Arohan (film)

Arohan The Ascent is 1982 Hindi film by Shyam Benegal, starring Victor Banerjee and Om Puri in the lead roles.

Over time, as the communist movement gets stronger in the region, Hari Mandal keeps on getting oppressed under whims and fancies of the Jotdar, that include making him a paid labourer on his own plot of land and sacking his brother from working with him. Bolai is disgusted with the village life and moves to the big city of Calcutta for work. Here, he joins a small time racket of wagon breakers and eventually becomes a political goon for the citys electoral candidates. Panchi and her mother both move to Calcutta with help from strangers who offer them employment. While Kalidashi gets employed in a middleclass home as the cook cum servant for a meagre salary, her daughter is trapped with the bait of fancy clothes by a pimp employed by a middle aged Marwari businessmanSeth ji who makes her his mistress. Panchi also seems to enjoy her new life and the luxuries of cosmetics, silk sarees and a huge bed to sleep on. In a poignant scene, before bedding her for the first time, Seth ji asks her whether she has ever slept on a bed before.Hari fights his battles alone against the Jotdar and eventually registers a case against him in the district court with help from sympathetic village master Pankaj Kapoor and a lawyer who fights his case for free. Although the district magistrate Jayant Kripalani is sympathetic and just in his dealing to his cause, the Jotdar uses his muscle to beat up Hari, burn down his house and take away his bullocks thus leaving him helpless to fight. Hari presses on and the case reaches the High Court where his case is dismissed in favour of the Jotdar. Meanwhile the first leftist communist government is established in Bengal and after years of court battle and a Panchayat election where Hari defeats Karmakar to become the village Panch, finally he receives his Bargadari certificateat the cost of a broken leg, a house, and a brother who is lost forever. Hari comes to look for Bolai in the great metropolis of Calcutta and searches for him fruitlessly bef

Source: Wikipedia