Satya- A Decade Later
iView Author: Ratnakar Sadasyula (Bhubaneshwar, India)
Email: ratnakar.techie [at] gmail [dot] com
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Satya- A Decade Later
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Ten years back in a stuffy theater, in Vizag, I caught my first glimpse of a movie. It was a movie that was so violent, so realistic and so gritty, that it left me speechless. Stunned that some one in Bollywood could come up with such a movie, when NRI romances were the order of the day. But then considering the man behind the movie, I was not surprised. He had already created an impact with Shiva way back in 1989, and now he was here again redefining the gangster genre. The movie of course I am referring to is Satya, and the man was Ram Gopal Verma. It has been a decade since the movie was released, but my love affair with it, continues to date. And yes it is the sole reason, why I have never given up on RGV, inspite of RGV ki Aag or Contract. Well first things first this is not a review on Satya, this is just some views of mine on the movie.
And that begins the fundamental question, Does Satya encourage people to become gangsters? as alleged by some people and critics. Honestly I don’t feel that way. At least I would never have been motivated to be a gangster, watching the way Satya dies in the end. Pleading with his girl friend Vidya to listen to him, and being shot repeatedly, as he crawls to her. Not a very heroic death for sure. Nor do the other gangsters fare better, Bhiku Mhatre gets a bullet straight in his head from Bhau, one shot, while Bhau himself is shot at close range. Basically I don’t think Ramu here has any intent to show the gangsters as heroes and the cops as villains or jokers, unlike the standard gangster movies of that time. He just stuck a mirror into the underworld, and let us see it for ourselves. There are no heroes, no villains here, just people caught up in a deadly battle.
For me Satya was more a mirror into the underworld. To add to the realistic touch, Ramu juxtaposed some real life elements like the murder of Gulshan Kumar, the gang wars in Mumbai during the 80’s, the relation between politics and underworld through Bhau’s character. While many have alluded Bhau’s character to Bal Thackeray, for me it seemed more close to Arun Gawli.
They say that sometimes it is not the seen, but the unseen that is more frightening. Take the scene, when Inspector Khandilkar is interrogating, a suspect in the murder of the music baron. He keeps questioning him casually, asking him “supari kisne di?”. The suspect refuses to answer, and keeps swearing and muttering under his breath. Khandilkar notices that the suspect, has an injury on his leg, while he was trying to flee him earlier. He is coolly talking, and interrogating. And all of a sudden, he brings his lathi right down on the wound of the suspect. No shots of the lathi touching the wound, or blood oozing out, but a blood curdling scream from the suspect ” Bhiku Mhatre”. We don’t witness the actual violence, it is more imagined, but Ramu builds it up in such a way, that makes us flinch in our seats. Trust me I did for sure, and this inspite of sitting through many gruesome flicks. Satya had many brilliant scenes, but this would be my favorite scene in the movie.
One of the biggest standouts in Satya for me was the characterization. This was one of those movies, where every character fitted in perfectly like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. But if we take the titular character itself, it represented a radical departure from previous gangster flicks. Unlike Deewar or Parinda, he does not take to crime to support his brother or avenge the insult to his mother by society. Unlike Nayakan or Agneepath, he is not a Robin Hood kinda figure too. In fact nothing is known at all about Satya’s background, he is just one of those unnamed, faceless persons, who arrive into Mumbai daily, seeking to make a living or fortune. He becomes a gangster just to survive, and once he gets into it, he seems to love it. He uses his girl friend Vidya and plays along with her. He has no qualms about causing a stampede in a theater to escape from the cops. When Kamal dies in Nayakan, we feel a tinge of remorse for him, he is mourned by every one. In sharp contrast when Satya, dies, we rarely feel much, its as if the audience was knowing that this would be happening soon.
