A coveted started to the world of raw gangster films
Somehow I completed watching the Gangster trilogy of Ram Gopal Varma with enough time between films, so that I could appreciate each by its own without the influence of other films. Guess, even though all the films treaded on the same universe, one would be able to watch each film separately and still appreciate it. May be it’s because he didn’t want to create a film making style unique but it’s just the way he knew to make, which became unique. Having watched Company and D, too, I couldn’t call Satya as overwhelming favorite but may be a wee bit better made than the two. But for me, it’s still D, which was the best, the rawness was truly invigorating.
Satya starts in a typical fashion, like any of his previous films. Satya (J. D. Chakravarthy) is a youngster new to Mumbai to get a job. May be J. D. Chakravarthy wasn’t as famous back then. Ram Gopal Varma could shoot him in public view and he does a great job. It’s not a surprise that bad things would happen to the protagonist and he’d raise to power. It’s just an eventual in a RGV’s gangster flick. May be because I watched the other two films, the rawness didn’t impact me.
When compared to the other two films of the trilogy, this was direct. May be a bit more impactful because it was focused on the storyline without any self-righteousness. But what’s an RGV film without self-righteousness. Even though there is a sense of feeling that RGV breaks morality issues through his characters. Isn’t he also trying to showcase morality in the hardest possible way. Generally in a movie where the hero dies, we at least root for him till the end but in his films, we tend to maintain distance from the hero right from the start because we know it’s always going to be a problem if we get into the world of protagonist.
Just like Mysskin, to an extent Selvaraghavan, Ram Gopal Varma too doesn’t let actors a complete freedom to act or at least doesn’t showcase them in a filmy way but J. D. Chakravarthy suited his role to Tee. With his sunken tired eyes, he looks like a perfect protagonist of Ram Gopal Varma film. When I watched D, I thought none could better Randeep Honda as a RGV protagonist but J. D. Chakravarthy looked like he was born for it. All these alpha directors have problem with actors who carry a certain bit of aura around them. Like how Mohanlal, who even though was in RGV’s world, still had certain isms of Mohanlal. They don’t understand how much they contribute to the movie by making viewers enjoy that. May be their ego is too big for it or they just don’t want to spoil the environment they’re creating by actors who’re bigger than that. This is where the Manoj Bajpayee’s and Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s play the perfect foil for any such films.
In spite of the fact that the actor has to be in a certain state, look how charming Urmila Matondkar is in this film. She plays the perfect ‘good person’ in this evil film. You can’t help but fall in love with Vidya, in fact you love her so much that you don’t want her to love Satya. To be honest, throughout I couldn’t root for Satya. For some reason, I felt distanced from him. I could even root for Bhiku (Manoj Bajpayee) for he was a simple guy. But Satya without even knowing him or even after knowing him always felt distant to me.
The Urmila I know is the Urmila I had seen from the songs of ‘Rangeela’. Seeing her acting in ‘Satya’ I thought ‘Satya’ had released first and wanted to see how she rose to prominence from ‘Satya’ to ‘Rangeela’. But to know that ‘Rangeela’ in fact came prior to ‘Satya’ and she was already prominent, only grew my respect towards her more. That’s one more reason to watch ‘Rangeela’. Still, the main reason would be how he got work out of Rahman. It’s a curious combination, given that RGV strives for rawness and Rahman’s sounds are mostly polished.
Say what may, RGV would always remain an interesting guy to watch out for.