Ardh Satya and the Art Cinema, Commercial Cinema debate
Bhopal, Sep 2006

I haven’t seen many Govind Nihalani films. I saw Drohkaal during my college days, which I liked. After a break of nearly a decade, I watched Dev. It was a sensitive subject, brilliantly handled by Nihalani by means of a taut script and sensitive portrayals. A couple of years later I had time and opportunity to watch Ardh Satya.

Ardh Satya starts off without preamble. Though it is disconcerting, it makes its intentions clear – its paring-down of the plot, story, environment, people, etc. to the absolute minimum, a conscious effort to de-dramatize. All three Nihalani films that I had seen are essentially police stories. Drohkaal and Dev are about terrorism and communalism. In Dev, the characters’ views towards communalism and the ensuing violence are clearly defined and firm. The theme is examined and illuminated by incidents and debates in the narrative. By showing different perspectives and by means of the story itself, Dev aims to put the viewer in a position of introspection. The evolution of characters is absent and irrelevant to the film. Contrastingly, Ardh Satya’s theme is the protagonist’s struggle to harmonize his thoughts and actions. Ananth Welankar, the protagonist, is repeatedly put into situations of conflict between thought and action, his moments of truth (MoT). It is not until the closing frames of the film, the last few seconds that Ananth finds redemption. In his biggest MoT, he is able to cast-off his ‘Napunsaktha’ (cowardice, in this context) and performs an act of courage. By surrendering himself to the police and face the consequences rather than bail himself out, he tilts the balance firmly in favour of ‘Paurush’ (courage). Nihalani exercises tremendous self-restraint in de-dramatizing this pivotal moment. In fact, it is as though he was getting late for his dinner and therefore, wrapped-up the movie in a rush. It is over even before you realize it.

The movie is memorable because we can see ourselves in Ananth. Our beliefs and thoughts constantly challenged by reality and compromised in the interest of self-preservation. We all have our MoTs and our actions are not always in harmony with our beliefs. We jettison our beliefs in the interest of self-preservation. Ironically, we lose our “self” in the process to become just another among the crowd.The script of Ardh Satya is a live wire – never swaying from the central theme, brutal sometimes in not providing a respite. The locations, settings and characters are realistic without any artifice. The acting is fantastic. Om Puri is colossal.

Ardh Satya is classified as an art film. I don’t know what an art film is. I can understand westerns, comedies, tragedies, etc. What is an art film? There can only be good films and bad films. The talk of commercial films vs. art films is quite baffling. Every film director wants his / her film to be seen by people – be commercially successful. Even the “art film” directors. Some directors make movies confident (oftentimes misplaced) that their film will be a commercial success. Some directors make movies with hope that it will be commercially successful. The difference is conceit in the former case and humility in the latter. Not commercial and art. Ardh Satya is a great film. If it wasn’t commercially successful, the reasons could be numerous – but certainly not because it was an art film.