Apart from Satya, the other character that stands out in the movie is Bhiku Mhatre, who turns out to be the real hero of the movie. In a way Bhiku is akin to Tuco in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Both Tuco and Bhiku are total hot heads, who shoot first and rarely think. Honestly it is difficult to make out whether they are good, bad or plain crazy. But yet they are the kind of characters, whom the audience end up rooting for. They are the ones who bring that energy and vitality into the movie. Where Satya is thoughtful, introverted, Bhiku is extroverted and a total hot head. When he proclaims aloud, “Mumbai ka King Kaun, Bhiku Mhatre”, you are almost tempted to do a seeti maar. As also Bhiku’s love hate relationship with his wife, Pyaari. Manoj Bajpai was supremely awesome in that role, with his expressions and his maniacal laughter. If The Good, The Bad and Ugly were to be made in Hindi, no doubt about who would perfectly fit into Tuco’s character.
And apart from Satya and Bhiku Mhatre, the movie also boasts of other memorable characters. Kallu Mama, the pot bellied, balding advisor, played with total panache by Saurabh Shukla, who along with Anurag Kashyap, wrote one of the best scripts ever in Hindi cinema. The sleazy lawyer Chandrakant Mule played by Makarand Deshpande, is totally realistic, down to the mannerisms and unkempt get up. Snehal Dabi as Chander, the fun loving gang member, who is shot dead in a police encounter. Govind Namdeo, is pretty much menacing, Bhau, the ruthless politician. Satya however does not tend to make the cops look like caricatures. Both Paresh Rawal’s Amol Shukla and Aditya Srivastava’s Inspector Khandilkar, are like real time cops, ruthless and efficient. The cops are not shown as mean villains, just people doing their job and taking the rap for it. As Paresh exclaims in a scene, “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t”.
The triump however is in the grittily realistic environment of the movie. Ramu depicts Mumbai’s sleazy underbelly in such a realistic manner, that you could almost smell it. When I saw it for the first time, I recall the scene, where the music baron is assassinated, and the hit men flee the cops. The way the camera tracks into the narrow lanes, the crowded homes, the pouring rain, was just so realistic, that I felt myself somewhere in those lanes. The camera work was exemplary in the movie. As also Sandeep Chowta’s background score for the movie. It was in the action scenes that Satya would be a trendsetter in a way. No car chases, nor elaborate gun fights nor long drawn fights. The shootout scenes are picturized in a totally abrupt manner, and the gun shots were totally real, not the standard “dichkoom” sound, we were used to hearing. The scene where most of the gang members are shot dead by the cops, was shot in a totally realistic way, with zoom angles and tracking shots.
Some glitches in an otherwise perfect movie, the romance between Satya and Vidya, was pretty vapid for me. Matter of fact Vidya seemed a totally bland character, naïve and clueless. And her paralyzed father, was a total caricature. Also the songs were good, but barring the “Goli Maar Bheje Mein” and “Sapne Mein Milti Hain”, most of the others seemed pretty forced to me. But would rate this still as one of Vishal’s best scores.
10 years down the line, a lot has changed. Realism is more in, Chakravarthy latest directorial flick Homam is a rip off of the departed, Urmi nowadays seems to be busy with totally B Stuff. But the saddest is that of Manoj Bajpayee, reduced to playing meaningless roles in crap movies like Money Hai to Honey Hai. And that is an irony, considering there are more movies nowadays where Manoj’s talent could be put to use. I sorely missed Manoj in Shaurya, where he would put in a much better performance than the vastly overrated Rahul Bose. Aditya Shrivastava made an impact recently in Black Friday as Badshah Khan. And 10 years down the line, I would forever remember Satya, Bhiku Mhatre, Kallu Mama, Bhau, Mule, Khandilkar, Chander. Thank you Ramu, Anurag, Saurabh and co, for giving us a movie, that would always be memorable.
