ARDH SATYA

WRITTEN BY
VIJAY TENDULKAR

INT. PARTY HALL - NIGHT

A new year's eve party. People are drinking and dancing, as

ANANT VELANKAR sits bored. Spots JYOTSNA who too seems bored.
Their mutual isolation seems to draw them to each other
momentarily, and he walks towards her.

EXT. JYOTSNA'S HOSTEL. BOMBAY STREET - NIGHT

Anant drops Jyotsna on his mobike to her hostel. Neither likes

parties - they're death for non-drinkers. Very polite, very
cordial.

EXT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Anant arrives on his bike.

INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Goes to the lock-up and inquires if the prisoners are all calm
and well-behaved.
Goes to the office. Good humour with other colleagues. They
joke about their jobs.
Senior Inspector Hyder informs them that Rama Shetty, the known
underworld don had come to visit the Commissioner. Possibly
about his three goons that Anant arrested last night. Aside, he
tells Anant that Rama Shetty wants to meet him.

EXT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Anant rides up there. Is uncomfortable and therefore arrogant

and bossy. Meets a goon there and questions him.

INT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Shetty is drinking. Is patronising with Anant, offers him choice

liquor, tries to bribe him. Anant feels insulted, and rebuffs
him rudely. Shetty maintains his composure smoothly.
Walks him to his bike and reiterates his offer to be of use to
him, should Anant want it.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - MORNING

Anant makes tea. Goes to the balcony, looks down. Remembers.

EXT. TERRACE. ANANT'S FATHER'S HOUSE - MORNING

Flashback: Young Anant is doing pushups, commanded by his father.
Mother collides with father, spilling tea onto his police
uniform. Father slaps mother angrily. End of flashback.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - MORNING

Anant dons his uniform.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Anant in uniform riding his bike to work. Spots Jyotsna waiting

at a bus stop. Waves to her. She doesn't recognise him.

EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Anant arrives at the cop station.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Cops arrive at work. Anant greets Inspector Hyder warmly. Tells

him about his meeting with Shetty. He hates Shetty. Hyder
informs him that Shetty's three goons have been let off. Anant's
shocked. Shetty's influence obviously goes to the top.

INT. STAFF ROOM. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

Professors discuss freedom of expression casually. Jyotsna's

view is that only if we're prepared to involve ourselves in an
issue, do we have the right to speak about it.

INT. COLLEGE CORRIDOR - DAY

Jyotsna meets her colleague and dismisses the staff room

discussion.

EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Anant discoves that his mobike tyre is punctured.

INT. PUBLIC BUS - DAY

Anant runs into Jyotsna in the bus. She's surprised that he's a
cop. Pleasantries.

INT. BAR CUM RESTAURANT - NIGHT

A drunk MIKE LOBO is creating a ruckus as he can't pay. Anant

pays for him. Lobo tells him that he was suspended for drinking
on duty. Anant is struck by his state.

INT. COMMISSIONER'S CABIN - DAY

Commissioner instructs Anant not to touch Rama Shetty's men.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

A colleague is telling others that a police informer is agitating

outside the Commissioner's office since despite his giving
information no action is taken against the goons. Cops laugh at
his presumptiousness.
Colleague sees Anant depressed and offers to get him entertained.

INT. DANCE BAR - NIGHT

Colleague boasts about how many times he's raided this bar. But
each time they get off. They joke about how ineffectual the
police force really is.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Anant calls Jyotsna. Intercut with

INT. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

They fix up a date for coffee.

A man complains to Anant that some louts tease his wife. Anant
goes along with him.

EXT. SLUM - DAY

Anant gets his cops to chase those louts and arrest them.

INT. POLICE LOCK-UP - NIGHT

Anant hammers those louts.

Instructs constable to release the louts with a stern warning.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - NIGHT

As Anant stops to buy cigarettes, his headlight disturbs a drunk

Lobo who screams outraged. Anant drives away.

