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Rescuing orphaned refs ("rgv-blog-making-of-satya" from rev 811576216; "kashyap-on-satya-2" from rev 811576216)
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===Casting===
===Casting===
''Satya'' was shot on a limited budget with a cast of newcomers and relative unknowns. The absence of "stars" meant that they were available whenever Varma needed them.<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya" /><ref name="rgv-ie-satya-interview">{{cite news
''Satya'' was shot on a limited budget with a cast of newcomers and relative unknowns. The absence of "stars" meant that they were available whenever Varma needed them.<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya">{{cite web
| title = My tryst with the Underworld
| author = Ram Gopal Varma
| date = 9 July 2008
| accessdate = 17 August 2010
| url = https://rgvz00min.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/my-tryst-with-the-underworld/
}}</ref><ref name="rgv-ie-satya-interview">{{cite news
| title = The truth lies in the picture
| title = The truth lies in the picture
| author = Deepa Deosthalee
| author = Deepa Deosthalee
Line 172: Line 178:
Varma had hired Kashyap to write the script but did not trust him with the dialogues; he wanted someone more mature (Kashyap was twenty three) to work on them. So he went to noted playwright [[Vijay Tendulkar]], the man who had penned the script and dialogues for the cult classic [[Ardh Satya]]. But Tendulkar was unwell, and hence Saurabh Shukla, who also got to play Kallu Mama in the film, got the job. Kashyap and Shukla went to Varma's farmhouse in [[Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh|Hyderabad]] where they spent the next few days writing what "looked and sounded like a script," before returning to Mumbai.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-1" />
Varma had hired Kashyap to write the script but did not trust him with the dialogues; he wanted someone more mature (Kashyap was twenty three) to work on them. So he went to noted playwright [[Vijay Tendulkar]], the man who had penned the script and dialogues for the cult classic [[Ardh Satya]]. But Tendulkar was unwell, and hence Saurabh Shukla, who also got to play Kallu Mama in the film, got the job. Kashyap and Shukla went to Varma's farmhouse in [[Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh|Hyderabad]] where they spent the next few days writing what "looked and sounded like a script," before returning to Mumbai.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-1" />


The shooting began in Mumbai sometime in August 1997. On the third day the unit was shooting the scene where the character played by [[Sushant Singh]], Pakya, demands a [[hafta]] from Satya.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-2" /> Varma had decided to cut the scene at the moment Satya slashes Pakya's cheek with his own knife. But Sushant improvised and screamed before Varma could yell "cut."<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya" /> Kashyap recalls Varma saying "now i know what my film is all about" before trashing their script.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-2" /> This incident, the improvisation, was responsible for the realistic performances of the characters in the film. Varma gave them the leeway and controlled the performances in the editing. Sushant's scream influenced the "style" of ''Satya''.<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya" />
The shooting began in Mumbai sometime in August 1997. On the third day the unit was shooting the scene where the character played by [[Sushant Singh]], Pakya, demands a [[hafta]] from Satya.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-2">{{cite web
| title = Satya - The true story, Part 2
| author = Anurag Kashyap
| publisher = PassionForCinema.com
| date = 26 November 2006
| accessdate = 17 June 2008
| url = http://passionforcinema.com/satya-the-true-story-part-2/
}}</ref> Varma had decided to cut the scene at the moment Satya slashes Pakya's cheek with his own knife. But Sushant improvised and screamed before Varma could yell "cut."<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya" /> Kashyap recalls Varma saying "now i know what my film is all about" before trashing their script.<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-2" /> This incident, the improvisation, was responsible for the realistic performances of the characters in the film. Varma gave them the leeway and controlled the performances in the editing. Sushant's scream influenced the "style" of ''Satya''.<ref name="rgv-blog-making-of-satya" />


