Why Is Kaalia Play

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2. Kaalia, 1981

Kaalia is a story about a young man named Kallu and his struggle. Kallu (played by Amitabh Bachchan) is an unemployed, laid-back younger brother to a hard working righteous man. The plot starts with a trade union of workers employed in a cloth mill having been on a strike for some time, demanding their bonus and the replacement of faulty machines. The union leader Shamu (played by Kader Khan) has foresight and is not taken in by the petty allowances the owner of the mill and villain Shahani Seth (played byAmjad Khan) offers. But the other workers are easily manipulated to accept what they were being offered, influenced by their short term need, i.e. money. The police fulfil their purpose of sycophancy with the more 'respectable' person by repeatedly, unquestioningly and unhesitatingly arresting the protagonist (Kallu/Kaalia, played by Amitabh Bachchan) every time asked to do so by Seth.
The court, too, passes judgment using cold logic and not taking into consideration the circumstances surrounding the action for which Kallu is being persecuted.
The villain, typical in every way, in keeping with the Bollywood norms, smuggles gold, is cruel without justifiable reason, is unbecomingly rich, visits brothels and mistreats the poor. Kaalu is a simpleton, unmotivated to do anything but loiter, prone to be clumsy, but pure at heart, well-meaning and innocent, he lives with and is dedicated to his family. The tragedy which provides him with the initial shove towards committing a crime is the amputation of the arms of his brother, Shamu, who needs an operation which they cannot afford. The death of his brother, and the inconsiderate and disproportionate sentence he is handed, drive him towards revenge and amassing ...

... middle of paper ...

... strays from his path becomes an antihero. This has, however, confounded solution, as we are presented with two possibilities.
⁃ such behaviour is presupposed when titling someone an anti-‘hero’.
⁃ a true antihero cannot return to become a hero. Otherwise, he was never an antihero.
The antihero is dark and mysterious. And that is what makes him work. Unravelling him has been a challenge. One sinks deeper and deeper into the quagmire that is his psychology as one tries to investigate what makes him tick.

The rise of the anti-hero as a popular culture is an ongoing one. The anti-hero’s reliability strings well with the new found trend of no ‘heroes’ movies. If one looks closely at the three selected films which were made in 1943, 1981 and, 2010, one can tell that the anti-hero develops and thrives on social change and therefore reflects on the social structure itself.

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