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Revisiting SATYA..

Lurker

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Lurker

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A leisurely weekend read. I had written this awhile back and some of you may pick who am I from this write-up. I definitely intend to pick up on my writing skills one of these days so maybe you guys are in for a lot more pain.. :hic: :hic: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- satyawp2.jpg The powerful scene comes right before the Intermission(or Interval if you prefer). Bhiku Mhatre kills the rival don Guru Narain. His coterie of Kallu Mama, Satya and lawyer Mule are heatedly discussing the impact of the killing. As Satya takes a moment away to speak with her ladylove and while Kallu Mama twirls the empty water bottle looking apprehensive of the situation, Mule sits across Bhiku and tells him... "Tu apna dhandha nahin jaanta Bhiku..Ek gaya apne dhandhe mein to sab jaayega"..... And then the background of Sandeep Chowtha hits you right in the gut... Welcome to the underbelly of Bombay underworld. Welcome to Satya. Have you ever travelled in a taxi/auto/tempo through the bylanes of a major town? At the traffic crossing you may see some lepers or beggars seeking alms. What happens at the exact moment one sees them? Pretend as if the other person doesnt exist maybe? Create a utopian world in your mind and escape from the reality maybe? That reality is SATYA. The snapshot of how things operate in underworld. No there are no angry young men a la Amitabh of yore where a person rises against system to take his "badla". There are no villain operating with 3 semi clad bimbos in a swimming pool. SATYA traces the underbelly of Bombay underworld. How gangsters are normal human beings with a wife and kids to go home to, its just another dayjob for the protagonists. There are no heroes and villains in this movie, nay the system, everyone is merely fighting for survival...and doing everything to survive. One second the gangster is ready to push a hot iron rod in the eyes of a rival gang member and within a matter of seconds he and his colleagues are talking abt how one of them is having an affair. Within a fraction of a second gang members share a joke and then shoot a rival gang member down. When you pick the newspaper and read how a gangster has been shot dead in Mumbai in an encounter, the unknown face of the fallen gangster is that of Satya... Satya is the story of a man Satya(played by Chakravarthy) who like teeming millions come to the dream city of Mumbai. A series of incidents make his transition from a simple man to someone who fights against local goons, lands in jail, picks a fight with an underworld don, Bhiku Mhatre(played by Manoj Bajpai) and makes his entry into the crime world. Bhiku takes him under his tutelage, gives him a place to live and a gun to settle scores. Satya on the other hand lends his brain and brawn to escalate Bhiku into the Mumbai underworld. In Satya's neighbourhood resides a struggling singer Vidya(Urmila). The more Satya falls in the murky underworld the more his closeness to Vidya grows till one day the two different world collides and Satya struggles to hold onto his world, whatever of the two is left of them. Riding on the hard hitting story penned by Saurabh Shukla(who also plays the role of Kallu Mama the brain of Mhatre gang) and Anuragh Kashyap, the director Ramgopal Verma takes charge in the very first scene and doesnt let his grasp go limp at any time. Its clearly a directors movie with less attention paid to foreign locales and extras swinging their hips in rain, and more towards building the characters in a realistic location. Bhiku's home is an average middle class house with kids quabbling over bread and eggs, the adda/theekana of underworld is a scanty shady place. The goons wear the tapori clothes and not designer dresses. Be it the scene within cinema hall(when Satya fires the gun in the crowd to save himself) or the fuming anguish of the honest Inspector Khandilkar(Aditya Srivastav) when his superior lay all the blame on the "lack of education". Manoj Bhajpai as Bhiku Mhatre is a revealtion. He slides easily as the dreaded goon, a dotting father, a smitten husband and someone who still have a bit of conscience left(just check how he stops, even for a split second, while killing Guru or is ready to let Satya get away from the murky waters. A hot headed man he is willing to do what it takes to get to where he wants. Manoj Bajpai slides easily into the role, his drawback perhaps only being his lack of command over the local Marathi language. Chakravarthy as SATYA is the pitch perfect selection. He hardly looks a hero but boy does he have expressive eyes. That combined with his beared appearance give him a rugged and at the same time a very vulnerable appearance. He speaks less but conveys more through his yes, even when there is no life left in them. Saurabh Shukla as Kallu Mama is the quintessential roly-poly think tank. His is a complex character. Someone who commands respect with his brain but is still capable of breaking into a dance at the drop of a hat. Someone who is willing to joke and also shoot...all within matter of seconds. Snehal Dabi as Chander is perhaps the most loving character of the movie. A young chap who loves jokes and puns he brings the much needed relief to an otherwise dark movie. Be it his "Saara Mumbai lafde mein blast ho gaya aur Satya ekdam fast ho gaya"..or his joke of a woman and her two paramour, you can't help but roll in laughter with him. The female characters in the movie are not there just to make the numbers. Urmila as Vidya is the conscience that pricks Satya. I wonder if the director intentionally thought the name as Vidya which means Knowledge/Education/Wisdom rolled in one in Hindi. Urmila has to mouth little but express a lot through her face, specially towards the end where cops question her or when Satya dies infront of her, and she is very competent in her expressions. Plus she looks gorgeous in plain sari! Shefali Chayya as Bhiku's wife is superb! I would go so far as to suggest hers is one of the best roles enacted on Hindi movie screen. She isnt the kind of woman who goes to the temple asking God to get her hubby on track, instead she is willing to kick the cops, laugh at her husband's jokes, fight with him(in public and private). She is the significant other to Bhiku in more ways than one, and her ability to slide into Marathi at the right time makes her seem so very real. SATYA is hardly the kind of movie where there is scope of songs and dances. Still it has some good songs. "Goli maaro bheje mein" is an apt song for tapori goondalog celebrating(and I can only awe in admiration as to how someone like Gulzaar saab can write a complete Mumbaiya tapori gaana), "Badalon se" and "Tu mere paas bhi hai" are soft and melodious though I am not sure what Gulzaar saab meant in "Geela Geela Paani"..I mean is there any other variety? There is also the song "Sapne mein milti hai", a perennial rage in marriage function for many years. As good as these songs were the highlight was the dance of the protagonists. You can roll in laughter but without a shade of doubt more men in this world dance like a Bhiku or a Chander or a Kalloo Mama than what we see our heroes routinely dish out. I saw SATYA almost a decade ago in Bombay(around 1998). I remember coming out of Jaya Talkies in Borivali. Asked my friends to take an auto while I preferred to walk and think to myself. It was raining a bit. I remember walking on an overbridge, then deciding to just sit on the bridge for a while, my legs dangling on the edge. As trains ran fast under them I wondered if there was something that director wanted to say and it didnt relate to underworld? I wondred if SATYA(truth in Hindi) can get tainted depending on in which hands it lands into! I wondered if SATYA (truth) seeks Vidya (knowledge/education/wisdom) and sometimes even dies for it. I wondered if it takes Vidya(education) to prick the conscience of Satya(truth). I still dont have an answer..........