Filed Under
Movies, PROJEKT iVIEW, Review, Thoughts , Anurag Kashyap, Chakravarthy, Govind Namdev, Sandeep Chowta, Satya. RGV, Saurabh Shukla, Urmila. Manoj Bajpai, Vishal Bhardwaj
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Thank you for this post.Truly Satya was a trend setter in many ways.We all love Ram Gopal Verma for sure even if we do not admit it nowadays.Whatever films he may do now we cannot deny he completely changed the way films are made in Mumbai.
Nice writeup. Almost nostalgic. I saw SATYA in Plaza at Dadar. The very tone of the movie was a huge surprise. And it was an unforgetteable experience to watch the film with a Mumbaiya audience who identified with every frame and did not hesitate to whistle and clap every few minutes. I especially remember the hysterical, appreciative roar that went up among the public at the line ‘Lekin item bhari hai’. I had never heard such lines spoken in Hindi movies before. I also loved the way Ramu picturised the Mumbai rain, accentuating the melancholiness rather than the beauty.
After SATYA redefined cinematic reality, even PARINDA started looking filmi. Has off to Ramu..
Ramu is forgiven ten ‘Contract’s and even an odd RGV Ki Aag because he once upon a time made ‘Satya’. No film of his is ever likely to come close. But ‘Satya’ alone has assured Ramu’s place in Bollywood Hall of Fame.
nostalgic post …i saw it from the first row of Rahul theater Pune ….one of the best movies of last decade and probably the best ever gangster flick ….
nice writeup…
i dont think Bhau’s character had anuthing to do with arun gawli…gawli joined politics in the Last lok sabha elections…when satya released he wasnt newhere close to politics..maybe now u could relate him to bhau….
Also i feel Bhiku matre’s character was somewhat closer to arun gawli…..
i saw this movie at a theatre called Ganesh in lalbaug,Mumbai.
It was a perfect place to watch the movie but i wasnt of the perfect age…i was 12…..but thankfully no one stopped me…..
Satya was the first realistic movie i saw…but back then everything shown on the screen was realistic for me…..
neverheless it had a huge impact……
and i dont think that u dont feel for satya..
infact u do feel for him..not as much as for Bhiku or Chandar..but u do…….and i dont think he uses Vidya……he loves her…as simple as that…
Wow its been 10 years huh…feels like yesterday.
Well maybe because last time I watched Satya, it was the day before yesterday. Came back from work with a mild fever and feeling dejected. The economy is in a bad shape etc etc. I watch satya when I am sad,I watch it when i am happy. A few hundred times in VCD ( till it gave in), another hundred or so in DVD (I have a backup DVD too) and about 10 times in the movies.
A lot has changed since the summer of 1998.
It was a hot summer afternoon in Calcutta, I was unemployed, trying to set up a business and being taken for a ride at every instance. The girl I was dating realized I will never be tycoon and stepped up her search for a tycoon, the business was going down to the grounds, life could not have been worse.
Those were the days when Indian cinema was north Indian wedding videos. Saved me a lot of money since I never bothered to go to the movies.I saw this weird poster, apart from Urmilla there was (maybe..i might be wrong) Paresh Rawal and some weird looking bearded guys that I have never seen before. I decided to take a chance, “hey atleast it doesnt look like Dil DIl whatever”. I had no expectations from that movie. I walked in,(at least its a relief from the heat outside).
I came out at the interval, bought 2 tickets for the evening show and called my best friend to come and watch the next show.
Its 10 years down the line. That girlfriend has found her tycoon, is happily married with 2 kids and hopefully more to come. I live in the US with a fairly decent middle class life, a nice wife and as my wallet got thicker, the hair got thinner. I still watch Satya atleast once every week.
The greatness of a film is when you watch it repeatedly and each time discover something new. I have discovered words, sound bytes,new angles, an out of focus junior artist in the background and lots of other things.
Satya has coined new words and phrases that are now accepted in everyday Hindi slang :”Item Bahut Bhari Hai” is one of them, theres a lot more. I know and refer to Snehal Dave by Chander, Ashutosh Srivastava by Khandelkar and I have heard that Chakravarty is now known as Satya Chakravarty.
