By Shevaal Singh…
Post the successful Rajneeti director Prakash Jha’s is back with ‘Satyagraha’ is a venture which sought to capture the misconducts of the government by indications of social movements against corruption. Jha manages to keep his production values high by making a concrete impact. ‘Satyagraha’ is a socio-political film which illustrates the wrongs in India’s political system. Dwarka Anand (Amitabh Bachchan) a Gandhi enthusiast who values and has a deep desire to contribute towards the society where he lives, in this film he is the ‘Angry Old Man’ of the 21st century fighting against the many social injustices prevailing at large. His Gold medallist engineer son Akhilesh’s (Indraneil Sen Gupta) shadowy death causes him further rage and he is joined by his widowed daughter-in-law Sumitra (Amrita Rao), his dead son’s best friend Manav Raghvendra (Ajay Devgn), local gangster turned social worker and wishful politician Arjun (Arjun Rampal), and a journalist Yasmin Ahmed (Kareena Kapoor).
It all started starts as a small protest against the power hungry corrupt which spirals into a colossal revolution. ‘Satyagraha’ aims to depict the difficulty of the common man in a just manner and shows how the malicious government tried to derail every movement posing a threat to its position. The love story between Ajay-Kareena adds a diverse element to the film. ‘Satyagraha’ ends abruptly perhaps leaving scope for a sequel.
Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan slip well into the shoes of their respective characters but we have seen the stars in this genre before namely ‘Aarakshan’, ‘Rajneeti’ and ‘Gangajal’. Manoj Bajpai vindicated his character of a comic-villain admirably and the delivery of some very well written cynicism by him is quite entertaining. Amrita Rao’s character barely has any speaking screen space and she is successful when she portrays the pain of her character in the emotional scenes. Kareena Kapoor is amazing! She rules the frame whenever she appears. There is not much to say about Arjun Rampal role except that he had made most of what he had been given to do and still stands out in his performance.
‘Raske bhare tore naina’ rendered by Shafqat Amanat Ali is the song that shines in the soundtrack. ‘Satyagraha’ depicts how the road to freedom from the despicable and corrupt government is long and not an easy one. The casting was accurate and precise. The dialogues were well written and very witty at times. The move lacks the ability to make a solid imact but still manages to entertain. The star-studded cast makes this movie worth watching in their expressively explosive performances.
The stars who impress the most are Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Manoj Bajpai. Satyagraha brings back the feeling of patriotism and revolution. If you love serious socio-political cinema then this is a film for you. The movie did end in an abrupt manner which in context indicates that a sequel may be in the pipeline and let’s hope the sequel has more of an impact. The film gets a 7/10. A must watch for all Big B and Kareena Kapoor fans.