Satya – Blurring Distinctions & Humanising ‘The Other’

To clarify this is not a review but rather reflections, maybe even ramblings as #Satya completes 23 years since its release today.

The end credits has a note by director Ram Gopal Varma stating that he would consider this film worthwhile if even one person on the wrong side of law would stop & ponder upon the hurt they cause & how similar it is to their own. The film works on this principle but IMO turns it around, ie, it shows people who have resorted to violence as a means of earning their livelihood, as part of the world that ‘regular’ folks inhabit.

Consider the opening scene – a man shooting at a newspaper interspersed with people going about their day before Kallu mama graces the screen & another gun goes off. It underlines the fact that for at least the 90s Mumbai, crime & violence had become a part of daily life. This film is set in a time when Mumbai was reeling under the after effects of the Babri Masjid demolition & the 93 blasts, not that it is ever explicitly mentioned in the film. The distinctions between the city & its supposed underbelly, as seen in many other films, are blurred in Satya and for once it is made clear that we all inhabit the same land, whether we be explicitly aware of it or not or just choose to look the other way. For instance the scene where Bhiku’s gang members shoot a film producer (apparently shot on the same day that Gulshan Kumar was shot dead in real life), the goons have not even bothered to cover their faces. They are as nonchalant about it as the rainy, traffic laden Mumbai. They are a part of the mis-en-scene of this city so to speak.

The other aspect that really works for me as the audience is how cognizant RGV is about the inner workings and rules of any social & economic enterprise, be it the underworld itself. Any such structure thrives on a recognized hierarchy which if disturbed can have catastrophic results. Satya, the character, is exactly that disturbance. He is an outsider who has no skin in this game when he enters it. A calm, calculative but highly sensitive man (specially wrt to self respect & the righteousness in even a wrong situation), his loyalty lies with Bhiku. He doesn’t understand the social ladder of the new world he has entered & though seemingly he navigates it just fine, by the end its rather clear that he was bested by the system. “Mauka sabhi ko milta hai” says Satya as he tries to stop Bhiku from killing a rival gang’s member so as to get information out of him. Unfortunately the same stands true when fate demands that Satya & his friends be summoned to the stand.

Satya is credited with having changed the treatment of the underworld in Hindi films. I am not a fan of the genre so my knowledge is limited but I am not sure how many films of the same kind have shown such characters without any explicit backstory which would aid the audience in humanizing them. In Satya, all we know about the titular character’s past is that he is probably an orphan who came to Mumbai to make a living and found himself second in command to Bhiku. Perhaps in his past life he had a similar job, we dont know for we are not told at all. About Bhiku himself, no past life is even mentioned. Similarly with Kallu mama, Chandar or any one else. Yet the audience finds themselves emotionally bonding with these characters simply because they seem as much like us as any so called hero would. They have their moments of happiness, sadness, familial discord, aspirations, love, anger, hurt etc just like any other person in the audience. The film humanizes these people without ever resorting to emotionally blackmailing the audience. A scene that really stands out for me is when Bhiku is boasting about his daughter reciting nursery rhymes in English – just like any other parent, his aspirations for his child are much higher than the life he has chosen to lead. Satya is about real characters who we may well identity with as people except they have a day job that would scare the living daylights out of most of us. But it is the first part that the film really capitalizes on. We have scenes after scenes of these ‘Bhai log’ or ‘dons’ inflicting the worst kind of violence on others and then turning around to joke with each other or even have heart to heart conversations. One of the best examples of this dichotomy is when Satya is ruing the fact that the police is working like the mafia in that they are picking up anyone they damn well please!

From Saurabh Shukla as Kallu Mama, Makarand Deshpande as Uncle, Govind Namdev as Bhau to Shefali Shah & Urmila Matondkar, this film is filled with beyond excellent performances which make Anurag Kashyap & Shukla’s story & dialogues come alive on screen. Chakravarthy as Satya is an example of perfect casting with his silent, brooding, intense eyes which compliment his strong, calm personality but one smile and his entire face transforms. But this rambling has to end with a bow to Manoj Bajpayee. As Bhiku Mhatre, Bajpayee has delivered his career best performance (and I say this with full cognizance of all his wonderful work since). I literally have no words for this performance – charismatic & measured, he made sure that Bhikhu didn’t give in to any tropes & cliches. What. An. Actor.

I can honestly write a small pamphlet on this film & its characters but perhaps this is not the place so I will conclude with my appreciation for the team that made it.

Ram Gopal Varma proved his mettle as a director once again with Satya. Hot on the heels of a success like Rangeela, this was a completely different subject but done with so much conviction and novelty that here we are today celebrating this film 23 years later! Also kudos to him for putting together the team that he did – from actors to cinematography to editing to music! The way he managed to translate Kashyap & Shukla’s story & vision on screen is commendable. Sure its not without its weakness but Satya will forever be remembered for not only being a trendsetter for others in its genre but a film to study & analyse for ages to come.

👩🏾‍💻 – YouTube

Direction – Ram Gopal Varma

Cast – Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpayee, Urmila Matondkar, Shefali Shah, Saurabh Shukla, Makarand Deshpande, Govind Namdev

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