MUMBAI: Writer and director YP Singh, an ex-IPS cadre cop and a lawyer, gives a lecture on the formula of cinema to a bunch of critics before he shows them his maiden venture, Kya Yahi Sach Hai: a good film is one, "which starts where it ends (!); involves you emotionally and makes you cry; You identify with the story and; you want to watch it again," he believes. This is the gist, though educating critics on the subject of what a film should be is not the wisest thing to do; especially if your own film conforms to nothing of what you believe in and impart.
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Producer: Pushpa Singh. |
Kya Yahi Sach Hai is based on YP Singh‘s book, Carnage By Angels, published in 2003. It is about his encounters with the corrupt system as an honest police man. Rajiv Ruda is a freshly graduated IPS officer, who, after hearing an anecdote about how one of his subordinate constables turned honest following a tragic incident, decides to follow the same path and never misuse his position. His honest ways create hurdles for him all the way, shunting him from one posting to another while his seniors and the politicians whom they patronise perpetuate crimes and frauds at random. In a symbolic last scene, he is dismissed and stares at an uncertain future while, at the same time, his corrupt senior is being decorated with the highest honour a policeman can get, the President‘s Medal.
The story has been told in many Hindi commercial movies and that too more dramatically. Here, the first time writer and director takes a long winding route, meandering along and focusing on small details; the hero is such a Mr Clean, he does not even raise a hand on culprits, delegating that to others! Performances by mostly new faces is rank amateur even as one odd character here and there does try to stand out with loud gestures and over acting. Songs can be dispensed with except, maybe, the theme song.
Kya Yahi Sach Hai is a 2 hour 30 minutes of rigorous punishment.