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

Anant takes Jyotsna to a fancy restaurant. She asks him how he

can afford such an expensive place. He skirts the issue. Reads
a poem from her book. It's about getting caught in a labyrinth
and not being able to extricate oneself. Goes on reading it
aloud. He's very deeply touched by it.

EXT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

She refuses to take a taxi he's hailing. Both get into a bus.

INT. PUBLIC BUS - DAY

A man tries to touch her bottom. Anant sees that and begins
hammering the boy mercilessly.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Jyotsna sees how demonically violent he gets. She protests, but

he cannot understand why she is being a pacifist.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Hyder asks Anant to come out with him alone.

INT. RESTAURANT - DAY

Hyder warns him that the authorities want to suspend him since he
beat up those eve-teasing goons. It's election time and
political leaders can't afford to annoy slum dwellers. Anant is
non-plussed. How is one supposed to do one's duty then? Hyder
says he is being naiive. Warns him that he shouldn't end up like
Mike Lobo. Promises to find a way out.

EXT. THEATRE - DAY

Anant meets Jyotsna. Tells her he had to go to the capital to

sort out the issue of his suspension.

INT. THEATRE - DAY

He tells her about his situation. She's sympathetic. They watch

a dance recital.

EXT. THEATRE - DAY

Anant complains that he can't tolerate her being vulnerable to

being eve-teased. They bond further, even though she shrugs off
this concern.

INT. FANCY BAR - NIGHT

Hyder and Anant celebrate the revoking of Anant's suspension with

the political fixer. Anant expresses gratitude to the contact.

EXT. /INT. TAXI - NIGHT

As they get in, Lobo accosts them, drunk as usual asking for
money to 'bury his wife'. They're shocked, but Anant gives him
the money.

INT. ANANT'S FATHER'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Flashback: Father tells young Anant that he should now not study
further and join the police force. Anant is unhappy, but doesn't
express anything.
Overhears his father boast to his mother about their illustrious
lineage in the police. Expects Anant to become a senior officer.

EXT. VILLAGE WELL - DAY

Anant protests to his mother. He will not join the police force.
He wants to become a professor of literature.

INT. ANANT'S FATHER'S HOUSE - DAY

Father begins slapping mother when she tells him of Anant's

desire. End of flashback.

EXT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Shetty's men hammer his man as he watches coldly.

They set fire to him and run away.
A cop drives up and sees the burnt body.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Anant informed of the burnt body being found. Reacts when he

hears the name - it's the same goon he had spoken with in Rama
Shetty's den. Rushes out.

INT. HOSPITAL - DAY

Anant takes the dying goon's testimony that Rama Shetty got him
killed.

EXT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Anant drives up with his men and insists on seeing Shetty.

INT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Shetty tells his men to say that he is not in. Makes a call.
Anant barges in. Demands to take him to the police station.
Shetty calls the Commissioner and puts Anant on the line.
Commissioner fires him and asks him to get out of there.
A humiliated Anant is forced to leave.
EXT. RAMA SHETTY'S DEN - NIGHT

Anant gets into his jeep, intensely angry but helpless.

INT. BAR - NIGHT

Anant erupts into violent anger and begins wrecking the place,
totally drunk.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - MORNING

Anant wakes up to see his father there. He'd come last night.
Berates Anant for not looking after his uniform.

LATER

Father tells him that he's trying to get him transferred out of
Bombay. Also that he's trying to fix his marriage. Anant
interrupts him rudely and says he's getting late.

INT. RESTAURANT - DAY

Hyder admonishes him that his attempt to arrest Shetty can get
him suspended. The excuse could be that he misbehaved in the
bar. Anant is intensely frustrated. Hyder tells him that Shetty
is standing for municipal elections. Anant is horrified,
apoplectic. But, Hyder's stand is that this is the way the world
is run, and Anant better adjust to that.

INT. COMMISSIONER'S CABIN - DAY

A trade union leader complains that the goons of the management

are attacking workers during the strike. Commissioner is
unsympathetic. Says he is only concerned about maintaining
peace. It's obvious that he is prejudiced against the workers
and for the management.

