Review of Party (1984) by Rajat U — 03 Jan 2017

Featuring a distinguished ensemble cast, Govind Nihalani's masterpiece exposes the hypocrisy and moral depravity of our self-serving cultural elite, who during the course of the movie, assemble dutifully for a socialite's party.

Dependent upon the State for awards and honours, and cocooned within the confines of their Pali Hill bungalows, this group of playwrights and authors have become an aesthetic mouthpiece for the establishment.

All, except a firebrand poet who's missing and is supposed to have become a political activist in the jungles of Andhra. The movie explores the conjoined relationship of art and politics, and whether art can exist independently outside of politics, a subject that's become even more relevant now, when mainstream culture in India has become a subordinate spokesperson for consumerism and has lost all touch with the inconvenient ground reality.