Satya (film)
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| Satya | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster for Satya |
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| Directed by | Ram Gopal Varma |
| Produced by | Ram Gopal Varma Bharat Shah |
| Written by | Anurag Kashyap Saurabh Shukla |
| Starring | J.D Chakravarthy Urmila Matondkar Manoj Bajpai Shefali Shah |
| Music by | soundtrack Vishal Bharadwaj background score Sandeep Chowta |
| Cinematography | Gerard Hooper Mazhar Kamran |
| Editing by | Apurva Asrani Bhanodaya |
| Release date(s) |  July 3, 1998 |
| Running time | 171 min |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi, Marathi |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Satya (Hindi: सत्या) is a 1998 Indian crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma with a screenplay by Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla. It stars J.D Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpai, Urmila Matondkar and Shefali Shah. The film tells the story of Satyanarayan (Satya), an immigrant who comes to Mumbai seeking his fortune, but instead gets sucked into the Mumbai underworld. Satya is widely considered to be Varma's best work.
The film was released on 1998 July 3 along with its Telugu dubbed version. While it was made at a shoestring budget of 2 crore rupees, it grossed 15.5 crore rupees at the box office and was considered a blockbuster.[1][2]
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[edit] Plot
Satya (J.D Chakravarthy) comes to Mumbai from South India in search of a job. He gets accommodation in a cow-shed whose owner also helps him get a waiter's job at the local dance bar. During his routine he ends up in a fight with a local goon Jagga (Jeeva) who takes his revenge by getting Satya arrested on false charges of pimping.
In jail, Satya gets into another fight, this time with an underworld don Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpai), who is in prison pending trial for the murder of a prominent film producer. Mhatre is pleased with Satya's bravado and arranges for his release. Mhatre also gets one of his gang members to provide Satya with accomodation in a chawl. Satya then joins Mhatre's gang and the first thing he does is kill Jagga in public using a gun presented to him by Mhatre.
Satya soon rises up the ranks and becoming a key decision maker. He also meets and falls in love with Vidya (Urmila Matondkar), an aspiring playback singer who lives next door, but does not inform her of his underworld connections. At one point he threatens a music director and gets him to sign Vidya up for some songs.
Bhiku Mhatre, before branching out on his own, was part of a gang that included himself, Guru Narayan, Jagga, Kallu Mama (Saurabh Shukla) and the lawyer Mule (Makrand Deshpande). This gang used to work for Bhau Thakur Jhawle (Govind Namdeo), a local corporator. Though the gang split into two, with Kallu and Mule joining Mhatre and Jagga siding with Guru Narayan, both gangs still maintained a relationship with Jhawle and had carved out their own territories.
Narayan reneges on his promise and attacks Mhatre's gang when they are on their way to extort money from a builder. This action triggers a gang war which is soon brought to a halt by Jhawle who sees this as being detrimental to his political prospects, the elections not too far away. But Satya convinces Bhiku to disregard Jhawle's orders and kill Guru Narayan, and they finish the job at Jogeshwari train station. Mhatre is now the unchallenged ruler of the Mumbai underworld. This is when the city sees the appointment of a new police commissioner Amod Shukla (Paresh Rawal). Shukla and his force begin targeting Mhatre's gang through encounters. When Satya sees the situation going out of hand, he convinces the gang that the commissioner has to go, and kills him. In response, the police crack down even harder on the mafia.
Elections are held and Jhawle wins thanks to Mhatre's muscle power. Jhawle holds a party to celebrate his victory and invites Mhatre, Mule and Kallu to attend the same. During the party, Jhawle gets Mhatre shot for having disobeyed his order not kill Guru Narayan. Satya takes his revenge by murdering Jhawle at the beach where Ganesh idols are being immersed into the sea during the Ganesh Festival.
Satya decides to quit the under-world and move to Dubai to start a new life with Vidya. But before he can do that, he is involved in a gun battle with the police. Satya suffers mortal injuries but manages to crawl up to Vidya's doorstep, where he breathes his last.
