Murda insaan (Dead Man)
Abhi taaza taaza mare, abhi uth ke chal diye (A dead man just got up and left)
This satirical dialogue from Kagaaz, which stars Pankaj Tripathi, was once the reality of Uttar Pradesh-based farmer Lal Bihari Mritak’s life. The film is based on Bihari, who was declared “dead” in the revenue records from 1976 to 1994. He fought a “posthumous” battle against the system and unscrupulous relatives for 18 years to prove that he was, indeed, alive.
At the age of 22, Bihari, a resident of Azamgarh district, learned that his uncle had declared him dead after bribing the local official in order to inherit the family’s ancestral farmland.
“All it took was a bribe of Rs 300 for my uncle to usurp property, and a government official, who was once my friend, to join the enemy camp,” Bihari, now 64, tells The Better India.
Upon realising how easy it was for anyone to take advantage of the legal system and rob someone of their identity using just a piece of…