I don’t care if Ramu makes a Sholay part 2 or a Deewaar part 25 but for those who like his work, know which one is going to be good. I watched Satya - Kaun - Road - Company - Sarkar and nothing in between or after. I dont bother.
Masterpieces are never intentional and happen by accident. Ramu, Anurag, Sandeep Chowta, the actors, cameramen, the technicians etc had all got together by a string of fate. Or for the believers ” God wanted a masterpiece called Satya to be made”.
Recently I watched Aamir, A wednesday, and Mithya. Everytime I watch these small budget movies with unknown faces that make sense,and also get accepted by the mass,I feel that it is all possible now because 10 years back someone called Ram Gopal Varma had dared to make Satya.
Satya lives on, in my heart and everyone else’s.
Abhra Mukherjee
When i look back at SATYA ,i feel the freshness of RGV
@ Ratna, yes, ni chases and fights.. It won our hearts. Been 10 years pheew and whatever seems to be wrong with the man!!! He won’t get another Anurag for sure EVER.
@ Abhra, THAT’S quite something there..
1998.
While Satya and Kuch kuch Hota Hai were poles apart, and the former still was lapped by masses (in a different sense), one film that was somewhere mid-way between two in terms of tone, pace Dil Se was rejected. Tch! almost prompts me to revisit it yet another time
hmmm, 10 years went by so quickly.
“The way the camera tracks into the narrow lanes, the crowded homes, the pouring rain, was just so realistic, that I felt myself somewhere in those lanes” Ratnakar, thank Mazhar Kamran and Gerard Hooper for that. Mazhar Kamran was brilliant in Kaun as well.
cant help it Oxy. there are some things in life that brings out the poet in a kasai (hows that for analogy..) Satya is one of those things.
awesome movie no doubt…I managed to watch it only recently…Bhikhu matre didnt win an award for manoj bajpayee is a matter of great shame…among all these brilliant aspects,gulzar Sir’s lyrics also deserves a mention…”goli maar bheje mein” was asked to be replaced by some other song but Gulzar Sir persisited with it…and rest is history…similarly “sapne mein milti hai” looks so much like a song being played in the party of a gangster…everything about this movie is so much real…another standout factor which many here missed was the conversation that Paresh Rawal has with Mantri ji…when he is asked to take some action,he says…”exactly but what kind of action” RGV rocked…hope he can recreate that magic again
It was the best film ever in Bollywood and had been watching it almost every month.
How the hell cud u 4get Shefali Shah? She was so amazingly versatile in the movie.
@ Anindya: I still am an admirer of Ramu, can’t give up on a man, who made Satya or Kaun.
@ Sanjeev: Yes, actually the credit to Ramu, when he went on his own, at a time, when conformity was the order of the day. Satya’s dialog was coarse, raw and witty. I first saw the Telugu version, and then i hunted down for the Hindi version, just to experience that Mumbaiyya lingo effect. Ramu does not deserve a hats off, he deserves a salute, IMHO.
@ Prasad: I can forgive Ramu for the Contracts, Shiva-2006 and Aags, for just Satya, and not to forget Kaun or Shiva or Rangeela.
@ Anand: Well me also saw it in front row. As far as Indian gangster movies, this is the BEST. No second thoughts on it.
@ Ashwin: Well i did feel, Bhau was akin to Arun Gawli, so u saw it at 12, quite a brave decision i would say. Well to each his own, but honestly never felt much for Satya’s character.
@ Abhra: Dada, ye to ho gayi ek kasai ki kavita, LOL. Well looks like your life story is same as mine. I was not exactly unemployed, but still a struggler with dreams in my eyes. The girl i was dating had left me long time back, and honestly i was not even interested in dating any one,which was good in a way. In fact don’t even have any clue where she is. Honestly i was pretty much tired of the “Pyaar, Dosti, Ishq,Mohabbat” fundas and decided to skip em, one Dil to Paagal Hai was enough for me. Well but i was waiting for Satya, as thanks to Shiva, Rangeela, and a host of movies in Telugu, i was a big time fan of RGV, and i would just walk into any movie, which had his name. And for me Chakri was a familiar face in Telugu.
