Satyagraha Reviews Topic - Page 9

Originally posted by: bsker

and some people are blaming her character and not the fact that she could not convince with her acting.😆

LOL exactly. Its a Prakash Jha film, I have already got to hear reviews from people and they simply LOVED it and thought the whole film was very impressive and truly makes you want to stand up and protest against the corrupt politicians of our country.

Blaming the script when its actually one of the best this year.. nah, that does not make sense Desigal. Is it that hard to accept that Kareena was just not convincing enough as Yasmin for a lot of viewers? Actually its something I should've expected coming from you.. since you have been negative about this film even before its release.

Originally posted by: K.Sean

LOL exactly. Its a Prakash Jha film, I have already got to hear reviews from people and they simply LOVED it and thought the whole film was very impressive and truly makes you want to stand up and protest against the corrupt politicians of our country.

Blaming the script when its actually one of the best this year.. nah, that does not make sense Desigal. Is it that hard to accept that Kareena was just not convincing enough as Yasmin for a lot of viewers? Actually its something I should've expected coming from you.. since you have been negative about this film even before its release.

Aarakshan. Chakravuyha were Prakash Jha films and were horrible

Raajneeti was also only decent

I hardly seem to hear anything positive about the movie

And Kareena's character has been bashed by pretty much everyone'

and a few that did like the character liked her performance

Thats all 😊

Review: Satyagraha fails miserably
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Last updated on: August 30, 2013 08:55 IST

Prasanna D Zore feels Prakash Jha's Satyagraha is a terrible hodgepodge of Arakshan, Rajneeti and Gangaajal.

Like in Aarakshan, Rajneeti and Chakravyuh, in Satyagraha too, Jha dares to take on the well-entrenched vested interests that symbolise the current political turmoil in the country, but in equally frivolous vein fritters away the chance to capture his audience's attention with the mastery that he once showcased while steering Mrityudand, Gangaajal and Apaharan in recent times and much earlier with Damul.

When the film ends -- a good 152 minutes later -- one comes out with a feeling that Jha might have outsourced his job to somebody who was under no compulsion to do justice to his audience as well as to the film's superstar-cast.

When the film opens a train trundles into a fictitious Ambikapur station. Thereon the film trudges its length trying to bank upon such big names like Amitabh Bachchan (Dwarka Anand, a Gandhian school teacher), Ajay Devgn (Manav Raghvendra, an ambitious, wily, businessman-turned Satyagrahi), Kareena Kappoor (Yasmin Ahmed, a journalist-turned Satyagrahi) and Arjun Rampal (Arjun, a student leader).

Sadly, each one of them look out of place in roles that are half-baked and served dry. These characters look as scattered as the scenes that one gets to see in the film after a number of lathi-charges on Anand and his band of satyagrahis.

While Bachchan tries honestly to portray Anna Hazare -- there is lot of resemblance between the star cast of Satyagraha and the personalities that made Team Anna in the heydays of the Gandhian's agitation to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill in August 2011 -- in the first half of the film, past interval he gets overwhelmed by the weak script that tries to give screen time to the entire star-cast.

Ajay Devgn looks drowsy throughout the film. The ease with which he delivers his punchlines is sorely missed as he mumbles his dialogues.

Kareena Kapoor's TV journalist is all over the place. Strangely, at times she is the only journalist shown to be covering the "revolution" that engulfs the streets of Ambikapur as the 70-year old Anand slaps the district collector and gets arrested for taking on the wily Balram Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and the system.

Arjun Rampal is so casual with his character that at times you wonder if he is taking a stroll in the garden as he shares dais with a fasting Anand, Manav and Yasmin.

On the opposite side of these satyagrahis is Bajpayee, who plays a scheming legislator from Ambikapur, and at times gets to show his venality and guile. Bajpayee does play his politician shrewdly but at times stretches his funny bone a little too much.

In an attempt to connect Anand's revolution with the twitter-generation, Jha makes abundant use of hash-tags and asterisks, tablets and laptops, but he forgets that these media can just act as catalysts to bring the revolutionaries together. These media can never substitute the real ingredient that inspires revolutions and revolutionaries. And that is a strong script, a gripping storyline and spell-binding story-telling.

Satyagraha fails miserably in all these three departments.

However, an attempt to recreate the scenes that the nation witnessed during Anna Hazare's agitation in August 2011 does create some resonance with the events India was glued to 24x7.

Music by Indian Ocean, Salim-Suleiman, Aadesh Shriivastava and Anjjan Meet fails to uplift the film's tired mood and lyricist Prasoon Joshi makes you run for shelter with numbers like Janata Rocks!

And here's why one feels that Jha seems to have outsourced his job:

Don't miss the scene when Manav explains his strategy on a whiteboard to find out pending applications of thousands of villagers from more than 200 panchayats to take on Balram Singh and his inefficient district administration.

