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The most beautiful thing about Satya is that almost every person associated with the film was a newcomer. It was his first or second project. And their ambitions, dreams and sweat paid very well for the movie and the result is that this is considered the best crime movie ever made in India.

The movie starts with Satya (J D Chakravarthy) coming to Mumbai seeking employment. Things don't go right for him in Mumbai and he ends up in a fight with Jagga (Jeeva) who works for don Guru Narayan (Raju Mavani). To revenge his insult, Jagga gets Satya arrested in false charges. Satya is very brave man and his bravery is seen in the fight with Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpai) who is another don of Mumbai mafia. Bhiku is very much impressed by his bravado and offers him work in his gang. Satya accepts it. They give Satya a place to live, free of any charges.

With his intelligence, Satya becomes a special man for Bhiku very soon and helps him in looting and murdering and planning murders of politicians and members from other gangs. Along with all this work, Satya soon gets involved with a girl Vidya (Urmila Matondkar) who is his neighbour. He doesn't tell her about his job and his partners. She gets to know about Bhiku but as a co-worker in the company where Satya works. The scene when they meet Bhiku and his wife in a restaurant is beautifully performed and brilliantly directed.

The most promising character and portrayal in the film is of Bhiku Mhatre. Bhiku represents a common man who loves his family and has been in mafia world for a long time, first unwillingly and then with reasons which, in fact, are made with much ease in this industry. You know his way of working is not subtle at all and he is robbing people and killing many others but you can't hate this character. There is a suitable humor added to this character by the director and by the actor. Bhiku lives a simple life except when he is playing a gangster. Manoj Bajpai brings the much wanted shades and characteristics to Bhiku Mhatre. Manoj Bajpai is a great actor and definitely one of India's best. He has probably not given the roles which he deserved. But he has played every role with an enthusiasm of a newcomer and excellence of an experienced actor.

The leading man, J D Chakravarthy, seemed to me the greatest problem with the film. He has acted well but he is not familiar with the language and that is a big problem here. Sometimes he seems so much irritating that you just don't want to see him anymore. He is a South Indian actor and has worked in many Telugu movies before Satya. I definitely wanted some person who was well aware of the language and the setting of the film.

Urmila Matondkar as Vidya is OK. She hasn't got many scenes in which she's got to act. Vidya is pretty, funny, sensitive and caring. She has got problems at her home. She dreams of a sound future with Satya, of course unknown of his gang work. She is a singer and is in search for a job but when a composer tries to harass her, she tells Satya about it and you know what happens next! The composer is threatened by the gang and is forced to give Vidya a very nice position. Saurabh Shukla as Kallu Mama is brilliant. He is the guy who orders Bhiku and his gang. He is also a very good human being. He knows much about the mafia and is giving Bhiku lessons from time to time. There are many good actors in very small roles as Sanjay Mishra, playing a goon, and then there is Shefali Shetty, playing Bhiku's wife. I fell in love with her acting after the critically acclaimed Monsoon Wedding (2001). That was the era when Ram Gopal Verma was considered the best director in India. I don't know what happened but he lost the tune after 2004 and never got it back. It is good that he is still trying and whenever there is a RGV movie getting released, people wish it to be like Satya or Company (2002). These movies are the best ones made on the subject of crime and mafia. There are many directors who criticize RGV and want him to stop making films. I only have one question to all those directors: RGV made terrible films like Aag, Satya 2 and so did you. But he also made Satya and Company and have you done anything even close to that?

The story and screenplay is penned by Saurabh Shukla, who plays Kallu Mama, and the brilliant director-writer Anurag Kashyap. Anurag Kashyap was a struggler just like many others in the film when he was offered this film. The songs in the movie are average with average music by Vishal Bhardwaj. Actually, there was no need for songs at all. A couple of them are good but rest are unnecessary and break the pace of the movie. Background score is given by Sandeep Chowta and he does a swell job here.

Overall, this film is the best take on the world of crime and gangsters. Not just it showcases the crime, it also tells about the personal lives of the gangsters which really makes the audience not to hate the characters. Satya means "Truth" in English. And here it means the truth of the mafia and the mafia members. This one is really special film for me. There are mistakes in this film too but they are completely overshadowed by the brilliance of the film and the excellent filmmaking.

Highway tells the story of a gang member Mahabir Bhati (Randeep Hooda) and Veera (Alia Bhatt), as they travel through cities in Mahabir's truck. For some of them at first, Veera is all tied up in the back of the truck when Mahabir is driving, and for the rest, she is enjoying the ride with Mahabir in the front seat. A lot happens in between. At first, Veera is trying everything to run away but after spending some days with the gang, she comes to like their freedom,their stories and their life, and she doesn't want to leave them even when they ask her to go back to their parents.

