Mirza watched the faces around him. The contractor's men were careful to pass by him without a glance. But as villagers talked of wages and work, an older man—Kasim, who had watched Mirza grow and whose face had mapped the same years—approached.

This neo-noir thriller directed by remains a cult classic and is frequently cited as one of the best suspense films in Bollywood.

Gaddar revolutionized protest art. He took the traditional folk form of Oggu Katha (a narrative ballad sung by the Mala community) and injected it with revolutionary ideology. He replaced temple deities with portraits of Che Guevara and Karl Marx.

He used folk music to speak for the oppressed, originally supporting the Naxalite movement before embracing Ambedkarite ideology.

For the government of the time, this song was a "red alert." Gaddar was labeled a Gaddar (traitor) by the state for inciting rebellion through cultural performance.