But then music tycoon [[Gulshan Kumar]] was assassinated (12 August) and the changed circumstances required that a new script be written. Varma's original idea had an ending from a [[James Hadley Chase]] novel. In the final version of the film, "that ending remained..Howard Roark didn’t".<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-1" /> While Varma was shooting for the film, his previous film ''Daud'' was released (22 August) which was a box office disaster. That forced him to make some changes to ''Satya''. He added some songs to the film and replaced Mahima Chaudhry with a more "established" Urmila Matondkar. Everything else, however, remained the same.<ref name="rgv-ie-satya-interview" />
But then music tycoon [[Gulshan Kumar]] was assassinated (12 August) and the changed circumstances required that a new script be written. Varma's original idea had an ending from a [[James Hadley Chase]] novel. In the final version of the film, "that ending remained..Howard Roark didn’t".<ref name="kashyap-on-satya-1" /> While Varma was shooting for the film, his previous film ''Daud'' was released (22 August) which was a box office disaster. That forced him to make some changes to ''Satya''. He added some songs to the film and replaced Mahima Chaudhry with a more "established" Urmila Matondkar. Everything else, however, remained the same.<ref name="rgv-ie-satya-interview" />

Revision as of 17:13, 22 November 2017

Satya
File:Satya.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRam Gopal Varma
Screenplay bySaurabh Shukla
Anurag Kashyap
Story byRam Gopal Varma
Produced byRam Gopal Varma
P. Som Shekar
Bharat Shah
StarringJ. D. Chakravarthy
Urmila Matondkar
Manoj Bajpayee
Govind Namdev
Paresh Rawal
Saurabh Shukla
Aditya Srivastava
Makarand Deshpande
Jeeva
Shefali Shah
CinematographyGerard Hooper
Mazhar Kamran
Edited byApurva Asrani
Bhanodaya
Music byOriginal Songs:
Vishal Bhardwaj
Background Score:
Sandeep Chowta
Release date
3 July 1998
Running time
171 min
CountryIndia
LanguagesHindi
Marathi
Budget₹25 million (US$300,000)[1][2]
Box officeest. ₹186 million (US$2.2 million)[1][2]

Satya (lit. "Truth") is a 1998 Indian Hindi crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, and written by Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap. The film stars J. D. Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpayee, Urmila Matondkar and Shefali Shah. The first film of the Indian Gangster Trilogy, tells the story of Satya, an immigrant who comes to Mumbai seeking his fortune but instead gets sucked into the Mumbai underworld. The film was show cased among the Indian panorama section, at the 1998 International Film Festival of India,[3] the Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, and the New York Asian Film Festival.[4][5] The film was listed among CNN-IBN's 100 greatest Indian films of all time.[6] In 2005, Indiatimes Movies included Satya in its list of 25 Must See Bollywood Movies.[7]

Made on a shoestring budget of INR 20 million[8] Satya became a surprise hit at the box office of 1998.[9][10] The film went on to win six Filmfare Awards, including the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, four Star Screen Awards and Bollywood Movie Award – Best Director. Satya has been referred to as a modern masterpiece and it was considered one of the best films of the 1990s. It is also considered one of the best gangster films of all time.[11] Film critic Rajeev Masand has labeled it (along with its sequel Company) one of the "most influential movies of the past ten years."[12] The film marked the introduction of a new genre of film making, a variation of film noir[11] that has been called Mumbai noir, of which Varma is the acknowledged master.[13]

Plot

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 Mumbai's mafia, underworld don Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee), who is in prison pending trial for the murder of a prominent film producer. Mhatre, pleased with Satya's bravado, extends a hand of friendship and arranges for his release as well as accommodation. With Mhatre's help, Satya avenges himself by gunning down Jagga in the very same dance bar and joins Mhatre's 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. Jagga's assassination breaks the uneasy truce and Narayan reneges on his promise by attacking Mhatre's 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 Jhawle's 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 Mhatre, fuming over Jhawle's 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 Mhatre's 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 Mhatre's 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 Mhatre's 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 Vidya's 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 Mhatre's death, runs off to Vidya to try to clear things up, 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 Mhatre's 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 Vidya's house to meet her but she refuses to open the door. He manages to break it open but Khandilkar, who had arrived to arrest him, shoots him down, having already shot and killed Kallu Mama. Satya collapses a few inches away from Vidya's feet and breathes his last.

Cast

Production

Development

"..It suddenly struck me that you always hear about these gangsters only when they either kill or when they die. But what do they do in between? That was the first thought which eventually resulted in Satya."