Ahmed's cameraman keeps shooting Anand who is seated opposite Manav, instead of Manav. Such a neglect for details elicits laughter and makes you think if Jha really, really was the helmsman of this sinking ship.

Having said all this Jha must still be appreciated for making films on topics that the mainstream Bollywood producers-directors happily ignore to explore. Never mind the film's treatment, though.

rating:1 star

Review: Satyagraha makes you cry at times
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Last updated on: August 30, 2013 11:27 IST

Satyagraha attempts to speak about important issues but ends up over-simplifying them, says Paloma Sharma.

Prakash Jha's much-awaited political thriller, Satyagraha has a heart of gold.

Made in the right political climate, it's a film to watch out for.

On the surface, the plot is uncomplicated -- a retired school principal and chief of a small town, fed up with the system of governance, slaps the collector of his zilla (district).

Dwarka Anand (Amitabh Bachchan) is a man of staunch Gandhian principles. A retired school headmaster, Dwarka inculcates the same values in his son Akhilesh (Indraneil Sengupta) -- an engineer.

When Akhilesh is killed, minister Balram Singh publicly declares a hefty amount in compensation for Akhilesh's widow, Sumitra (Amrita Rao).

Despite this, Akhilesh's father and his widow receive nothing. Eventually, after Sumitra is humiliated in the government office, Dwarka Anand seeks a meeting with the openly corrupt and arrogant collector, whom he ends up slapping which leads to him being put behind bars.

Akhilesh's best friend Manav Raghavendra (Ajav Devgn), an extremely ambitious entrepreneur with capitalistic values and a man Dwarka Anand disapproves of, returns from the USA and gets the best lawyers available to ensure the release of his deceased best friend's father.

Unable to do so through legal channels, Manav resorts to building a social campaign that spirals into a bigger protest against the system than any of them could have imagined.

While it would be useless to comment on Amitabh Bachchan's performance, for he remains flawless as ever, it was a tad difficult to watch Ajay Devgn slip out of his Singham avatar and try on a more sensitive role, making one wonder where Omkara had disappeared.

His lady love, Kareena Kapoor, who plays TV journalist Yasmin Ahmed, comes off as a natural even though she does not have much to work with. It is a little sad, that the other actress in the film -- Amrita Rao -- doesn't quite get it right.

Rao recedes in the background in the crowded star cast at crucial points. Neither is she always present in scenes.

There are moments, just tenths of a second, when you'll see her lost amidst the other characters, not completely present in the scene as her expression sometimes shifts to sheer boredom -- and who would blame her? She has nothing much to do except cry and worry about her father-in-law.

Arjun Rampal is adequate in his character, a wannabe bahubali (a local goon with political aspirations) of the area. Although a few notches below his last performance in D-Day, Rampal is fairly believable.

However, the real star of the show is minister Balram Singh aka Manoj Bajpayee. Slick as ever, Bajpayee prowls across the screen with the ease of a veteran jungle cat who is well aware of his apex predator status in the forest.

His coversations are sprinkled with a few English words as he charms people -- both on and off screen -- with his Hindi heartland accent. Soft spoken with theatric hand gestures, a believer in negotiation and a master manipulator, Balram Singh is the morally bankrupt politician. If you need just one reason to watch this film, Manoj Bajpayee is it.

Also, Satyagraha has its fair share of good music. From Raske bhare tore naina (avoid the video though) to Satyagraha, music composer duo Salim-Sulaiman successfully capture the atmosphere of a protest in their pro-people anthem, Satyagraha.

However, as well-meaning and youth-friendly as Meet Brothers would have wanted their track to sound, Janta Rocks doesn't quite nail it. The phrase itself seems a little odd but then again, perhaps that is because I have never been a fan of Hinglish.

There are times when Satyagraha makes you cry, especially during the scenes where Dwarka Anand mourns the loss of his only child.

There are also scenes that will make you cringe and wish you'd carried a paper bag along to puke in. If you're smart, you'll know that you ought to close your eyes when Jha begins a new (and extremely awkward) track which has Manav and Yasmin indulging in some heavy-duty romance.

Satyagraha starts off well and manages to engage the audience for the first 30-40 minutes but it slowly begins to lose its touch. It becomes preachy to the point of making you want to role your eyes.

Clearly inspired by the Anna Hazare movement, Satyagraha attempts to replicate it and explain what went wrong. What went wrong with the film itself, is the delayed climax.

If you have lofty ideas for your country or are just plain sick and tired of the corruption that has crept in, Satyagraha is definitely for you. However, if you follow politics and have had the opportunity to open a newspaper, just avoid it.

Satyagraha attempts to speak about important issues but ends up over-simplifying them. Nevertheless, it is a good attempt.

Rating 3 Stars

So one rediff review gives one satr and the other 3 stars 😆

Satyagraha review: Bachchan, Bajpai fail to save film

by Ravina Rawal Aug 30, 2013

#Ajay Devgn #Amitabh Bachchan #Arjun Rampal #MovieReview

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India, get angry.

