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films

Aakrosh (1980)

Govind Nihalani

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Release Date1980
GenreDrama
FormatColour
LanguageHindi
Run Time139 min
Length3996.54 meters
Number of Reels15
Gauge35mm
Censor RatingA
Censor Certificate Number4652-Mumbai
Certificate Date01/05/1980

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An adivasi man Lahanya Bhiku has been accused of the murder of his wife Nagi and awaits trial. A rookie lawyer Bhaskar Kulkarni has assigned to his defence. Lined up against Bhaskar is his mentor, the veteran prosecutor Dushane.
But the strangest thing about the case is that the accused refuses to utter a single word. Even when Bhaskar seeks to help Lahanya Bhiku he refrains from saying anything. Only his eyes express the rage and helplessness he feels. Met with this resistance, Bhaskar sets about trying to find the truth himself. Every road leads to a dead end. Lahanya’s family don’t trust him and editor who might have known something is beaten up and silenced. Bhaskar himself is continuously surveilled by mysterious men and one night he is even stabbed. His call for help from his mentor falls on deaf years as Dushane refuses to believe in any connection between the case and these events due to lack of hard evidence.
Dushane hob nobs with the powerful elite of the city including the contractors for whom Lahanya worked. He himself comes from a lower caste background and despite his success knows his position in society is a precarious one. He often gets mysterious phone calls threatening him for his caste background. Bhaskar meets a leftist activist who is trying to organise the activists. One night he informs Bhaskar of the truth behind Nagi’s murder. She was gang-raped and murdered by the powerful businessmen of the town as a punishment to Lahanya who had rebelled against the contractors. Armed with this information Bhaskar starts to aggressively counter-examine the witnesses presented by the prosecution. Soon, their accounts begin to fall apart. He refuses to budge from his conviction in face of both enticements and threats. At this juncture Lahanya’s father passes away. Now only Lahanya’s young sister and child are left in his family. Lahanya is granted bail from the court to attend his father’s funeral. He is acutely aware of the fate that might befall his sister now that no one is there to protect her. At the funeral Lahanya escapes his captors and kills his sister. At this point all his suppressed rage and grief pour out in the form of a shriek. Bhaskar understands the motivations behind the act and is determined to fight for him. He confronts Dushane with the truth and asks if he will still stay neutral. Dushane obstinately refuses to recognise the truth and refuses to stand by him.