—Varma on the genesis of the film.[14]

Director Ram Gopal Varma got to know about the murder of film producer, singer Gulshan Kumar by producer Jhamu Sughand, who had produced his film Rangeela.[14] He told Varma that Gulshan had woken up around 7 am and told Sughand that at 8 am he would meet a singer; at 8.30 am he was supposed to meet a friend, after which he would go to the temple and then come to meet him."[14] Varma then thought that if Gulshan had woke up at 7 am, then at what time would the killer have woken up?[14] Varma then decided to make a film on gangsters and wanted to "put Howard Roark in underworld".[15] He had a basic story in his mind and wanted Vijay Tendulkar to write the dialogues for the film, since he was inspired by Tendulkars work, specially Ardh Satya (1983).[15] He was not able to do the film for some unknown reasons.[15] Varma called Saurabh Shukla to write the film but he was initially hesitant to do the film since he wrote the films he could direct.[15] Varma then called him for a meeting and told him the basic plot and his character in the film. Shukla then agreed to do the film as he was "stuck" with the narration.[15] Both went to Vermas farmhouse in Hyderabad and wrote the first draft in a week.[16] They were discussing the name of the characters which should sound real, when a office boy entered whose name was Bhiku.[16]

Varma wanted to cast new actors for the film. He decided to cast J.D. Chakravarthy in the title role, who had worked with Varma on Shiva (1990). He said that he was trying to imitate Verma in the role for the preparation.[15] The then struggling actor Manoj Bajpayee, auditioned for the role of Paresh Rawal's henchman in Daud. Varma asked him if he had done work in any other film. Bajpayee mentioned Bandit Queen to him, where he had a supporting role.[17] Varma was impressed by his performance in Bandit Queen and expressed his desire to make a film with him where he had a much bigger role, and told him not to do Daud.[17] Bajpayee asked him to let him do this film, on which Varma agreed.[17] Following completion of the filming, Varma expressed his regret for offering Bajpayee a minor role and promised him a prominent role in his next film.[18] The title role was initially planned for Bajpayee, but after the characters got more clear to Varma he felt that he needed a person who is more fluent in Hindi for the character of Bhiku Mhatre.[15] It was because Chakraborty was a native telugu speaker and he was not very fluent in Hindi.[15] Bajpayee was not happy with this decision, since he wanted to play the title character. He still agreed to do the film because he had no other role to do.[15] He based the character of Bhiku Mhatre on a real life person who existed in Bajpayee's hometown, who was a Jeetendra fan and wore printed coloured t-shirts and was short tempered.[15] He suggested newcomer Anurag Kashyap's name to Varma to co-write the film.[19] Varma liked Kashyap's Auto Narayan and hired him to write the script.[20]

Kashyap began writing but RGV brought in Saurabh Shukla because he felt someone more mature should be involved. They went to RGV’s farmhouse in Hyderabad and wrote the first draft in a week. When they were discussing what to name the characters – who had to look and sound real – the office boy entered and RGV said, “Bhiku, teen coffee lana...”

The female lead was first offer to actress Mahima Chaudhary, but she refused to do the film because of its subject matter. Varma then cast Urmila Matondkar, with whom he had worked earlier in two films Rangeela and Daud.[21] Debutant Sushant Singh was also cast in the role of Mhatre's henchman.[22]

Casting

Satya was shot on a limited budget with a cast of newcomers and relative unknowns. The absence of "stars" meant that they were available whenever Varma needed them.[23][24]

J.D Chakravarthy had already worked with Varma on Shiva, playing the role of J.D. in the film. When Varma approached him for the eponymous role in Satya, he was a bit reticent because he was working on another project. But then Varma told him that the film would be complete in two months (it took eighteen), and so Chakravarthy agreed.[25] Manoj Bajpai had played a cameo in Varma's previous film, Daud and Varma, who had been floored by his intensity in a particular shot, told him that there was "something interesting in [his] face."[26] He decided then and there that Manoj Bajpai would play a part in his next film that was based on the underworld. And Bajpai became Bhiku Mhatre.[27][28] Urmila Matondkar was the only member of the cast who was well known thanks to Rangeela. But she was not the first choice for Vidya's role. Varma had approached Mahima Chaudhry for the part but, according to Rediff.com, she declined it when she heard that the film was about the underworld and hence Varma turned to Urmila.[29] The Indian Express suggests, however, that Urmila replacing Mahima was a result of Varma's need for an established face, especially after Daud bombed at the box office.[24]

