Page 12 - Seniorstoday Aug 2024 Issue

the powerful establishment that cannot
brook the rebellion whipped up by Balraj
(Rafiq Anwar), who mobilises the people
against Sarkar. The film was co-written by
KA Abbas (with Hayatullah Ansari), the
Leftist writer and director, who brought his
humanist vision into many films, and was a
frequent collaborator with Raj Kapoor. The
film screened at the first Cannes Festival
and was awarded the Grand Prix, along turbulence in India, and united the people
with the other entries at the start of the now against Indira Gandhi and the Congress,
legendary cinema event. Sudhir Mishra’s political drama is about
three characters, Geeta (Chitrangada
Nayak (2001): Singh), Siddharth Tyabji (Kay Kay Menon)
and Vikram Malhotra (Shiney Ahuja),
who are caught up in the anti-Government
movement in West Bengal by the left-
wing Marxist and Communist parties.
Later, when Emergency is declared and
there is a crackdown on all dissent, Geeta
joins Siddharth in the village, where he
works among Naxals. He is the one who is
In the Hindi remake of his own Tamil film, eventually disillusioned by the revolution
S. Shankar cast Anil Kapoor as Shivaji that failed the people and gives up, while
Gaekwad, a TV reporter, who, while Geeta and a now incapacitated Vikram
interviewing the chief minister (Amrish stay on to continue the struggle. This was
Puri), provokes him so much that he is one of the finest political films made in the
challenged to become CM for a day, and see country, in which the heroes are ordinary
if he can actually reform the state. Shivaji people with a social conscience.
accepts the challenge, and proves that
with political will, it is possible to achieve Rang De Basanti (2006):
anything. His honesty and dynamism
encourage the masses to support him, and
after fighting off the goons sent by the
corrupt CM, he stands for elections himself,
so that he can continue the work he started. Image Courtesy: Indiatvnews.com
It was a far-fetched plot, and there are
levels of inefficiency and corruption that
are difficult to uproot, but it was a utopia
worth hoping for.
In Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s film,
Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi (2003): six college students, led by Daljit (Aamir
The Emergency had caused immense Khan), participate in a documentary

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