Sunday, June 22, 2008

Satyakam

For a long time, I had a desire to watch a Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie "Satyakam". I am a diehard fan of Mukherjee cinema as somehow it presents a world on celluloid which I would like to part with. Where else do you get that light cinema, persisting on your values effortlessly. "Satyakam" is supposed to be the best performance from Dharmendra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee also places this movie very high. You can take a look on following clip to get an idea about the movie.



The story forced me to think about many questions for which I don't have straightforward answers.


Don't you think in today's era, it may be suicidical to think and work for truth? As protagonist of the movie says, compromise is another name of taking bribes, corruption and issues in the system.

After independence, lots of young people believed in values, honesty and revolution. It may look like yet another story in today's day but there were people who left their home to change the system, help out the poor of the country and stayed in the remote areas even if they could take advantage of their credentials. My own father participated in Bhoodan Movement led by Vinoba Bhave when he was just 18. He left home and participated in getting the land donated from big landowners in order to give it to landless people. He participated in creating villages and stayed in a remote area with a very low stipend. He gave priceless 18 years of his youth to that movement selflessly. In turn he didn't take any land for himself or his family. In today's day it may be called foolishness for not doing something for his own sake but in those days, there were some young people after independence who wanted to participate in nation building.

We became independent in 1947 but we became slaves of our own people again. Even after getting independence, corruption, poverty, unemployment were rampant and for people like Satyakam it was difficult to differentiate between compromise and right thing to be done for the nation.

Sometimes I think how could people give their entire life for a cause. Sometimes I think how come Bhagat Singh (23 years old when he was hanged) could think about such a cause which could cost his own life. Similarly sometimes I also think how a person could remain so attached to a person who because of his/her illness, cannot be called a live person practically.

So what's right and what's wrong, sometimes become very challenging question to me. Sometimes back a girl asked me a difficult question. She said she is in love with a person for quite sometime. Recently she came to know that the person has a brain-tumor. It poses a big question about her future etc. I just gave her my own view. I think it all depends on the kind of attachment you have with that person. Sometimes attachment is so strong that you may not think or haven't thought anything without a person ever. That person may be your life. So when emotions are so strong and also you know what you are doing, people take difficult decisions too. In Mili movie, the character played by Amitabh marries the character played by Jaya Bachchan. Similarly Kishore Kumar married Madhu Bala even though he knew she would die with a heart disease soon. On the other hand, if the person is not so attached with that guy/girl, that person should definitely take practical stance and see things from practical aspects. Again there is no definition of right and wrong. If you see it carefully, both are correct if you take both perspectives. But sometimes similar kind of questions are not that easy.

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