Satyamev Jayate Season 2 / Reality check

Aamir Khan hosting the second season of Satyamev Jayate

By Dhwani Mody

All those who believe in putting their thoughts into action, will relate with Season 2 of Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Mr. Perfectionist, Aamir Khan. Like the last Season, this time too, the show focusses on bringing to the fore, hard hitting realities of our country. It aims to provoke the common man to wake up from their somnolence and act.
Conceived with the sole agenda of creating awareness on various social and political issues that have plagued the country, this season has just five episodes, four of which have already been aired. The first one spoke about the trauma that a rape victim goes through. The research team has done a commendable job focusing on various factors, talking about the loopholes in the law, the delay and sometimes even medical aid being denied to the victim in government hospitals and the humiliation faced by the victim and their family. The episode, while throwing light on harsh realities, turned out to be a real tearjerker.
The second episode, dealt with the constabulary. It strove to break the notion prevalent amongst the common man that the police is corrupt and does not work for the aam janta. The reality from what IPS officer Abhinav Kumar revealed during the two hour show is different. He categorically mentioned the immense pressure and the apathetic working and living conditions, which lowers the morale of the force. But, retired IPS officer Prakash Singh had a different story to tell. He confessed that the police in the country are mere puppets in the hands of those in power, and are under immense pressure to follow their diktats, rather than protect the common man. While, the first episode on rape merely aimed at giving information and talking about the loopholes in the law which allow the culprit to escape, it provided little solution to fast track the judgement in such cases and provide trauma care to the victims. In the second episode, though, the solution provided by Khan sounds too simplistic, with people just walking upto the police and asking them to be more polite and helpful is hardly going to resolve the problem.
While, one cannot doubt the intention of the show, in raising awareness about the various problems that confront us, the solutions remain elusive.

Verdict : A good reality check on a Sunday. Caution —keep a tissue box handy, while watching it.