Satya was perhaps first realistic take on Mumbai mafia in mainstream cinema and was beginning of a great partnership between Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma who together made a few movies Indian Cinema can be proud of. Satya also marked advent of Manoj Bajpayee - a maverick in his own right. But the most important thing, some movies are important because of the timeline on which they exists, Satya is one of them. While Mumbai mafia was trying to take Mumbai by ransom and post '92 bomb blasts, a feel of uncertainty was there, Satya showed how exactly mafia looks from the inside. In a way similar to Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Satya (JD) is an immigrant who is wrongly framed in a false case. In jail, he becomes friend of Bheeku (Manoj) who is a part of mafia. With Bheeku, Satya's tryst with mafia happens. From this point their ascent in mafia happens only to fall with an end conforming to Bollywood norm where crime never pays. The relationship between Bheeku and Satya are the highlight of this movie. The parallel plot of Satya's love life adds immense value because it shows the human side of people working for mafia. For them crime is their job. They don't want to mix it with their personal life.
As Satya, JD delivers a fine performance. A de-glam Urmila is convincing. Saurabh Shukla and Shefali Shah are usual self playing on their merits and well within their limitations. The show stealer is Manoj Bajpayee who simply overtakes each and every scene he is present in. His screen presence is good, dialogue delivery is good and intensity is simply mind-blowing. However, the movie doesn't work just due to incredible performances. Both script and direction are class. There is an in-depth understanding of lives in low rungs where glam of Bollywood seldom ventures. Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh Shukla and Ram Gopal Varma made Satya as close to reality as possible. The imagination of these three people set the cast for this cult movie.
Post Satya, the perception towards Mafia changed. Everyone started looking it from RGV's lenses. As for RGV, this was beginning of his trilogy about Indian Gangsters - Satya, Company and D.
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
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