Shefali Shah had worked with Varma on Rangeela. But within two days, she had realized that hers was a bit part, and so she had walked out of the film. When Varma came back to her for Satya, she initially refused. But Varma apologized and even cut out a love scene from the film which Shefali had objections to. Finally, under pressure from both her husband as well as Bajpai, she agreed to play Pyaari Mhatre.[30] Saurabh Shukla had a double deal with Varma. He was originally brought in to assist Anurag Kashyap with the script and dialogues. But he managed to bag the part of Kallu Mama in the film.[27] Varma had first noticed Makrand Deshpande in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and had been planning to work with him for a long time. Varma cast him in a film which was later shelved. So when Varma began Satya, he called on Deshpande to play the part of the unscrupulous lawyer Chandrakant Mule.[31]

Character actor Govind Namdeo played the part of the corrupt and ruthless gangster-turned-politician Bhau Thakurdas Jhawle while Paresh Rawal became Amodh Shukla, the Police Commissioner who adopted the mafia's own tactics of intimidation and cold blooded murder against them, to good effect, and paid a heavy price for the same. Aditya Shrivastava played the role of Shukla's protégé Inspector Khandilkar who executed Shukla's ideas on the ground, and later avenged his murder by killing Satya. He also provides the voice over at various points in the film, including the beginning. Snehal Dabi played the part of Chander Krishnakant Khote, the oafish gangster wannabe who had never killed another man but bragged about having killed two, who was shot dead in an encounter by the police. Shabbir Masani was Yedaa, the only member of Mhatre gang who survives in the end. Other minor characters included those of music director Ronu Sagar (Neeraj Vora), Jagga's henchman Pakya (Sushant Singh), and Bhiku Mhatre's hitmen Vitthal Manjrekar (Sanjay Mishra) and Bappu (Rajesh Joshi).

Writing and filming

Varma had hired Kashyap to write the script but did not trust him with the dialogues; he wanted someone more mature (Kashyap was twenty three) to work on them. So he went to noted playwright Vijay Tendulkar, the man who had penned the script and dialogues for the cult classic Ardh Satya. But Tendulkar was unwell, and hence Saurabh Shukla, who also got to play Kallu Mama in the film, got the job. Kashyap and Shukla went to Varma's farmhouse in Hyderabad where they spent the next few days writing what "looked and sounded like a script," before returning to Mumbai.[27]

The shooting began in Mumbai sometime in August 1997. On the third day the unit was shooting the scene where the character played by Sushant Singh, Pakya, demands a hafta from Satya.[32] Varma had decided to cut the scene at the moment Satya slashes Pakya's cheek with his own knife. But Sushant improvised and screamed before Varma could yell "cut."[23] Kashyap recalls Varma saying "now i know what my film is all about" before trashing their script.[32] This incident, the improvisation, was responsible for the realistic performances of the characters in the film. Varma gave them the leeway and controlled the performances in the editing. Sushant's scream influenced the "style" of Satya.[23]

But then music tycoon Gulshan Kumar was assassinated (12 August) and the changed circumstances required that a new script be written. Varma's original idea had an ending from a James Hadley Chase novel. In the final version of the film, "that ending remained..Howard Roark didn’t".[27] While Varma was shooting for the film, his previous film Daud was released (22 August) which was a box office disaster. That forced him to make some changes to Satya. He added some songs to the film and replaced Mahima Chaudhry with a more "established" Urmila Matondkar. Everything else, however, remained the same.[24]

The Ganpati immersion procession sequence and Bhau's murder sequence that form an important part of the film's climax were shot separately. On Anant Chaturdashi, a camera crew visited Chowpatty and recorded the procession. A particular wide shot where the camera zoomed into a Ganesha idol was recreated much later at Juhu beach with 500 junior artistes. The film was edited to "create an illusion as if there were thousands," a trick Varma had previously used in Telugu film Gaayam.[33]

The realistic scene in the beginning of the film where Manjrekar and Bappu murder a film producer on a busy street in pouring rain was shot on a set. The entire street had been created inside the studio and the vehicles parked on the side of the street belonged to the film crew.[34]

