Artwork drawn from the title — how & why
19

Ranked #19 of 100

Ardh Satya

अर्ध सत्य · 1983

An honest sub-inspector is ground down by his father, his politics and his own violence. The parallel cinema answer to the Angry Young Man.

Director
Govind Nihalani
Year
1983
Genre
Crime · Drama
Cast
Om Puri, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri, Sadashiv Amrapurkar

Why it's at number 19

Om Puri's greatest role. Dilip Chitre's poem inside it is the whole thesis of the film.

An honest sub-inspector is ground down by his father, his politics and his own violence. The parallel cinema answer to the Angry Young Man.

Ardh Satya sits in the 1980s alongside Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Umrao Jaan — a decade this canon treats as formative.

The Bollywood 100

The essentials

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