Indian cinema is not only tons of songs, fights, love sequences, and cliché dialogues; there exists realistic, parallel cinema too.

Nothing has fundamentally changed from the Stone Age to the internet age in terms of the underlying philosophy of life. Lessons can be learned from any era. Development and technology march forward, but the core human experience remains unchanged.

The struggle to survive and humanity's inner kashmakash to solve day-to-day problems remain identical.

Current, though set in the '90s and woven around a simple story of a farmer struggling to pay his electricity bill before the power board cuts off electricity to his borewell pump set, teaches many lessons and displays the true colors of the festival we call life.

The movie starts with no exaggerated drama or grand hero entrances. It opens simply with the core subject itself: a farming family working their land and the central focus of the film—the pump set.

The characters are developed steadily, drawing viewers into the narrative almost imperceptibly.

Om Puri, a complete actor in every sense, portrays the hardworking farmer and caring husband with deep authenticity. Deepti Naval, as always, plays the farmer's wife with pinpoint perfection.

Shot in Gujarat around Surat, the film depicts the real life of sugarcane farmers and the bureaucracy of government electricity boards. The screenplay is remarkably smart, constantly reinforcing the central theme of electricity by including electrical infrastructure in almost every scene—transmission lines, poles, towers, transformers, and wiring. Observing this visual motif adds an extra layer of appreciation for the craft.

The screenplay also excels in capturing rural details: rides in local buses, bureaucratic red tape, corruption, Ji-Hujuri, and political rallies. Scenes explaining sugarcane farming's link to local politics, or a clerk explaining how a farmer's payment travels endlessly from one desk to another, are brilliantly executed.

The narrative grows increasingly intense as Velu's (Om Puri) power is cut off due to non-payment. His pump stalls, cutting off water to his crops. He travels to the city every Monday trying to pay his bill, only to fail repeatedly due to systemic inefficiencies.

In desperation, Velu tries watering his field manually using pots, only to collapse from exhaustion. The fear of losing his entire crop creates immense tension. When he recovers and tries paying again, the collection center is closed because a local politician is visiting the area—a scene that sharply captures political rallies, bussing in crowd members, and empty speechmaking.

Until the final minutes, you wonder how the struggle will resolve as all hope seems lost, until suddenly the pump set gushes water once again.

To experience how this journey unfolds, I highly recommend watching this gem yourself.

Happy cinema!