EXT. FACTORY - DAY

Workers shouting slogans. The same union leader arrives and

joins them.

INT. COMMISSIONER'S CABIN - DAY

A fixer brings the factory manager to meet the commissioner, who

assures him that he will protect the management's 'rights'.
Bribes are hinted at very subtly.

EXT. FACTORY - DAY

As workers agitate, the commissioner informs Hyder and Anant that
the management has obtained a court order to remove the machines.
Tension. Jyotsna arrives with her friend to do some research on
the issue. Anant makes them go away as tempers are high.
As they leave, the friend points out that Anant was drunk.
The trucks arrive, workers surge, the cops begin caning them.
Anant goes especially berserk with his stick.

EXT. TERRACE. JYOTSNA'S APARTMENT - DAY

Jyotsna and friend discuss men, and who would be a good life
partner. Jyotsna says how difficult it is to really know people.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Anant enters the office drunk. Hyder warns him that if he

continues like this, he's doomed. Asks him to stop being a
martyr to the cause honesty; no one cares.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Rama Shetty's victory procession. He's triumphant while Anant

and Hyder control the crowds around him.

INT. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

Not realising that he's speaking to Jyotsna herself, a drunk

Anant keeps rudely demanding to speak with her. She disconnects
the phone, disturbed.

INT. COMMISSIONER'S CABIN - DAY

Commissioner instructs Anant and other cops about some dacoits

who are hiding out outside the city. They're to be captured.

EXT. FORESTED AREA - DAY

Anant swigs from his hip flask. An older constable advises him
to desist. Anant is rude, until he realises that the man does
care.
Another officer from Special Branch arrives and speaks to Anant
with contempt. Anant retorts angrily. It becomes ugly.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Jyotsna calls for Anant, only to be told that he isn't there.

EXT. FORESTED AREA - DAY

Anant instructs his men to surround the cabin where the dacoits
are holed up. A gun fight erupts.
Anant chases the lead dacoit, who finally runs into the Special
Branch officer and gets arrested by him.

INT. COLLEGE CORRIDOR - DAY

Anant comes to see her.

EXT. OPEN AIR CAFE - DAY

She wants to know why his name didn't appear in the news in
connection with the arrest of the dacoity. He says it's enough
that she knows. She asks if he will get a medal. He humbly
jokes that there are others more brave than him.

INT. ANANT'S FATHER'S HOUSE - DAY

Father is furious at Anant's letter saying that he doesn't want

to marry the girl fixed by father. Resolves to go to Bombay and
confront him.

INT. POLICE LOCK-UP - DAY

Anant pushes Rama Shetty's son into the lock up and slaps him.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Hyder calls. Anant tells him that Shetty's son had abducted a
girl and kept her imprisoned while he raped her repeatedly.
Intercut with

INT. MISCELLANEOUS ROOM - DAY

Anant tells him that he is going to celebrate his relationship

with Jyotsna by hammering Shetty's son.
Hyder warns him to be very careful with this situation.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - DAY

Father admonishes him for rejecting the girl. Insists that he

marry her. Anant bursts out for the first time, asking him to
stop interfering in his life. Father gets placatory immediately.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Father expresses pride that Anant is doing a valiant job as a

cop. But when he tries to touch him with affection, Anant
rebuffs him. Accuses him of brutalising his mother. Walks out.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - MORNING

Anant covers his sleeping father with a blanket.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

As Anant drives his mobike to work, Rama Shetty passes him in his
jeep, with his son.
Ahead Anant stops his bike near a gathered crowd to see what is
up.
Lobo is lying on the street. Dead.

INT. HOSPITAL - DAY

Cops carry Lobo's body, as Anant walks beside it.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Anant stares grimly into space, switching the table lamp on and
off repeatedly.
Gets up and makes a drink.

INT.JYOTSNA'S HOSTEL - NIGHT

Anant calls Jyotsna, drunk. Tries to convince her that he's

sober but she disconnects.

