A laborious watch. Review on Satyagraha

Review of Satyagraha- The film is loosely based on the rise of Anna Hazare movement. With the real life events having been very recent, all the filmmaker had to do was write script for a plot that weaves a story around the real life event. It therefore comes up with a fictitious town where AB gets to play an aggrieved old man.

We have appreciated Prakash Jha, in the past, for picking up themes that concern the nation at large, but an underwhelming screen version of a real life event fails to impress. When attempting a film of such large dimensions, there’s no dearth of screenplay and it essentially boils down to picking up the required pieces and delivering the punch with slick editing. Sadly Satyagraha fails on most counts here.

The film is replete with pontification from the ‘Jan Andolan’ leaders which becomes unbearable towards the 2nd half. Every stage scene mandatorily includes all the lead star cast standing abreast of each other(so as to not offend one of them I guess) as do the posters behind them.

A good film is one which seems real life and therefore grips the viewer in its midst. But most scenes in this film have large crowds and one can almost sense the disquiet they exude from the re-takes in the hot weather. The characters penned are one dimensional and all politicians are painted with a single stroke of brush. The story as well is one dimensional with all intrigues put in purely for cosmetic purposes.

And in the end, for all the noise bytes the film offers, there’s no new great idea of governance, which it has to offer. The few good moments in the film, belong to Amitabh and these happen in close shots with fewer people in the frame. This is a directors film with little for others to do, and whatever they do is generally palatable.  3 STARS