Right now i am a married man too like you, with 2 daughters, an IT professional, well settled in life. But i still never stop viewing Satya.
But yes today when every one is rejoicing over movies like Mithya, Wednesday, Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan doing well, give it to Ramu, who dared to go realistic, when it was not the order of the day.
i like this dialogue most
jail scene, confrontation between satay and bhikhu
and bhikhu says - “ae, amitabh bachcchan”
I know this may sound blasphemous but I haven’t watched Satya till date. When ever I have actually got the chance to see it there has been some interruption or the other.
And I have never got the urge to get the DVD and see it / or whenever it comes on TV. No clue when I’ll see it.
Very nice post. Ten years have passed, but I still remember the day when I watched Satya (don’t we all?).
I wrote a post on Satya several months ago, here’s the link: http://vishal12.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/satya/
I listed some of my fav scenes from the movie, but after reading your post, I realize that I missed one of the best (i.e. the interrogation scene).
I disagree with only one thing (in your post) though. I did feel sorry for the dying Satya. I don not think that the director wanted the audience to be apathetic to Satya’s fate. As the epilogue of the movie reads: “My tears to Satya, as well as for those whom he killed.” And… Vidya’s character did not come across as weak to me as you mentioned.
@ Arthi : You have not watched Satya !!!!! Do get a DVD with immediate effect, and watch it. Tv pe mat dekhna. They will put it in some late night show, and spoil the tempo with irritating ads.
@ Vishal: Good post there on Satya, well as much as i do like Parinda, IMHO, Satya is the No 1 Gangster flick of Bollywood to date. It is one of those movies, which could never be replicated, just for its sheer nihilism. Well regarding Vidya’s character, i still feel it was somewhat weak. And Ms.Matondkar’s fluttering eyelashes did not help either, but as they say Andaz Apna Apna.
@ Santosh: Shoot me , but somehow never liked Dil Se. i still think it is one of Mani’s weaker movies, nowhere close to a Nayakan or an Iruvar. And yeah regarding that wanted to mentioned Gerard Hooper in the post.
@ Sajal: Somehow i felt mightily pissed off, when i saw Salman Khan get the award over Manoj Bajpai. What the fuck? And that for a role in KKHH, which could have been done by Atul Agnihotri or Avinash Wadhwan or Sumit Saigal. Regarding “Goli Maar” and “Sapne Mein Milti Hai”, they were pretty popular dance numbers for quite a long time.
Ratnakar,
Great post! Got all nostalgic man. Satya is a mind-blowing movie, RGV’s best (or maybe second best after Company). I saw it in Star Movies and loved it despite all the ad interruptions.
As for Manoj Bajpai not getting a Filmfare award, who cares! Filmare award lacks credibility. Kunal Kohli won the best director award for Hum Tum few years back! Yashraj, Karan Johar and SRK gangs routinely get these awards year after year. Hope RGV makes another Satya.
I saw it in Shahkar Cinema ( Chembur Mumbai- dont know if u guys r ware but that loclaity is know for its own set of Bhaigiri/Bhailog da MOB),,,n to accompany me was agood friend who was obliviuos of cinema and whos last movie watch was Maine Pyar Kiya trust me for the whole course of movie he did not utter a word i was totally engrossed i have this funny exp i would also addin is during the interval for all those buddying bhais/taporis in the interval were actually highly influenced n they were doing all kinda of gundagiri to just start a fight da movie was that effective and after the latter part the climax and old the same pple were highly sundued and DOCILE…i guess woh encounter scene ka baaaar asar what more can a film maker ask for!!
@Ratnakar, Abhra…what to say..we are talking life and its heady days here..in fact, most good days still revolve around another Satya revisit!