Cinema with a cause
Films on the theme of corruption often make the audience sit up and think, writes M. L. Dhawan

Many a filmmaker has tried to make films which combine the ingredients of popular entertainment with aspirations of social amelioration and humanist development. There has been a number of films based on corruption and crumbling system of governance. Just when the audience has had enough films on violence and vulgarity, there comes a film which makes the audience sit up and think.

In Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday, an ordinary man challenges the entire police force

Rumy Jafry’s Gali Gali Chor Hai is the latest on the burgeoning list of Hindi films based on real-life issues. The film is a scathing satire on the corruption and the crumbling system of governance. Though the director clarifies that his film didn’t endorse any kind of vigilantism but it did lay stress on the corruption in our country. The film portrays the everyday life of a simple, small-town man Bharat (Akshaye Khanna) and his strife with corruption when this common man gets trapped in the system. He works as a cashier in a bank but is passionate about acting.

In a local Ram Lila, he performs the role of Hanuman. Putting his Hanuman act together, Bharat does things which become headlines in newspapers.

Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday used the same backdrop but narrated a refreshingly new tale. In the film, an ordinary man in the street, Naseeruddin Shah, debunks the inefficient law-enforcing machinery for the incidents of terror and bomb blasts occurring regularly in the country. He says that the system of governance needs to be overhauled, or else the masses will be compelled to take law in their hands.

According to him, law is there but there are loopholes too, and despite politicians having robbed the national exchequer of crores, the erring ministers and politicians often manage to go scot-free.

Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro used satire to expose corruption

Director Shankar made Hindustani as a tribute to his father, a freedom fighter who refused to pay the mandatory bribe so as to ensure a seat for his son in the local engineering college.

In the film, Kamalahasan performs the role of a septuagenarian who, like the masses, has all odds going against him. Nevertheless, he not only diagnosis country’s prime malady but also offers a cure.

The patriarch sets up a one-man army against corruption after the death of his daughter in a hospital following his refusal to grease the palm of a doctor.

Pulling out a dagger from his belt, the ex-solider philosophises, "I am a kisan, not a killer. I shall cut out the weeds. I will kill anyone who takes bribe. The man in the street, he announces, has his own homespun remedies for the national malaise."

Akshaye Khanna as Bharat in Rumy Jafry’s Gali Gali Chor Hai

Hindustani was not alone. His militant, extra-legal solutions were also enunciated by another such unconventional vigilante Nana Patekar in Krantiveer. The wise old men, the pacifists tutored him about his non-violent rebellion. He dismissed them and all resilient, peace-loving Indians as inhabitants of a dead land. "Jagaya zinda logon ko jata hai, yahan to sab murdey hain," he exclaims and walks off.

When Amitabh Bachchan ruled the roost as the angry young man, Mahesh Bhatt’s film Saaransh gave a compelling portrayal of an angry old man, who took up cudgels against corrupt officials.

Anupam Kher, a retired school teacher, became the flagbearer of protest in his own endearing style. He is exposed to the ogre of corruption when he steps out to collect the ashes of his NRI son. Kher grows from a bundle of physical debility to a powerhouse of strength when he lifts the lid of red tape and an inefficient system of governance.

"Was this why I bore the lathis of the British on my back," he queries before the city administrators, reminding them of their legacy of that unsullied ideal of swaraj, which had fired the nationalist movement. The old, depressed and tormented man fights with the power of his principles alone.

Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro used satire to expose corruption in the society. Two photographers — Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vasvani — are employed by a newspaper to expose the wrong doings of a municipal commissioner. They spy on a builder and police commissioner engaging in some malpractices.

From the corrupt judicial system to the press and the government, they spare none in their misadventures.

The satire in the film does not get dated. It still hits and hurts hard as it did then in 1983.

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