[edit] Production
In late 2006, Anurag Kashyap, script writer of the film, wrote two posts on his blog that gave an incomplete behind-the-scenes account of the making of Satya.
| “ | How it began..Ramu was making Daud..there was a new actor he was working with..it was manoj bajpai..i was there when he took that shot of Paresh going crazy and Manoj appearing from behind the door..Ramu fell in love with the shot..he fell in love with the actor..he fell in love with his intensity..he wanted to make an underworld film with him..he wanted to put Howard Roark in the underworld..thats how Satya started..[3][4] | ” |
While Kashyap was hired to write the script, Varma decided to get the dialogues written by Vijay Tendulkar. But Tendulkar was indisposed and hence Saurabh Shukla, who also played the role of Kallu Mama in the film, took over that department. Kashyap and Shukla went to Varma's farmhouse in Hyderabad and spent more than a week writing the script and dialogues.[3]
The shooting began in Mumbai in 1997 August. On the third day the unit was shooting the scene where the character played by Sushant Singh demands a hafta from Satya and gets his cheek slashed in return. According to Kashyap, after considering Singh's performance, Varma "said now i know what my film is all about and he trashed the script ".[5] But then music tycoon Gulshan Kumar was assassinated and the changed circumstances required that a new script be written. Varma's original idea had an ending from a James Hadley Chase novel. In the final version of the film, that ending remained..Howard Roark didn’t.[3]
Gerard Hooper, who teaches photography at Drexel University, Philadelphia was the man behind the camera, and he would roam around Mumbai filming the city as it was even when no shooting was scheduled.[6] Hooper was recommended to Varma by Kannan, the script writer for Varma's previous film, Daud.[5] Mazhar Kamran later took over the job because Hooper could not provide more than 40 days for the film.[7]
[edit] Music
The soundtrack of the film features music directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and background score by Sandeep Chowta which is the norm in most Ram Gopal Varma films
- Badalon Se
- Tu Mere Paas Bhi Hai
- Geela Geela Pani
- Sapne Mein Milti Hai
- Goli Maar
- The mood of Satya
[edit] Awards
[edit] Filmfare Awards
- Best Film (Critics)
- Best Actor (Critics) - Manoj Bajpai
- Best Actress (Critics) - Shefali Shah
- Best Editing - Apurva Asrani and Bhanodaya
- Best Sound Recording - H. Sridhar
- Best Background Score - Sandeep Chowta
[edit] Screen Awards
- Best Supporting Actor - Manoj Bajpai
- Best Supporting Actress - Shefali Shah
- Best Screenplay - Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla
[edit] Zee Cine Awards
[edit] Reception
Satya is considered a ground breaking film. This film was very realistic as Varma did extensive research on organized crime in Mumbai and shot the film documentary style along Mumbai slums, chawls and streets.
Made with a shoe string budget and non-stars, this film brought fame to actors like Manoj Bajpai, J.D Chakravarthy, and writers like Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap and music composers like Sandeep Chowta and Vishal Bharadwaj.
The film is widely considered Varma’s first true masterwork, and with the film Varma single-handedly created a genre which would be known as the Mumbai-noir. The success of this film spurred Varma to direct more films in the Hindi film industry. The mega blockbuster film spawned many imitations in Bollywood, but all considered largely inferior.
Some critics bashed Varma for his glorification of Mumbai hoodlums, causing Varma to add a cautionary message during the end credits of the film.
In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked Satya amongst the 25 Must See Bollywood Movies. [8]
[edit] Goofs
In the scene where Satya goes to a bar to kill Jagga, it can be clearly seen that the mobile phone which Jagga is holding is actually a toy with a sticker on it where the mobile screen should be.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ram Gopal Varma: One - Man Company
- ^ Box Office 1998
- ^ a b c Anurag Kashyap on Satya - Part 1
- ^ Howard Roark is the protagonist in writer-philosopher Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead.
- ^ a b Anurag Kashyap on Satya - Part 2
- ^ Black & White lights up Bollywood
- ^ Mazhar Kamran - The camera as the real hero
- ^ 25 Must See Bollywood Movies
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by Virasat |
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie 1999 |
Succeeded by Sarfarosh |
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