Many tend to see that this is just another "run-of-the-mill" Hindi crime-drama/gangster, but I feel it ranks quite well, even high, within the pantheon: "Parinda" (1989) for example is considered "realist", but "Risk" is less melodramatic, including in the characterization, as Vinod Khanna as Khalid Bin Jamal offers a more understated performance than Nana Patekar as Anna, who could come across as loud. Vinod Khanna didn't need to be menacing to be a menace.
As for "Satya" (1999) I found that Ram Gopal Varma tended to over-stylize, emphasizing a bit too much on camera angles as well the background score that could take away attention from the frames.
I know the director has been a student of RGV and that his previous movie "D" (2005) concluded RGV's "gangster trilogy", but here Vishram Sawant exorcised all the RGVian influences in a way, at least the overbearing influences.
Among the other good points: a tight screenplay (no unnecessary character developments or subplots); the action is smooth; a good supporting cast, especially Yashpal Sharma as the "mad brother," who brings in all the gritty and even garish elements to the maximum, even to the hyperbole; and a lack of female characters, which ironically is a positive in this particular case.
The background music is a good companion, and the cinematography also enhances the movie's aesthetics. Towards the second end, there are some plans of Mumbai at night that are unparalleled.
Then the dialogues, hard-hitting but not overdone like we see in later movies such as "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai" (2010) and "Shootout at Wadala" (2013), where they become a vanity enabler for the lead actor, who then pronounces "one-liners" with some hard-hitting BGM to appear "swag." Here, too, it's not melodramatic yet memorable (for example, Khalid Bin Jamal about "time and game").
The movie's greatest plus is probably Vinod Khanna's performance as the antagonist, it was his acting return after some 5 years I believe, and he played a Dawood Ibrahim-based Khalid Bin Jamal with perfection, not too understated (Ajay Devgan in "Company", 2002) nor too cliché (Rishi Kapoor in "D-Day", 2013), but nuanced and weighted, unparallel screen presence despite not much shouting and glaring.
Overall, a more than decent product that somehow goes under the radar.