Gambit Community Regular

Gambit

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Re: Revisiting SATYA.. Ahh! I know who you are. It's great to have you here! Coming back to the thread, extremely well written. This movie is one of my all time favourites. Another superlative performer in this movie was Paresh Rawal. An extremely restrained and powerful performance as the Commissioner. And the star of the show was undoubtedly, Manoj Bajpai. :hail:

shailesh Newbie

shailesh

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Re: Revisiting SATYA.. one of my all time favorite movies, now a days it's hard to believe that it was made, directed by RGV :hic: still remeber the dialogues "Karna hai..to karna hai" - Bhiku to Satya in van "A Bhai banneka tereko?" - Bhiku in jail "A Amitabh Bachchan.." - Bhiku to Satya in jail "Mumbai ka king kaun..Bhiku Mhatre" - Bhiku

jaggadaku Newbie

jaggadaku

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Gangsters movies of 80's and 90's were absolutely disgraceful, the trend was changed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra with Parinda but RGV took it to another level with Satya

Rajiv Collaborator

Rajiv

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Watched it again today, this has to be the most perfect gangsta movie. The Scene b4 the interval " Bhku, tu apne dhande ko smjha hi nahin, ek gaya abi sab jayenge" and the scene where he is trapped in the theatre. The first time my friend dagged me to watch this film and we couldn't find tickets but in desperation we went to this shady theatre to watch it, that place was filled with bhais This song too is class aFN_VFuLegY

Yoda-esque Newbie

Yoda-esque

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^Agree. When I first saw this film, I was stunned by its force and characterization. Truly path-breaking film that kick-started the gangster genre in Bollywood. Good review by the OP.Shefali Chhaya is such an underrated actor.

Temujin Khaghan Newbie

Temujin Khaghan

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A lot of the dialogue was improvised on the sets... even the scene when satya cuts a guy on the cheek, the scene should have been cut immediately but the guy continued screaming and it turned out pretty good actually. i read this in anurag kashyap's blog i think. he was the dialogue writer for that film.

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