walk the talk

walk the talk.

does anybody remember the movie Satyakam?!.

released somewhere in the late or mid sixties. it was a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film staring Dharamendra, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjeev Kumar, and Ashok Kumar.

Its a tale of an idealist's loosing battle in a practical world.

Dharamendra is the idealist who zealously values honesty, integrity and truthfulness, even in the face of deepest temptations and bleakest hardships. These values had been instilled in him by his grandfather, Ashok Kumar, who himself is shown to be a towering personality.

Dharamendra,an engineer by profession (and also the topper in his batch), who refuses to compromise, come what may, ends up, fighting a lonely and increasingly bitter battle against a corrupt system, to the determent of his own career, and personal life...so much so, that at one stage, the movie shows his batch mate and best friend comes to work in his office as HIS boss.

his trysts by fire, includes situations where he rescues Sharmila Tagore, a woman of dubious parentage, also the keep of his boss, from her hellhole,to give her the respectability of a wife.

that he also loved her, is shown in a scene, where she, sadly, tells him of how their marital relationship was marred by the shadow of his ex-boss, who was the father of their son..dharamendra, in total honesty, tells her, u know i love u( ie it was not just duty that made me marry u), and she again in totally honesty say, yes i know that..which is why i often wish i could come back to u with a new body, and start on a clean slate...it was a rare husband wife relationship, that had no masks.

In fact, it is here that the towering personality of Ashok Kumar, is shown to have clay feet. He is simply not able to accept the lowliness of his grandson's wife and disowns them. He could not WALK THE TALK.

another scene, which shows a discussion Dharam has with sanjeev kumar, who asks him the wisdom of not signing the bills of the contractor, cause the workers were not paid..its not ur battle, its their battle, why are u fighting their battle?, and here is where it shows Dharam walk the talk...how so ever the courts of india may be free and lawful,he says, the sheer time taken for justice renders it useless for the workers. knowing that, if i don't do it,then i'm just being technically honest, not really honest.

another scene i remember till date, is when sharmila discusses Dharam's despair fighting against the system with Sanjeev Kumar, he is like 24 carrot gold,so pure, that he is useless, cause he cannot be ornamented. Total purity has no value in the mundane world.

the one scene which shows, triumph of his values, (and love), is when he is dying in hospital of cancer, and his last temptation to buckle to the pressure to sign the bills..(.sharmila gives him an ultimatum to stop being selfish and think about their future too) so that his widow and child could have a secure future..he signs the bills, all the while sure(thats what i wud like to think) that his better half would save him from falling from his ideals...which she does, when she tears the bills away, letting him keep his ideal one more time.

the story does not end there.

the story ends, when ashok kumar who doesnt allow dharamendr's son to do any of the rituals associated with the funeral, cause he is not his son, and everybody wondering why?, and then the child boldly proclaims to the world,. cause im not his son...my mom told me this, my mom never lies..which is when Ashok Kumar, realises that HE is Dharam's son,not by virtue of being his biological son, but by virtue of effortless carrying the flag of honesty.

i really know know how the movie fared at the box office when it released, and how many people wud have liked the movie, but this is a movie close to my heart.