Ardh Satya

Govind Nihalani's 1983 Indian film follows Anant Velankar, a newly posted police officer. The rules he is meant to apply on the street do not match the order inside the station, and the link between a local crime boss and politics meets him in every case. The title comes from a poem. Lines by Dilip Chitre are read within the narrative and the idea of a half truth describes Velankar's position: he knows what is right but cannot change the system, and in the end turns to his own violence. Om Puri leads and his performance was taken as a turning point in Indian cinema. Smita Patil plays a lecturer. Nihalani works in the social realist strain of the eighties; the violence is unshowy and presented so as to disturb. Who it's for: those who follow Indian social realism and police drama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a narrative in which the hero wins; the film carries its character into collapse.