By Mehul Gala:
Another calendar year is about to bid adieu. Like many of its previous counterparts, this year has also seen tremendous growth in the film industry. The bar of success in Indian cinema is on the rise. With two films surpassing the coveted 200 crore barrier, the box office is surely enjoying its purple patch. But earning 200 crore is one thing and being fondly remembered for decades another.
Well, I’m here to throw some light on a relatively unsuccessful movie (in monetary terms) which went on to touch the most sensitive topic of the modern era, Indian politics. With the battle between NaMo and RaGa constantly heated up to claim the throne and Arvind Kejriwal lead AAP making a revolution of its own, politics is literally the talk of the town. Prakash Jha contributed in his best known way with the movie ‘Satyagraha’.
Just to give you a background, Akhilesh is a honest civil engineer. He is best friends with Manav (Ajay Devgan). Akhilesh’s father, Daduji (Amitab Bachhan), is a school teacher. Akhilesh chooses a life of dignity and honesty whereas Manav chooses illegal path to climb the corporate ladder. Over a period of time, both achieve what they had desired. But as fate would have it, Akhilesh died in an accident. State government, much to their awareness of his noble work, allocates 25 lakh Rupees to his family. As time progresses, his wife knocks on the doors of the authorities to give them the allocated amount but to no heed. Finally, Daduji had to raise his voice and fight against this injustice. He starts a campaign for all such people who are yet to receive the government announced relief funds. Inspired by Daduji’s movement, Manav decides to join them. Rest of the movie revolves around how they fought this battle with right morals and belief.
Here are 5 things I learnt from this movie
1. We must speak up
There is a saying, “World is suffering not because of the violence of the wrong people but silence of the right people”. We must raise our voice against all the wrong doings just like Daduji did. No point in keeping it to yourself. If you are victim of any type of injustice then don’t hesitate to bring it to the world. It’s time to teach those evil-minded a lesson.
2. Realize the power of Social media
Believe it or not, social media is emerging as a very powerful medium in this information age. Any political or social movement must use its power. In Satyagraha, Manav creates a FB fan page of their campaign and it goes viral. Thousands of people liked it in a span of a few hours. It proved out to be a very healthy communication medium.
3. Battles cannot be won by shouting at the borders of the battlefield
After their Satyagraha movement, Manav and Arjun decide to start their own political party to dethrone the corrupt government. This is testimony to the fact that in order to change the system, you should first get into it.
4. Before pointing fingers to anyone, we must clean our own house
As mentioned, Manav used many illegal ways to taste success. He had connections with dozens of ‘setting’ kings. He was submerged in corruption from head to toe. When he joined Satyagraha with Daduji, government scanned all his past records to get a weak link to defame his popularity. Ultimately, they exposed this links and black money involved in Manav’s company. Eventually, Manav had to sell his company and distribute everything to its shareholders to come out clean.
5. Persistence is the key
Sometimes, things take time to improve. It demands hard work and dedicated efforts consistently over a long period of time. We must never lose hope. Slowly but surely, we will get there. Daduji kept fast unto death. He fought with the corrupt system till he succeeded. Truth came out victorious in the end.
This movie is not at all comparable with the big guns, neither in terms of money nor in terms of popularity. Only its morals will stick with us whenever we fight against injustice.