1980 Film Aakrosh

Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Amrish Puri in pivotal roles, the film was released to widely positive reviews, winning the Golden Peacock (Best Film) at the 8th International Film Festival of India, as well as the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and several other honors.

Aakrosh
Directed by	Govind Nihalani
Written by	Vijay Tendulkar
Produced by	Devi Dutt NFDC
Starring	Naseeruddin Shah Smita Patil Amrish Puri Om Puri
Cinematography	Govind Nihalani
Edited by	Keshav Naidu
Music by	Ajit Varman
Distributed by	Krsna Movies Enterprise
Release date	1980 (1980)
Running time	144 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹0.80 crore (equivalent to ₹19 crore or US$2.3 million in 2023)
Box office	₹1.22 crore (equivalent to ₹28 crore or US$3.5 million in 2023)

Nihalani went on to be known for his dark and frighteningly real depictions of human angst in other landmark alternative films such as Ardh Satya and Tamas. Aakrosh is listed among the 60 films that shaped the Indian film industry over a period of six decades.

The story follows a peasant who faces oppression from landowners and foremen while working as a daily laborer to make ends meet. His wife (Smita Patil), is raped by the foreman, who then frames him for a crime he did not commit. Overwhelmed by shame, his wife commits suicide.

Following his father's death, the police escort him to the funeral grounds in restraints to perform the last rites. As he stands by the burning funeral pyre, he notices the foreman casting lustful glances at his prepubescent sister. Anticipating her inevitable fate as a perpetual victim, he seizes an axe and beheads his sister to prevent her from suffering as he and his wife did. In the aftermath of this desperate and tragic act, the downtrodden man screams repeatedly into the sky.

Allegedly based on a true incident reported on page 7 of a local newspaper, the film was a scathing satire on the corruption in the judicial system and the victimization of the underprivileged by the able and the powerful.

Aakrosh forms a part of the series of works, based around explorations in violence, written by noted playwright Vijay Tendulkar, who had earlier written Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1974) and went on to write Govind Nihalani's next surprise breakaway hit, Ardh Satya (1983).

Here the victim is shown so traumatized by excessive oppression and violation of his humanity, that he does not utter a single word almost for the length of the film and only bears a stunned look, though later he uses the same violence as a tool to express his own sense of violation and rage.

At the end of the film we hear the victim's voice for the second time (the first is in a flashback, as he vainly attempts to rescue his wife), which is a device similar to Andrei Tarkovsky's showing of the icons in brilliant color at the end of his three-hour black-and-white film Andrei Rublev.

• Naseeruddin Shah as Bhaskar Kulkarni, Lawyer
• Om Puri as Lahanya Bhiku
• Smita Patil as Nagi Bhiku
• Amrish Puri as Dusane, Public Prosecutor
• Mohan Agashe as Bhonsle, chairman, Zilla Parishad
• Mahesh Elkunchwar as Social worker
• Nana Palsikar as Bhiku's father
• Achyut Potdar as More, forest contractor
• Deepak Shirke as ruffian
• Bhagyashree Kotnis as Bhiku's sister
• Reema Lagoo as lavni dancer
• Arvind Deshpande as Dr Vasant M. Patil

1. "Kanha Re" - Vandana Khandekar - 7.33, Music : Ajit Varman, Lyrics : Vasant Deo
2. "Sanson Mein Dard" - Madhuri Purandare - 5.44, Music: Ajit Varman, Lyrics: Suryabhanu Gupta
3. "Tu Aisa Kaisa Mard" - Madhuri Purandare - 3.10, Music: Ajit Varman, Lyrics: Vasant Deo

• The songs are sung by Madhuri Purandare who is daughter of renowned historian Shri Babasaheb Purandare.

• The movie is shot in Alibaug town in Raigad district of Maharashtra.

• Aakrosh at IMDb  
• An insightful study of the film, Aakrosh
• A Movie Review