Police forms the integral part of the society. And, it is said that- ‘Movies are the reflection of the society’. Thus, police also forms the topic of many of our films- either directly or indirectly.
Vijay(not me!), a courageous inspector from movie ‘Zanjeer’ depicted one of the early staged Angry-Young-Man who portrayed the urge of younger generation in 80’s to fight the inequality, unlawful acts in the society.
Following this, ‘Sarfarosh’- was another significant cop based movie where IPS Ajay shows an honest crime branch head, who fights the illegal cross border acts.
‘Shool’ movie depicted unfortunate political interference in the policing and ‘Gangajal’ showed that “our law is not weak but we as a society has made it weak,ebecause, when we point at a corrupt policeman- we forget that he forms the part of same society, as we are”. It thus made Strong Case against INSTANT Justice bypassing the Lawful means.
In last 15 years, we saw the rise of films like Dabang, Singham and recent one- Sooryavanshi. They are mass entertainer films, depicting- ‘Larger Than Life’ Police Officers. Since, they have earned quiet a good amount of revenue, it indicates that- larger section of audience liked these movies.
We also saw some good movies like “Article 15”, which underlines how a newly posted IPS officer fightsw the grave violation of Right to Equality, enshrined via Article 15 of Constitution.
Now, the movie which triggered me to write all this was recently released- Jai Bhim. It touches the ‘brutal misuse’ of our Criminal Justice System and ‘unLawful’ Policing visible in SOME cases. These issues have already been touched by Malimath Committee Report, Prakash Singh Judgment by Supreme Court etc, but still, we have a long way to go!.
Now, the question is should we go for Sooryavanshi like ones or for Jai Bhim like ones?
Obviously, it is personal choice, but, I feel, if you are watching 2 Sooryavanshi like movies in a month to entertain yourself, DO watch, at least one Jai Bhim like ones to get the REALISTIC experiences of our society, because, movies are reflection of the society and “IN ORDER TO CHECK HOW DO WE LOOK, IT IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK INTO THE MIRROR ONCE A WHILE”!!
Vijay Bhandare 