NISHANT- a Master thesis on Oppression. Review on Nishana

NISHANT (1975). I know its not "Nishana" but mouthshut/mouthpad is taking too long to accept movies!

CAST- Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri, Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Anant Nag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe.

DIRECTOR- Shyam Benegal.

PLOT- “Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt, but to submission.” Simone Weil (French Philosopher)

“Nishant” is set in 1945, in a village in the southern part of India. The Zamindari/feudal system is still in place at the time. This story is of a Zamindar family consisting of four brothers: Anna(Amrish Puri), Prasad (Mohan Agashe), Anjaiya (Anant Nag), and the youngest brother Vishwam and his wife Rukmini (Naseeruddin and Smita Patil). This particular family is emblematic of all that is wrong with the Zamindari system. They drink and gamble their money away, abuse their power and oppress the very farmers they are supposed to protect; usurp and turn farmers out of their land whenever they feel like, rape and use their women, treat all those below them in social standing as slaves. Nobody in the village ever complains, seeming content to submit to everything. Even the local policeman (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and Priest (Sadhu Meher)are subservient to the Zamindars.

While Anna is the real power behind the evil family, it is Babu and Anant who carry out all the atrocities for him. Vishwam, while not spared of the corrupting influences of his brothers, is still somewhat held steady by his wife Rukmini, until he comes across Susheela.....

“He who allows oppression shares the crime”Desiderius Erasmus

A new school teacher (Girish Karnad) and his wife Susheela (Shabana Azmi) and child, move into this village. They seem to be settling in well, until Vishwam happens to catch a glimpse of Susheela and starts wanting her for his own. His brothers kidnap Susheela and imprison her in their house. Initially Susheela tries to resist their advances, but fails. Eventually she succumbs to Vishwam, and seeing that Vishwam is besotted with her, manipulates him into giving her some status in the household, her own kitchen, freedom to leave the house (though NOT allowed to go back to her husband or child). Meanwhile, the teacher tries to complain to the police, goes to all the high government officials in the state…to no avail. Not a single villager is willing to be a witness to the kidnapping of his wife.

“All oppression creates a state of war.”Simone de Beauvoir (French writer)

A very frustrated, enraged teacher turns to God and spirituality for solace. Therein he gets the inspiration to fight back against the injustice meted out to him and his family. With the help of the priest, he slowly mobilizes the villagers into revolt. It all happens very quietly, without the knowledge of the zamindars. And then one day, the inevitable happens….. and its not quite what you expect!

MY TAKE- This movie really made me think deeply about the social phenomenon of Oppression, hence all the quotes about it.

It took me a while to get used to the slow pacing of the film, but it was well worth the wait. The gradual building up of tension makes the climax even more stunning and impactful. All the actors are wonderful, especially a controlled but electrifying Amrish Puri, and a very young, shy Naseeruddin Shah. This was Smita Patil’s first movie, and while she has a smaller role than her rival Shabana, one has to watch her to know why Shabana was so insecure around her!

I am still thinking about this movie, a week after having watched it. I finally understand why movies like “Nishant” are called “Art” movies, and how much thought and philosophical insight goes into making these movies, unlike so called “realistic” films today. A movie like “Page 3” might give you a blow-by- blow account of the high society circuit, but ultimately it is a fairly polarized film, where people are either good or bad. In “Nishant”, what fascinated me most was that while the feudal system is openly criticized, the people that form a part of the oppressive system are not divided into “Good” versus “Bad”. They are all,oppressors and the oppressed, part of a continuum.There areonly shades of grayin “Nishant”,no black or white…which is how it IS in reality, isn’t it?

The movie was made at a time when the world was debating the merits of Socialism versus Democracy. In 2007, Socialism, at least in its Communist avtar, has been rejected in most parts of the world. We are ready to accept the hollow tenet of “equal opportunity for all” but equal ownership of resources is something most of us cannot even conceptualize. Tacitly, if not openly, we all encourage and foster classicism and inequality in our society. Does that mean there is bound to be another revolution of sorts where the “unequal” and oppressed people of the world will run over the privileged lot of people?

Will end the review with another quote

“The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.”Dorothy Allison