Cinematography

Gerard Hooper, who teaches cinematography at Drexel University, Philadelphia was the man behind the camera, and he was recommended to Varma by Kanan Ayar, the script writer for Daud.[32] Mazhar Kamran later took over the job because Hooper could not allocate more than 40 days for the film.[35]

The film's cinematography and use of locations played a major role in its success. Unlike most Hindi films, much of Satya was shot outdoors. Hooper would roam around Mumbai filming the city even when no shoot was scheduled. "The rawness of Satya’s locales were stunning. Just see the difference an outsider gave to the film, as opposed to an Indian who takes Mumbai for granted and prefers to shoot on some set in Film City," Kashyap has noted.[36] Varma gave a free hand to his cinematographers, according to Kamran, who could therefore allow the camera to move freely rather than shooting from fixed angles. This added a touch of realism to the film. "The harsh, rough and true-to-life quality of the cinematography contributed immensely to the credibility in the film’s story and played a crucial role in its commercial and critical success," states Kamran.[35]

Crew

Costumes

Release

Satya was primarily targeted at an urban audience and the countrywide release of the film, on 3 July 1998, was done on a commission basis to ensure that distributors didn't lose money on their investment.[37] Telugu and Tamil language (dubbed) versions were released in the respective regional markets.[38] It was later dubbed into English for screenings at international film festivals;[39] Vivek Oberoi dubbed for one of the characters.[40]

Varma had expected that the Indian censor board would "rip the film apart" due to the "excessive violence and liberal use of expletives" in the film.[24] But he was "pleasantly surprised" when the board passed it without any cuts though with an A rating.[41][42] While this did not have any effect on the film's theatrical release, it created a small problem when Star Plus acquired the satellite telecast rights in 1998 by paying 13.5 million rupees. The movie was set to be telecast at 9:30 pm IST on a Saturday night (26 December), but had to be pushed back to 11:30 pm IST because, according to Indian laws in effect at the time, films having an A rating could not be telecast prior to 11:00 pm IST.[43] [44]

Box office

The film did "record-breaking" business in Mumbai with first-week collections of 85 percent, for a total of INR 40-50 million; it netted another INR 8-9 million in Delhi, and set new box office records in Andhra Pradesh.[37][45] Satya collected 2.4 million nett from 15 screens in week one in Delhi/UP,and was a huge hit in Delhi/UP.[46] It also benefited from the entertainment tax exemption granted by the Maharashtra government.[47] Satya grossed ₹155 million (US$1.9 million) and became the 10th highest grossing Indian film of 1998.[10]

Reception

Manoj Bajpai's performance as Bhiku Mhatre enjoyed universal acclaim and turned him into a star overnight. "It's overwhelming and also quite scary, because with a response like this, the audience also tells you that you can't afford to make mistakes," he said during a party held to celebrate the film's 100-day run.[9]

Aditya Srivastava, who played khandilkar, was offered his claim to fame the role of Sr. Inspector Abhijeet from TV series CID after the producer BP Singh saw him in Satya.

Critical reception

Satya opened to positive reviews from film critics.

"It's an old-fashioned morality tale that, for a change, goes beyond the 'Bang Bang, you're 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 that's assured and insightful. It's 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.[48]

"REJOICE. India's 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."[49] It is one of the very few films to get a full 5-star rating from Mohammed.[50]

"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 moment's relief," wrote Deepa Deosthalee of the Indian Express. She also praised Chowta's background score and Hooper and Kamran's "stark cinematography" while concluding that Satya was "an unforgettable experience".[51]

"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.[52]

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:

This film is an attempt on my part to reach out to all those people who took to violence as a means for their living. At the end of it, even if one of them out there looks into himself before he takes out his gun the next time, and understands that the pain he inflicts on others is exactly the same as he would suffer himself, I would consider this effort worthwhile. My tears for Satya are as much as they are for the people whom he killed.

