Satyamev Jayate (2018)
Directed by : Milap Milan Jhaveri
This action packed revenge drama is more like an tribute to the good ol 80’s revenge dramas that essentially dominated that decade and the early 90’s.
There is a serial killer on the prowl who is literally burning to ashes all the corrupt officers on his list in Mumbai city. A vigilant earnest police officer is assigned the task to nab the killer as they are criticised for their inability to protect victims of their own tribe. A cat and mouse chase ensues and the officer is unaware that the cold blooded killer is closer home.
The director is highly and totally influenced by 80’s revenge dramas what with the hero flexing his biceps and tearing open a tyre, setting ablaze police officers and fighting three men at a time single handedly, this is oh so 80’s and 90’s. They could’ve well renamed the movie Paap Ko Jalaakar Raakh Kar Doonga, now that’s another 80’s title featuring a blood thirsty Dharmendra. Agreed there are two major twists one right before the intermission and one at the penultimate moment before the climax, yet Jhaveri fails to raise the bar higher, not that there were any expectations.
Screenplay, story, editing, stunts just about everything is straight out of some leftover rejected 80’s Bollywood archival library. Lesser written about the music the better, looks like they ran out of originality and rehashed the Alka Yagnik Classic “Dilbar” which will get on your nerves.
Manoj Bajpaye is a fantastic actor and you give him any role he will by default turn it into gold, he performs well and one must watch him in the climax sequence where he appears the only realistic performer amongst a bunch of wooden co stars. Talking of “wooden” the bulky John Abraham does a fine job of playing the quintessential stuntman by beating the hell out of bloody co stars and junior artistes, his contribution to the blood and gore is maximum but poor guy has zilch expressions on his brawny face.
Manish Chaudhry, Chetan Pandit, Rajesh Khera and a host of character actors portray the wronged policemen and have no space to perform except getting burnt to ashes. Newbie Aisha Sharma ( looks like a young Neha Dhupia and talks like a mature Sunil Shetty) is a disaster as Abraham’s love interest. Amruta Khanvilkar is lost in a hardly there appearance.
Wonder why the director thinks of only the minority community as probable victims in this film as the policemen are shown inflicting torture and harassing mostly vulnerable Muslims. Even the tense situations appear hilarious unless you are the hyper sensitive variety then you may not able to digest the overdose of violence therein. Yes you read it right there is hell lot of violence in this revenge drama.
Jhaveri Baba has extracted inspiration from movies like Aaj Ki Awaz (1984) and several potboilers of the 80’s and tried presenting it as an old wine in s fresh classy bottle. A treat for mindless action (read violent) flick lovers, others can give it a miss.
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