Rise, already.

Protect your women, fight the filth of our corrupt system, demand better infrastructure, public safety and a more secure future. Embrace the power of social media, try peaceful candlelight vigils, stand outside a public office and refuse to leave till they give in to your demands, if that's what you think will work. Just don't expect Prakash Jha to incite any of this zeal in you with Satyagraha.

Resident of the fictional town of Ambikapur, Dwarka Anand (Amitabh Bachchan) is a morally upright schoolteacher and the father of Akhilesh (Indraneil Sengupta), an engineer with the department of National Highways who is killed in a road accident some 15 minutes into the film.

The grieving father and Akhilesh's widow Sumitra (Amrita Rao) are promised a compensatory sum of Rs 25 lakh by minister Balram Singh (the perfectly cast Manoj Bajpai). Except the money never comes and Sumitra, who wants to set up a school with that money, ends up making endless rounds of the government offices where nothing works without a bribe. Infuriated by the workings of the system and the insult suffered by his daughter-in-law, Dwarka storms into the office himself and slaps the guy in charge. This lands him a seven-day sentence in police custody, which he insists on serving because he doesn't want to pay his way out and presumably wants to catch up on all his newspaper reading.

Courtesy: Facebook



In town for his friend Akhilesh's funeral and trying to get Dwarka out is Manav (Ajay Devgn), a successful telecom businessman who we have been free to judge in earlier scenes of the movie because he swigs alcohol from a hip flask, has the greed to want to be a billionaire and conducts all his business meetings in swish nightclubs surrounded by item girls. Dwarka resents him for all that he stands for, but Manav"who lost his parents in an accident when he was young"considers him and Sumitra family.

Seeing Dwarka behind bars, stubbornly refusing the underhand monetary exchanges attempted to secure his release, Manav has a eureka moment and new plan to get the old man out: public outrage. He prints "FREE DADUJI" (that's what everyone in Ambikapur calls Dwarka) posters at a cyber caf and enlists the help of college youths rounded up by Ambikapur's self-proclaimed Robin Hood, Arjun Singh (played by Arjun Rampal, who is so downright sexy that I don't particularly care if he can act or not).

Once they get some noise going on the streets of Ambikapur and enough Likes, Retweets and Shares across social media platforms, the movement feels credible enough for Manav to call top journalist Yasmin Ahmed. She instantly dumps an exclusive interview with the Prime Minister to rush across to Ambikapur and cover the uprising herself.

So, to recap: so far we've covered bribes, corruption, the collapse of a flyover, protests, tear gas, water cannons and lathi charges. (A little later, we also get into a hunger strike a la Anna Hazare, but more on that in a bit.) Sounds familiar? That's the point. And the message is clear: our country is a mess. But so is this movie. In its flying urgency to hit home and hit hard, it tries to pack in everything we've been outraged about in the last couple of years at once. It's too much too fast, and Satyagraha ends up missing the mark completely. Salim-Sulaiman, Aadesh Srivastava and Indian Ocean contribute to a soundtrack that races to keep up, but the movie just doesn't deliver. In fact, the only anger it incites from the audience is its dismal failure at a wake-up call of any sort, even a precious two and a half hours later.

Silver linings include Bachchan and Bajai's performances, which are the best of the lot. Bajpai effortlessly plays a menacing, corrupt political figure, while Bachchan is powerful and restrained in his quiet fury, dealing with the tragedy of losing his son and the horrific state of affairs in the country. But, almost as though he has read the minds of the audience, even he gives up post-interval as he lies down in the middle of his hunger strike and closes his eyes, leaving the rest of the cast to handle the business of a mind-numbingly long fight against corruption and injustice " reflecting what led to the formation of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party.

We're not faulting Jha for trying to taking on a socio-political issue and trying to make a difference. He's had some luck with a couple of his previous films along similar lines. But despite an able cast and a potentially-solid premise, Satyagraha sadly crumbles and fades with the weight of trying too hard.

I was already uninterested in the film and now the reviews have completely killed my mood to even watch it on my laptop 😛

Komal Nahta @KomalNahta 1h

Got the collection figures of SATYAGRAHA from Rajasthan. Opening there is excellent! Other places, not as good.

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Komal Nahta @KomalNahta 6h

SATYAGRAHA is good in parts but 2 convenient a screenplay and 2 idealistic a subject r sore points.Read my review at http://komalsreviews.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/185/
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These are such extreme reviews..
Either high praise or highly criticised...no one is saying "its an ok film or it is a so-so film"..

They are either over praising it or over-dissing it..

Lol.,.One review wrote a para criticizing Amrita..,.hahaha...That must be more than her entire role in the film,,,ROFL...Since most reviews have skipped even mentioning her in the cast...Hilarious !!

I thought Kareena and Amitabh would get fab reviews...But Kareena is getting smashed...Weird...Even Ajay...such films are right up Ajay's alley...

It says Kareena's character was so weird.