Varma has, on his part, clarified time and again that his films do not glorify crime. "I'm not glorifying the underworld. I want to portray stark reality, as Shekhar Kapur did in Bandit Queen. I want to show the human side of the underworld, why a man picks up the gun," he said in an interview to Rediff.com even as the film was on the floors.[29] "Everybody who took the gun died a miserable death at the end of the day in the film. So when people accuse me of glorifying violence, this is my answer," he reiterated in a 2004 interview to the BBC.[53]

According to Indologist Professor Philip Lutgendorf,[54] Satya has too many parallels with Raj Kapoor's Shri 420 for them to be mere coincidence.[55]

Awards

Satya won several National and International accolades.[4][5] Ram Gopal Varma received the Bimal Roy memorial trophy for best direction.[56][57] Satya won six Filmfare Awards, including all three Critics awards (Best Movie, Best Actor and Best Actress awards, male and female, for Bajpai and Shah), Best Editing (Apurva Asrani and Bhanodaya), Best Sound Recording (H. Sridhar) and Best Background Score (Sandeep Chowta). It won four Star Screen Awards including Best Supporting Actor (Bajpai), Best Supporting Actress (Shah), Best Screenplay (Shukla) and Screen Award Special Jury Award (J. D. Chakravarthy). Ram Gopal Varma won the Bollywood Movie Award – Best Director for this film. Bajpai also bagged the Zee Cine Award and the National Film Award for best actor in a supporting role.In 2005, Indiatimes Movies included Satya in its list of 25 Must See Bollywood Movies.[58]

Influence

Satya has been referred to as a modern masterpiece and "perhaps" one of the best films of the 1990s.[11] Film critic Rajeev Masand has labeled it (along with its sequel Company) one of the "most influential movies of the past ten years."[12] The film marked the introduction of a new genre of film making, a variation of film noir[11] that has been called Mumbai noir, of which he is the acknowledged master.[13]

British director Danny Boyle has cited Satya as an inspiration for his 2008 Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire. Satya's "slick, often mesmerizing" portrayal of the Mumbai underworld, which included gritty and realistic "brutality and urban violence," directly influenced the portrayal of the Mumbai underworld in Slumdog Millionaire.[12][59]

Soundtrack

Untitled
Untitled
The Mood of Satya
An example of Sandeep Chowta's background score.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The soundtrack of the film features music composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and lyrics written by Gulzar. Sandeep Chowta created the background score for the film, as in most other Varma films.

Satya was the second hit soundtrack produced by the Gulzar-Bhardwaj collaboration, the previous one being Maachis. Planet Bollywood, giving it a 9.0 rating, said that while the music sounded and felt like that of Maachis it was "almost as good."[60] The Music Magazine called Bhardwaj's score for Satya "a trifle short of outstanding".[61] But it was Chowta's haunting background score that created waves and overshadowed the original score.[62] The Hindu, commenting on the dying art of film scoring, mentioned Satya when it noted "interestingly (and hopefully) Indian films are just making a start with original soundtracks: Sandeep Chowta's background score for Ram Gopal Varma's 'Satya'".[63] And when Rediff.com announced that the background score had arrived in Hindi cinema, it said Satya had "set the standards for background score" and that the film's throbbing score "took the audience inside the mind of its characters. Every time a bullet was shot or there were close-ups of actors, one could hear the haunting score, which had a hallucinatory effect on the audience."[64]

In an interview to Screen Weekly, Sandeep Chowta had this to say about background scores:

I believe a background score should work completely parallel to the film’s mood. Basically, the music should contradict what the audience is watching. I don’t punctuate and hammer in the performances through my music. I leave the performances to make their own impact. I think the traditional way of playing background music which is known as 'changeover background' kills the movie’s impact. With Satya we decided to break that tradition.[65]

When asked why his score overshadowed the film's music, Chowta said that in spite of Bhardwaj's songs being "nice", they did not fit into the film.[65]

In November 1998, the background score of the film was released as a separate album, Satya: The Sound.[66]

