Movie Review: Ardh Satya

Ardh Satya (The Half-truth, 1983) is the story set in corruption and mafia infested contemporary India. Anant Velankar (played by Om Puri) is a son of a violent policeman (played by Amrish Puri) and himself  a police sub-inspector. Desperate to arrest the gangster-politician Rama Shetty, Velankar is constantly frustrated by the mafia-politician nexus.

A powerful movie with superb cinematography (by Govind Nihalani) Ardh Satya is a disturbing and a landmark movie. Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Rama Shetty gives a convincing performance and Om Puri excels as the frustrated young man of the period. 

This movie, unlike most of Indian movies (see Bollywood) lacks song and dance, yet was shown to packed houses all over India  because the generation of the tumultuous 1980s identified themselves with Anant Velankar.

A must see movie for every Indian and who loves Indian movies.

Direction: Govind Nihalani
Screenplay: Vijay Tendulkar 
Cast: Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Naseerudin Shah, Smita Patil, Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Cinematography: Govind Nihalani 
Music: Ajith Varman
Year: 1983
Language: Hindi
Review: Vikas Kamat