#Satyagrah : That Sense of "Missed Opportunities"

You watched the promos and as an aam admi identified with the anger seething inside against a corrupt system,  you reminiscence the Prakash Jha – Ajay Devgan combo brewing thunder on screen, you walked into the theatre with great anticipation to realize Satyagrah is an under cooked and over spiced spread whose soul is missing. Made with the right intention the movie suffers from the fatal flaw of a script stuffed with numerous sub plots, lack of focus on developing strong motive or etching out characters and sloppy editing.

                                         

In spite of vehement denial the script is a cinematic adaptation of Anna Hazare’s “Jan Lokpal” movement. It starts with the conflict between chasing money and following value and ends with preaching non violence and importance of staying in the system to change the system, in between it tries to connect as many dots, from the Satyendra Dubey murder case to grass root level corruption, to a rotten political – administrative system, the angst of common men, but fails to connect with the audience. Satyagrah will always remind Prakash Jha , how nearly he missed making a great socially relevant movie, by being either too casual , too self obsessed or making the cardinal mistake of taking the audience as fools. Dwarka Anand’s battle against the system is what each one of us is fighting today. We are as confused with the path, the end and the philosophy as Manav & Yasmin were. We watch their pain, yet it doesn’t torment us. We don’t fume in anger looking at the system’s apathy.  And this is where, Jha in spite of profusely using melodrama fails miserably.

 Amitabh Bachchan and Manoj Bajpayee with their superlative performance stand tall amidst a star cast that looks terribly jaded. Kareena Kapoor’s role as a journalist and activist is as confusing as Arjun Rampal’s presence in the movie. Prasoon Joshi pens a hauntingly melodious “Rash ke Bhare Naina” and disappoints with a dismal “Junta Rocks”.

In spite of numerous cinematic flaws, Satyagrah is a movie that people should watch for its candid intent, for canvassing the socio political activism of last decade, for instilling a sense of “uthkar karne hain kuch kaam, raghupati raghav raja ram” spirit in the youth.

As you walk out of the auditorium that feeling of “missed opportunities” grips you …….

Madras Cafe

#Madras Café: As an innocuous kid I woke up on the morning of 22^nd May 1991 to hear about the assassination of our former prime minister. There was terror, grief and anger in the air. As I settled down on my seat and watched the opening scene of merciless killing of innocent people and the helicopters flying in the sky I could feel the same terror and anguish.  Shoojit Sircar after directing two vastly different, but extremely relevant topics, love in the back drop of a terror struck Kashmir (Yahaan) and sperm donation (Vicky Donor) comes back to paint a gripping picture of the dark alleys of Jafna , the inglorious days of constant threat from the LTTE and the violent result of a political decision .

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s revolutionary” sums up the back drop of Madras Café. A debatable decision taken in June 1987 to send the IPKF to Colombo to hold the rebels and initiate peace process ironically ended in 1991 with the assassination of the Prime Minister. Sircar’s political thriller abstains from naming anyone, but his plot is a sublime combination of facts with fiction. He uses voice over and flashback to take his story back & forth and imageries shot in documentary style to showcase the strife torn island and its bloodied history. As the main protagonist Major Vikram (John Abraham) has been assigned the task of carrying out covert operations. While on his mission he discovers the deep treachery that people in the system are involved in. His disillusionment and sense of loss (both personal & professional) is heart wrenching. John surrenders himself to the character and gives a restrained performance essential for the role. The scenes between the military, cabinet secretaries and RAW chiefs are shot realistically. Sidhhartha Basu as a demanding chief fits into the role beautifully. Nargis Fakhri fails to impress even with the accent and Rashi Khanna has very limited scope to showcase her ability.

   

Kamaljeet Negi deserves a special mention for using unique camera angles to paint reality and capturing emotions in a terror prone land where treachery rules. Madras Café is a difficult plot handled with immense maturity and much restraint. It avoids unnecessary jingoism and ends on an intriguing note asking pertinent questions as maula sun le re plays in the backdrop.

I will go with 4 out of 5 for a movie that captures a piece of our distorted political history and surely deserves an audience. It may not excite you to do “Lungi Dance” but surely will enrich your cinematic experience!

P.S.: A bit understanding of the backdrop of IPKF and Tamil Eelum movement will help in understanding the essence of the movie.