Satya: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitleLength
1."Badalon Se" (performed by Bhupinder Singh)6:06
2."Tu Mere Paas Bhi Hai" (performed by Lata Mangeshkar and Hariharan)5:42
3."The Mood of Satya"#" (instrumental)2:20
4."Goli Maar" (performed by Mano)4:43
5."Geela Geela Pani" (performed by Lata Mangeshkar)6:05
6."Sapne Mein" (performed by Asha Bhosle and Suresh Wadkar)5:23
Satya: The Sound
No.TitleLength
1."Birth of a Tragedy (Satya Arrives)"2:10
2."Deep Shave (Satya Slashes Pakya)"1:02
3."Hit And Run (Producer's Killing)"2:01
4."Deathly Friendships (Bhiku Meets Satya)"2:39
5."Home Coming (Pals at Ease)"3:08
6."Passing The Exam (Jagga's Killing)"2:01
7."Hide And Seek (Construction Shootout)"2:24
8."Warmth in Cold Blood (Vidya Through The Window)"2:15
9."Educating Ronusagar (Music Director Gets A Call)"3:14
10."Damn The Cell Phone (Attempt on Gurunarain)"1:09
11."Need To Be Alive (Meeting Bhau)"1:35
12."Why Listen To Bhau? (Killing Gurunarain)"5:59
13."Vidya's Gift (Gang Goes Shopping)"3:04
14."Man in the Family (Father's Death)"3:22
15."Ask Him To Come Here (Bhau's Patch Up)"1:26
16."Please Clean The City (Encounter Killings)"2:01
17."He Has To Go (Commissioner's Killing)"3:24
18."Triumph And Tragedy (Theatre Sequence)"3:18
19."I Can't Take It Anymore (Bhiku Shows The Way)"4:28
20."Bhau's Choice (Bhiku's Death)"1:54
21."Who Is Satya? (Vidya Knows)"2:00
22."Even God Couldn't Help (Bhau's Killing)"3:18
23."Death of a Truth (The End)"8:31

Sequels

Satya gained three sequels, Company (2002), D (2005) and Satya 2 (2013).

