Satya

Mumbai is in the midst of a turf war between two gangs, collectively referred to as the Mumbai underworld when Satya (J.D Chakravarthy), a man without a past, comes to the city looking for employment. While waiting tables at the local dance bar, he gets involved in a scuffle with Jagga (Jeeva), bag man for dreaded don Guru Narayan (Raju Mavani). Jagga takes his revenge by getting Satya arrested on false charges of pimping. In jail, Satya clashes with yet another member of Mumbais mafia, underworld don Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee), who is in prison pending trial for the murder of a prominent film producer.

Mhatre, pleased with Satyas bravado, extends a hand of friendship and arranges for his release as well as accommodation. With Mhatres help, Satya avenges himself by gunning down Jagga in the very same dance bar and joins Mhatres gang.Before branching out on his own, Mhatre was part of a gang that included himself, Guru Narayan, Kallu Mama (Saurabh Shukla) and lawyer Chandrakant Mule (Makrand Deshpande). Bhau Thakurdas Jhawle (Govind Namdeo), presently a corporator in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, was the gang leader. After Jhawle joined politics, the gang split into two with Kallu and Mule joining Mhatre and Narayan going his own way.

While the gangs had carved out their own territories which were off limits to the rival gang, both still maintained a relationship with Jhawle. Jaggas assassination breaks the uneasy truce and Narayan reneges on his promise by attacking Mhatres gang when they are out on business. Mhatre decides to kill Narayan but is forced to abandon his project at the last moment on orders from Jhawle; the murder right on the eve of the municipal elections would have triggered a gang war and would be detrimental to Jhawles political prospects. Meanwhile, Satya, who has risen up the ranks and become a key decision-maker in the gang, has met and fallen in love with Vidya (Urmila Matondkar), an aspiring playback singer who lives next door, but has not informed her of his underworld connections. At one point he even threatens a music director and gets him to sign her up for a project, with Vidya being unaware of the entire episode.

Satya tells Matre, fuming over Jhawles orders to stay away from Narayan, to ignore him and they assassinate Narayan. Mhatre is now the unchallenged ruler of the underworld and Jhawle, knowing that he needs Mhatres help to win the elections, patches up with him. This is when the city sees the appointment of a new police commissioner, Amodh Shukla (Paresh Rawal). Shukla and his force begin targeting Mhatres gang through encounters. Satya, seeing the situation getting out of hand, convinces the gang that the commissioner has to be eliminated and gets him killed.

The police respond by intensifying the crackdown. Jhawle wins the elections thanks to Mhatres muscle power as well as public anger on the brutal methods adopted by the police in its fight against organized crime. In the midst of this, Satya and Vidya decide to catch a movie. Inspector Khandilkar (Aditya Shrivastava), on the basis of a tipoff that Satya is present in the cinema hall, surrounds the premises and orders that all doors be shut. Satya fires a gun, triggering a stampede which results in many fatalities, and escapes with Vidya.

But the man who did not fear death now fears for Vidyas life. He decides to quit the underworld and reveals his decision to Mhatre, who decides to send them to Dubai where they would be safe.Jhawle holds a party to celebrate his victory and invites Mhatre, Mule and Kallu to attend the same. During the party, he shoots Mhatre dead for having disobeyed his order and sends Kallu along with Mule to kill Satya. Satya, unaware of Mhatres death, runs off to Vidya and lies to her one last time, but has to flee when the police arrive.

Khandilkar spills the beans in front of Vidya. Kallu returns to his headquarters, kills Mule instead of Satya, and informs Satya about Mhatres fate. Satya takes his revenge by murdering Jhawle during Anant Chaturdashi celebrations, but suffers a bullet wound in the process. Kallu has arranged for himself and Satya to escape in a ship to Dubai. However, Satya insists that he needs to meet Vidya one last time before leaving.

Satya returns to Vidyas house to meet her but she refuses to open the door. He manages to break it open but Khandilkar, who has arrived to arrest him, kills Kallu and shoots him three times. Satya collapses a few inches away from Vidhyas feet and breathes his last.Satya opened to positive reviews from film critics.Its an old-fashioned morality tale that, for a change, goes beyond the Bang Bang, youre dead genre of local gangster movies.

On the contrary, Satya is far more sophisticated and credible precisely because it attempts to penetrate and analyse the Whys of criminality with a touch thats assured and insightful. Its far too intelligent and intense a film to break records at the box office which is a pity. It deserves to do just that, Shobha De wrote for the Sunday MiD DAY. Mumbai has never looked as sinister nor as seductive. Take a bow, Varma, she said.

REJOICE. Indias answer to Quentin Tarantino is here. Indeed, someone has finally had the guts to go ahead and make a movie about and for our times. No diabetic sweetness, no pretentious pontificating, no foolish fantasy out here. Believe it or not, Ram Gopal Varma belts it out straight, like a prize-boxer delivering a knockout punch, Khalid Mohammed wrote for Filmfare and concluded that Satya is a gritty, hellishly exciting film which stings and screams.

No one will go away from it unprovoked or unmoved. It is one of the very few films to get a full 5-star rating from Mohammed. Picture the streets of Mumbai. Where the fine line between life and death gets more and more blurred with each passing day. The killing fields where gang wars, encounters, extortion and murder are a way of life.

Where crime is just another nine-to-five job. Where criminals and cops fight for survival and supremacy, night and day only there are no winners in this game. This is Satya, a stark, chilling, almost suffocating tale of Mumbai as it is no frills, no gloss and absolutely not a moments relief, wrote Deepa Deosthalee of the Indian Express. She also praised Chowtas background score and Hooper and Kamrans stark cinematography while concluding that Satya was an unforgettable experience. I will remember Satya as long as truth lives.

I will remember Satya as a film that threatened to tear my soul apart, trample my conscience. It is one film which will certainly shake up every young man about to take the first step into a dark and destructive land called nowhere. Ramu has done more than any modern social reformer has done. Generations to come will be grateful to him for having the guts to tell the truth as it is, the truth about the truth, Ali Peter John wrote for Screen Weekly. Some critics thought that through Satya Varma was glorifying crime, violence and the underworld, causing him to add a cautionary message to the end credits of the film:.