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How Shyam Benegal has managed to handle such a vast and loosely scattered subject and presented such a fine piece of cinema? How he has managed to present so many differently looking and behaving characters in a single film? How he has managed to give so different physical gestures and psychological understandings to different characters?

As its known he was born in Hyderabad then how he managed to take that kind of performance from Ila Arun, which could be completely alien for a non-hindi speaking person? Vijay Tendulkar was not present in his team, Pt Satyadev Dube was not writing dialogues for this film and still he has managed so well in characterization department. From where comes, his deep and vast understanding about the people?

Socio-political commentary has been an integral part of almost all the films of Shyam Benegal since the time of Ankur. His films could have some …

iView Author: S J (South Carolina, USA)
EMAIL: withheld

Title: On the sad demise of Vijay Tendulkar

Vijay Tendulkar’s death was a shock to me and I wrote following matter to my Dad, expressing my loss.

Mon, May 19, 2008
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For the first time in my life, today, I am thanking my boss with utmost gratitude. It was she who insisted me going to ‘Vite’s’ house and take his interview.

Her words…”He is a hard task …he won’t talk to you…take shots of his library and come back…first see if he gives you an appointment.”

She gave me his cell-number. I dialed it expecting his snub. But it was his man-Friday who picked up the phone, after my introduction, he asked me to hang on. I noticed my heart beat running faster and my palms becoming sweaty.

Finally, I heard “please make it before …

It will not be suffice to say that Amrish Puri plays only a callous father of Anant Velankar (Om Puri) in the film, Ardha Satya or the film shows him as a cruel father only. It will not do a proper justice to this interesting character. Things are not so simple and straight with this character that we may define his character as a harsh father of AV. Its not possible for Vijay Tendulkar to write a simple character that has been given only one characteristic. His characters have to be completely complex in nature because they belong to real life. His characters are seen in real life. Its not possible for Govind Nihalani to show his characters seized under monotonous behaviour and his characters have to face the volatile conditions and behaviour because life is like that only and prototypes don’t work here. That’s the beauty of films directed …

25 years have passed since Ardha Satya, one of the most hard hitting films of hindi cinema, was released and it still possess so lively and relevant presence that if its re-released today then it still may score above many films of present days.

This path breaking movie had paved the ways for several films made in the later years. It has inspired several directors to follow something or other in their films.

Not that nothing has changed in the country or in the world or as such in the life on earth. Advancement has ushered there in every field of life but along with this advancement, especially in science and technology, every field of life has become more polluted also. Even in the field of corruption, we have become more corrupted than the past. Society?s problems and pathos have …