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Satya". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 2 August 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  2. ^ a b Sharma, Sanjukta (13 January 2017). "A flashback to 'Satya'". Mint. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Indian Cinema: The Indian Panorama 1998" (pdf). Directorate of Film Festival. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Edouard Waintrop on the New Indian Cinema : UP Front – India Today". India Today. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  5. ^ a b David (16 June 2006). "The Films of Ram Gopal Varma – An Overview". Cinema Strikes Back. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  6. ^ 100 Years of Indian Cinema: The 100 greatest Indian films of all time|Movies News Photos-IBNLive
  7. ^ Rachna Kanwar (3 October 2005). "25 Must See Bollywood Movies". Indiatimes Movies. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  8. ^ Sandeep Unnithan (10 February 2003). "One - Man Company". India Today. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  9. ^ a b Deepa Deosthalee (22 October 1998). "Satya cast in heroes' mold, mobbed by crowd". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  10. ^ a b "Box Office 1998". BoxOfficeIndia.com. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  11. ^ a b c d Rachel Dwyer (30 May 2005). "Behind The Scenes". Outlook Magazine. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  12. ^ a b c Rajeev Masand (18 July 2008). "Masand's Verdict: Contract, mangled mess of Satya, Company". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  13. ^ a b Aruti Nayar (16 December 2007). "Bollywood on the table". The Tribune. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  14. ^ a b c d "A thought and a chance meet led Ram Gopal Varma to make 'Satya', 'Company'". The Times of India. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Bollywood Blockbusters: The Story Behind Satya". Bollywood Blockbusters. CNN-News18. 13 December 2009. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  16. ^ a b Ali, Asad; Usman, Yasser (12 December 2014). "#Dialoguebaazi: The tough men". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  17. ^ a b c "Episode 21". The Anupam Kher Show - Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai. Colors TV. 27 September 2015.
  18. ^ Chopra, Anupama (31 August 1998). "Two of a kind". India Today. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  19. ^ Gupta, Priya (14 August 2012). "I don't see Ram Gopal Varma's films: Anurag Kashyap". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "'Black Friday is based on facts!'". Rediff.com. 5 April 2005. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ "The predator as prey". Rediff.com. 27 December 1997. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  22. ^ Nayak, Elina Priyadarshini (17 May 2014). "I have stopped taking myself seriously: Sushant Singh". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  23. ^ a b c Ram Gopal Varma (9 July 2008). "My tryst with the Underworld". Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  24. ^ a b c d Deepa Deosthalee (8 May 1998). "The truth lies in the picture". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  25. ^ "Chakravarthi J.D. talks in detail about his upcoming projects and personal life". TotalTollywood.com. 17 March 2003. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  26. ^ Manoj Bajpai (1 August 1998). "Surviving Bollywood". Indian Express. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  27. ^ a b c d Anurag Kashyap (25 November 2006). "Satya - The true story, Part 1". PassionForCinema.com. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  28. ^ "RGV trying to mend fences with 'Satya 2' - The Times of India". The Times Of India.
  29. ^ a b "The predator as prey". Rediff.com. 27 December 1997. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  30. ^ Deepa Deosthalee (17 July 1998). "My first break". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  31. ^ "A Bizarre Makrand…". Metblogs.com. 10 March 2006. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  32. ^ a b c Anurag Kashyap (26 November 2006). "Satya - The true story, Part 2". PassionForCinema.com. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  33. ^ Ram Gopal Varma (23 March 2009). "My Reactions to Reactions". Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  34. ^ Subhash K Jha (27 December 2001). "Not Another Satya". Rediff.com. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  35. ^ a b AL Chougule (7 July 2000). "Mazhar Kamran - The camera as the real hero". Screen Weekly. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  36. ^ Jitesh Pillaai (29 May 2005). "Black & White lights up Bollywood". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  37. ^ a b Saibal Chatterjee (27 July 1998). "The Naked Truth". Outlook Magazine. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  38. ^ "Satya has Telugu and Tamil versions as well." India Directorate of Film Festivals (1999). Indian Cinema: The Indian Panorama 1998. Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. p. 56.
  39. ^ Ritika Ramtri (8 September 1998). "Dubbing Thomas". Indian Express. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  40. ^ Khalid Mohamed (2 August 2006). "I'm here to be the best actor of India". DNA. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  41. ^ Sandeep Unnithan (23 November 1998). "English films bleed as censor board makes deep cuts". Indian Express. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  42. ^ MSM Desai & Deepa Deosthalee (11 August 1999). "Censors cut A Long Journey short". Indian Express. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  43. ^ Gurbir Singh (25 December 1998). "Star Plus' Satya plans in trouble". Economic Times. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  44. ^ Shailaja Bajpai (4 January 1999). "Who says it doesn't pay?". Indian Express. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  45. ^ Roshmila Bhattacharya (4 July 2003). "Small Wonders". Screen Weekly. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  46. ^ Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network (12 November 2013). "Satya (1998) v Satya 2 In Delhi/UP". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  47. ^ Sanjay Jog (9 October 1998). "State exempts Satya from entertaintment tax again". Indian Express. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  48. ^ Shobha De. "Time To Get Real". Sunday MiD DAY. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  49. ^ Khalid Mohammed. "Nothing but the truth". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  50. ^ "Press reviews". Satya official site. Retrieved 4 March 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  51. ^ Deepa Deosthalee (4 July 1998). "Film Review—Satya". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  52. ^ Ali Peter John. "The truth terrorises". Screen Weekly. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  53. ^ "A filmmaker is like a journalist". BBC World. 29 July 2004. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  54. ^ Philip Lutgendorf is Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies at the University of Iowa's Department of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures.
  55. ^ Philip Lutgendorf. "philip's fil-ums - notes on Indian popular cinema - Satya". Retrieved 22 June 2008.
  56. ^ "1999 Awards". Bimal Roy Memorial.
  57. ^ "Ram Gopal verma:Sarkar: Yet another fantastic movie from the Stylish Director". Reachouthyderabad.com. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  58. ^ Rachna Kanwar (3 October 2005). "25 Must See Bollywood Movies". Indiatimes Movies. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  59. ^ Amitava Kumar (23 December 2008). "Slumdog Millionaire's Bollywood Ancestors". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  60. ^ Sunder. "Satya". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 15 August 2010.
  61. ^ Stithaprajna (7 May 2002). "One dark melody, and one parody please". The Music Magazine. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  62. ^ "Sandeep Chowta - When global sound calls". IndiaGlitz. 11 April 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  63. ^ Pradeep Sebastian (10 May 2002). "Music, for the special touch". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 June 2008.
  64. ^ Tushar Joshi (3 February 2004). "A different beat in Hindi cinema". Rediff.com. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  65. ^ a b Subhash K Jha (5 November 1999). "Sandeep Chowta - Hearing him is a Mast!". Screen Weekly. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  66. ^ ASC (13 November 1998). "Audioscan". The Tribune. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  • Official Site
  • Satya at IMDb
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