INT. OUTSIDE ANANT'S APARTMENT - DAY

Jyotsna walks up to Anant's apartment, as a dead man's body is

being carried down.
He asks her to come in, but she leaves.

INT. LIBRARY. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

Anant apologises, and promises to never repeat his drunken

behaviour. She worries for him, holds his hand. He says he
wants to tell her everything about himself, and will do so soon.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Banners everywhere about "Police-Public Co-operation Week".

Montage of news items about police brutality.

INT. COLLEGE CORRIDOR - DAY

Anant calls Jyotsna to say that he's off to Agra for another
arrest in the dacoity case.
Intercut with

EXT. PUBLIC PHONE BOOTH - DAY

She asks him to remember his promise and look after himself.
INT. LIBRARY. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

Jyotsna reads an article about police brutality in a magazine.

Montage of headlines about police atrocities.

INT. LECTURE HALL - DAY

Jyotsna listens to a lecture on human rights and police

aggression.

INT. JYOTSNA'S HOSTEL - DAY

Anant calls to tell her that it is likely that he'll receive a

medal for the dacoity case.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Jyotsna asks Anant to leave the police job, saying that finally
what one does is what one becomes. Being violent in the job,
finally brutalises oneself. Anant tries to defend police's work
and argue that it's necessary for society. Says that the media
tarnishes them unjustifiably. She declares that she will never
marry a policeman. But he is still hopeful.

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Hyder reads the official notification. Instead of Anant's name,

the medal winner will be the officer from Special Branch.

EXT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

A petty thief is brought in. Anant wants him locke up for now.

INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Hyder informs Anant that he will not be getting the medal. Anant
is shocked.

EXT. PARADE GROUNDS - DAY

At a huge Republic Day ceremony, the Special Branch officer

receives the medal while Anant is passed over.

INT. POLICE LOCK-UP - NIGHT

A drunk Anant beats up the petty thief so badly that he dies.

The thief's body is placed on the stretcher.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - MORNING

Anant wakes up. The realisation of what he has done hits him
hard.

INT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY

Calls up Hyder.

Intercut with

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Hyder informs him that he's been suspended. Cannot help him any
more now, as the case is too serious.

INT. LIBRARY. JYOTSNA'S COLLEGE - DAY

Anant tells Jyotsna about it. She's shocked. Is unable to

express any solidarity with him. He is deeply regretfully.
Tells her that he never wanted to become a cop anyway. But
couldn't resist his father. Couldn't stop him when he beat his
mother. Rues his impotence in the job. Cannot bear it.
She still can't be sympathetic with him.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - DAY

Anant hangs up his uniform.

INT. RESTAURANT - DAY

Hyder advises Anant to approach Rama Shetty for help. Can be a

fair deal - Shetty helps him, Anant does some favour in return
when Shetty needs one.

EXT. ANANT'S FATHER'S HOUSE - DAY

Father is upset that Anant is in trouble like this. Is worried

about his own reputation. Resolves to go to Bombay to help him.

INT. RAMA SHETTY'S BUILDING - DAY

The lift is not working. Anant trudges up several stories to

Shetty's flat.

INT. LIVING ROOM. RAMA SHETTY'S APARTMENT - DAY

Anant requests Shetty to help him remove the suspension order and
the inquiry.
Shetty cleverly agrees to do it. But rejects Anant's offer of
cash. Wants him to be his inside man in the force, and do his
bidding. Always. Anant is outraged - Shetty wants him to be his
whore who will dance and jump on his whims. It is by far the
worst insult to Anant's dignity.
He leaps at Shetty and strangles him to death.

EXT. BOMBAY STREETS - DAY

Anant riding his mobike.

INT. ANANT'S APARTMENT - DAY

Stares at his uniform that hangs on the wall.

Switches the table lamp on and off.

EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY

Drives his bike to the cop station.

Approaches Hyder as he emerges from inside. Tells him blandly
that he has killed Rama Shetty. Freeze.

END