Act 1978 Kannada movie : A thought provoking drama which made me think a lot!

 This movie is an outlier. It has just one song. And the song is not thrust upon us like an unpleasant memory. It is a meaningful one penned by Kaikini sir, and talks about the common man and his resilience. Act 1978 depicts the path carved by the reaction of a pregnant widow (Yajna Shetty as Geetha) and an old man who chooses not to speak. Their calculated crusade is against the unjust "system", the bureaucracy and stifling monotony of red tapism that infests our government offices. Me and you are too familiar with this plight, where money speaks and nothing happens without "influence" or "contacts". It is an honest depiction of a painful experience, a choice made by an individual devastated slowly by life and then by this blood - sucking machinery.

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This movie touches upon multiple topics extremely pertinent to this day and age. One I have spoken about above. The other is about the media, and how much of an influence they have over public sentiment. The same person can be a "student" or a "working professional" at one moment, but can morph into a "terrorist" or an "anti - national" the next. TRP drives everything in the society poisoned by capitalism and power. Although we take pride in "Satyameva Jayate", there is no place for truth and no-one wants to use their brain. Fake news rules the roost, while people are comfortable in their echo chambers. 

Another aspect is the "story" we tell ourselves, justifying why our actions are right, and because of this it does not matter if someone else / the environment suffers. Because I am the center of the universe. After all, do we not have our housing loans to pay, and the next milestone to achieve? How can "morality" and "values" come in the way?

There are also themes of:

•  Power and money and how the common man always suffers.
• The state of Indian politics where taking the "right" decision isn't easy, as you have to satisfy conditions of caste / language / religion etc.

But I do not want to bore you with another discourse :)

There is one mind-blowing sequence where the interactions leading to this point in the movie are depicted in a stunningly creative way.  Here is the Movie trailer.

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One heart breaking scene is when the old man, who doesn't speak a word throughout the movie only to utter a tender name. His rebellion against injustice is expressed through silence, although he has a gun. How different is he from Gandhiji, who chose different means of protest? Incidentally, Gandhiji features in this movie, protesting in his way, and we watched this on 02 Oct.

The casting here is great! Yagna has the major role and she carries the movie along beautifully. She has demonstrated her versatility beautifully in this difficult role. Pramod Shetty as ACP Ram Gopal has also done a good job. Commendable effort by all actors here. We need more such movies, guys. Cinema should mirror society or stretch our mind. Watch this movie and let me know how you felt.

After experiencing this movie I was reminded of two thought - provoking quotes by Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara, which I felt were befitting in the scenario. Long live revolution.

Refuse. Resist.

Thank you, Krips for suggesting this movie, watching it again with me and for the post - discussion.