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Satya (1998)

Satya (1998)

Cast: Urmila Matondkar, Chekravarthy, Manoj Bajpai, Shefali Chhaya, Saurabh Shukla

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Music: Vishal Bharadwaj

Lyrics: Gulzar

Capsule Review: One of India’s most influential crime dramas, Satya took its astute and original director Ram Gopal Varma into the bowels of underworld crime in Mumbai. Done in a relentless documentary style, the stark visuals of violence and aggression on the swarming streets of Mumbai gave an all-new definition to the action genre in Indian cinema. All the violence was staged with the fluency and virility of real life. The characters, especially the by-now legendary Bhikhu Mhatre (played by Manoj Bajpai who catapulted to instant stardom after the rugged and raw role), project a bewildering residue of realism while remaining cinematic creatures filled with dark, uncontrollable and indefinable passions. At the centre of this lopsided crime thriller is the protagonist, Satya, played by Telugu actor Chekravarthy whose initiation and acclimatization into the world of crime takes him and the innocent middle-class girl Vidya (Matondkar, remarkably deglamourized) down.

Crime