released in 1980. Reportedly based on a true incident, the film is a hurtful satire on three major aspects of the society namely caste system, corrupt political rulers and the questionable judiciary system failing to provide justice to the exploited victim.
Written by the renowned Marathi writer Vijay Tendulkar, AAKROSH is the debut film of Govind Nihalani which is now widely considered as one of those pioneer films, giving a new direction to Hindi Cinema in those uncertain times. Starring Om Puri, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah & Amrish Puri in its lead roles representing the three aspects of our society mentioned above, the film still remains one of the darkest & scary interpretations of human anger suppressed by the underprivileged poor, waiting to erupt any day like an inactive volcano.
AAKROSH redefined the word ‘Silence’ like never before on the Indian screen as its main protagonist never utters a single word in the entire film until he is forced to express it all in his loud angry roar, sighting another act of exploitation & injustice coming ahead. Presenting the extremely powerful and disturbing subject in his multi layered script pointing towards the completely rotten and unfair social system prevailing in the country, Nihalani brought forward many burning issues through a well written script calling for an individual study of its key characters essentially.
The central figure of Bhiku Lahaniya (Om Puri) & his wife Nagi (Smita Patil) are the ones coming from the exploited labour class who are still living as the undisclosed slaves in an independent country. Young advocated Bhaskar (Naseeruddin Shah) fighting Bhiku’s case is the aggressive, educated youth willing to bring the much needed change, providing justice to his client, exposing all as it should be done in a democratic nation. His mentor advocate Dushane (Amrish Puri) represents those educated achievers who despite coming from a lower (tribal) class, have now earned a respectable status in the society. But even then are still repeatedly reminded of their caste background by some anonymous threatening calls. A social worker points towards the educated rebel activists of those decades who were just reported missing one fine morning without any specific reason or any police investigations. And then the card playing group of the so called elite class symbolizes the ugly nexus between the politicians, police officials and the judicial system which keeps strengthening the class discrimination all over without caring anything about their social responsibilities or the vows taken while joining their reputed jobs.
Having many potent and hard hitting scenes, AAKROSH repeatedly makes you think about the biased, exploitive world we are living in. But it’s actually the climax which simply knocks the viewer down with the loud roar of Bhiku taking that completely unexpected, brutal decision as his own solution for the problem, unfortunately. Raising many relevant questions, still waiting for an answer even after more than three decades this is surely one of the most important milestones of our Hindi Cinema, which also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1980, along with six Filmfare Awards in major categories of Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Story and Best Art Direction.
As an excellent amalgamation of performances, cinematography, sound, art and visionary direction, AAKROSH needs to be seen at the earliest as a landmark Hindi film making an urge to think and a highly recommended one too for every serious student of cinema wishing to watch all the precious gems of the past.
Directed by Govind Nihalani
Music by Ajit Verman
Starring Om Puri, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri, Mohan Agashe & more.
UPDATE (Nov. 2021) : At the time of this update, the film was streaming at Amazon PRIME.
