Sathya (film)

Sathya
Directed by	Suresh Krissna
Produced by	Kamal Haasan Chandra Haasan
Written by	Ananthu (dialogues)
Story by	Javed Akhtar
Starring	Kamal Haasan Amala Rajesh Nassar Bahadoor Vadivukkarasi Vaali Kitty
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	S. M. Anwar
Edited by	N. R. Kittu
Production company	Raaj Kamal Films International
Distributed by	Raaj Kamal Films International
Release dates	29 September 1988
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Sathya is a 1988 Tamil-language Indian feature film directed by Suresh Krissna and produced by Kamal Haasan starring Kamal Haasan himself along with Amala. The film was remake from the 1985 Hindi film Arjun. The film is the debut directional venture for Suresh Krishna. The film completed a 150-day run at the box office. The cinematography and editing were handled by S. M. Anwar and N. R. Kittu respectively.

Plot

Sathya (Kamal Hassan) is a young man who wants to make a difference and ends up becoming a henchman to a political leader who has his own agenda.

Cast

• Kamal Haasan
• Amala
• Rajesh
• Kitty
• Bahadoor
• Nassar
• Janakaraj
• Vadivukkarasi
• Vaali
• Anand
• Kaviyoor Ponnamma

Production

The film was a remake of Hindi film Arjun directed by Rahul Rawail and starring Sunny Deol.^[1] Sathya marked the directorial debut of Suresh Krishna who earlier assisted K. Balachander.^[2] S. P. Balasubrahmanyam lent his voice for Kitty who played the negative role in the film.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were penned by Vaali.^[3][4] Ilaiyaraaja had originally composed the number Valayosai for one of his studio albums, and on Kamal Haasan's insistence, included it in Sathya.^[5]

Themes and influences

Sathya is basically the story of one man who wants to make a difference and ends up becoming a henchman to a political leader who has his own agenda.^[6] The movie is an effective commentary on the sorry state of such unemployed youngsters and the resulting unwilling choices they have to make to earn money. It clearly shows us how the youth, in their time of need, become willing toys in the hands of the people with the money to hire them.^[7] Kamal's characterisation was similar to his previous film Varumayin Niram Sivappu (1980). Kamal's character is of a person who hails from a middle-clas family, he is unemployed, has rough attitude and cannot tolerate injustice.^[8]

Legacy

The character name of Ajith from Yennai Arindhaal is called as Sathyadev. The director Gautham Menon initially wanted to keep this title for the film as he has affinity towards Kamal and the film but later opted against to do so.^[9][10] Gautham Menon's Film Vaaranam Aayiram had a scene in which the lead actor Surya was shown dancing in front of the theatre in which Sathya film was shown and there was a huge cutout of the character Sathya behind him. Arun Vijay starrer Jananam (2004) was compared with "Sathya".^[11] Prior to the release of Velaiyilla Pattathari (2014), there were concerns raised that the film was similar to the Kamal Haasan starrer, Sathya. Dhanush clarified that there were no similarities between the films, nor was it similar to another Haasan film, Varumayin Niram Sivappu, except for the fact that the protagonist was unemployed.^[12] Entertainment portal Behindwoods placed this film along with Nayakan (1987) in Top 10 Gangsters of Tamil cinema.^[13]

References

External links

• Sathya at the Internet Movie Database