Ardh Satya: Wonder If Om Puri would been have freed from the chakravyuh of his fate in the end ?

What would have happened to Anant Welankar ( Om Puri )- the young budding police officer at the end of the film Ardh Satya after he goes to the police station and confesses that he Murdered the local goon Rama Shetty (Sadashiv) by strangling him ?

This is where the movie ends . Would he be behind bars -Caught in the chakravyuh of his own deeds ? 

Or will an influential Delhi bureaucrat would have secured Om Puri’s release  ?would the release still  have meant that he will be caught forever in his own chakravyuh like in the poem which Anant himself recites in the film 

चक्रव्यूह से बाहर निकलने पर

मैं मुक्त हो जाऊँ भले ही

फिर भी

चक्रव्यूह की रचना में फ़र्क़ ही न पड़ेगा

Or Anant ( Om puri ) would have become another Mike Lobo ( Naseeruddin Shah ) – the suspended senior drunkard police officer who died caught in the web and chakravyuh of his own life. The corpse lying unattended on the road – like in the poem Om Puri recites 

मरूँ या मारूँ

मारा जाऊँ या जान से मार दूँ

इस का फ़ैसला कभी न हो पायेगा

What would have happened to Anant and Jyotsana ‘s( Smita Patil) relationship? 

Jyotsana (Smita Patil )- a woman with a mind of her own and distinctly uncomfortable whenever she sees the violent side of Anant as a police officer – would  she have accepted him or must have gone her own way ? 

Or she would have been indecisive and hesitant her whole life – the way she was indecisive sitting in that restaurant when Om Puri reads the poem Chakravyuh and gets emotional, Smita hesitatingly extends her hand to comfort him but withdraws quickly. 

What if Anant had redeemed himself after serving his sentence, would it have meant a new dawn for him ?

सोया हुआ आदमी जब नींद से उठ कर

चलना शुरू करता है

तब सपनों का संसार उसे दुबारा

दिख ही न पायएगा

उस रोशनी में जो निर्णय की रोशनी है

सब कुछ समान होगा क्या ? 

Whenever I see Ardh Satya I wonder what would have happened to Anant and Jyotsana in Ardh Satya . May be sitting up there somewhere Om Puri and Smita Patil would have some answers.

I don’t think Anant would have been able free himself from the chakravyuh of his troubled past and gory present – like in the poem which he recites in the film .  

The chakravyuh of domestic violence which he witnessed in his childhood, the violence which the political system inflicts on him, the physical and mental violence of the police force of which he was a victim and perpetrator.

चक्रव्यूह में घुसने से पहले

मैं कौन था और कैसा था

ये मुझे याद ही न रहेगा

चक्रव्यूह में घुसने के बाद

मेरे और चक्रव्यूह के बीच

सिर्फ़ एक जान-लेवा निकटता थी

इसका मुझे पता ही न चलेगा

चक्रव्यूह से बाहर निकलने पर

मैं मुक्त हो जाऊँ भले ही

फिर भी

चक्रव्यूह की रचना में फ़र्क़ ही न पड़ेगा

मरूँ या मारूँ

मारा जाऊँ या जान से मार दूँ

इस का फ़ैसला कभी न हो पायेगा

सोया हुआ आदमी जब नींद से उठ कर

चलना शुरू करता है

तब सपनों का संसार उसे दोबारा

दिख ही न पायएगा

उस रोशनी में जो निर्णय की रोशनी है

सब कुछ समान होगा क्या?

एक पलड़े में नपुंसकता

एक पलड़े में पौरुष

और ठीक तराज़ू के काँटे पर

अर्ध-सत्य

As I scrolled through the film credits I realised so many actors and Artists are no more – Amrish Puri , Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Om puri , Smita Patil , Shafi Inamdar ,Vijay Tendulkar , Vasant Dev ,  Renu Saluja , Ajit Verman 

Film – Ardha Satya 

Director- Govind Nihalani 

Screenplay- Vijay Tendulkar 

Written by – Vasant Dev 

Editor – Renu Saluja 

Poem by – Dilip Chitre 

Actors – Om Puri , Smita Patil, Shafi Inamdar, Amrish Puri , Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Naseeruddin Shah