At the starting of the film, Veera is a stupid girl who is also a amateur in many things but towards the end of the film, she is completely changed. She is fearless, she is grown, she understands the world more efficiently, and she is free. Mahabir is a rude person who is also strongly built up and that is enough to fear the guy. When he was kidnapping Veera, all he thought was that she is just a girl who has seen them killing other people. But she is not. Veera is daughter of perhaps the most rich person in the city and that scares Mahabir. He is scolded by his own gang leaders for making this mistake but he fears no one and runs off with two of his partners and the girl. He is on a double run, one from his gang and one from Veera's family.

Then there is Veera who is crying like a baby at the beginning but when she realises that this is not going to help her, she tries to run away but she chooses the wrong time and the wrong place. At that time, they are in a desert and there is not a soul in miles range. She runs away and comes back the same night. She surrenders in her attempts and tries to befriend Mahabir's partners, she knows they will be easier than Mahabir. But as time passes, Mahabir becomes more than a friend to her. She even tells him a dreadful truth she hasn't told anyone.

It is Alia Bhatt's second film after Student of the Year. Being Mahesh Bhatt's daughter, she didn't have to face any difficulties to get a break. In SOTY, she doesn't have to "act" in serious scenes, thanks to the complete lack of seriousness in the film. But here she is out of her comfort zone and has to act and that too in challenging scenes. But as they say that you just have to react when a good actor is performing. That helps Alia a lot.

Randeep is undoubtedly very good actor. Here also he performs brilliantly. He is not given a very playful character. Randeep Hooda said that it was a depressing character and that depression didn't leave him long after the shooting ended. He even said that he can not play this character again.

I hope Alia Bhatt does this kind of films more often.

The first half of the movie is much elongated which makes it boring also and for sure, it could've been 15-20 minutes shorter. At that time, amazing music by A. R. Rahman comes to your rescue. All the songs were already a hit before the film was released and in the movie too, they are placed at the perfect places. Background score is very subtle and not very much is tried by Rahman and that works very well. In the last 30-minutes, the score is brilliant and you'll get goosebumps when it meets the climax scenes and some very good acting.

Cinematography by Anil Mehta is mesmerizing and India is shown in a very different way. But it seems the director was very much lost into the beauty of the highways of India. There were unnecessary long shots taken.

As I said many times before, there is a definite lack of sense and pace in the first half and that makes even good written scenes boring. Imtiaz Ali, the director-writer of the film, said that he had this film written 15-years in past. And perhaps this was the perfect time to make the film. Had he made the film a couple of years ago, it would've been a flop. Indian audiences have got a taste for serious drama with no dance numbers just a few years back. Also, he couldn't have had Alia Bhatt then. There is no doubting his directorial skills. He has made brilliant films like Rockstar and Jab We Met. Here also he does a swell job. But again, the first half! I'm not saying that this a bad movie or just a one-time-watch movie, it is very good and has a place in my heart but there are mistakes made in this film. If it would have been two films of one hour each, I would've given 1.5 stars to the first movie and 4.5 to second. In India, people say that second half of the movie must be better than the first half. Here audience get exactly that. But the first half was way more sluggish than could've been allowed and I was yawning which I hate most during a film. The movie is very good, the acting is very good, the music is very good, but the first half is very very bad. Sometimes I think how could a director like Imtiaz Ali make a mistake like that. But he is also a human and making mistakes is the right of humankind. I will finish this review with these four words: I loved this movie.

City Lights, made back in 1930, is a love story featuring our favorite funny character, the Tramp. First time,I watched this movie two years back with my friends. That time we laughed very much. But as I was watching the movie, I felt that I have to watch this movie alone sometime to get the feel and the message of the movie. Unfortunately, I was very busy those days and couldn't watch it back then but I watched it again yesterday. And this time there was much more than just laughs I got. I loved this film. And I can challenge everyone who says A Walk to Remember or The Notebook are the best love stories! The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) is introduced to us sleeping in the lap of a large statue. People, who have come to watch the giant statue, shoo him away. He is just wandering when he sees a girl selling flowers. He stops and buys a flower. But the girl drops the flower by mistake. He sees that she is looking for the flower in the wrong place and he realises that she is blind. He feels bad for her. He is also very poor and he can well understand her situation. He wants to say something but instead he leaves.

At night, he sees a guy trying to kill himself. He convinces him in giving up this idea. The guy takes the Tramp back to his home. He is a millionaire and the Tramp can't figure out why he was trying to kill himself when he is having every pleasure. They become very good friends and the Tramp asks him for some money. The next day, the Tramp buys all the flowers from the blind girl. She is happy, and he is happier than her. The blind girl reaches her home and tells her mother about the millionaire customer she has had today. She thinks him as a millionaire as well as a very big hearted person. She is also having many problems at her home. The rest of the film is pretty much about the Tramp trying to help the girl and sometimes asking the millionaire for some help. Will he be able to help the girl? How will things end up with the millionaire and the Tramp? All the answers are lying in the movie further with a heart-touching ending of the film. Along will all these, there will be many scenes where there will be tears in your eyes just because of laughing.

Charlie Chaplin, as most of the times, is the director-writer-producer- composer-editor-actor of the film. And he wins, again as most of the times, in everything. First talking about Chaplin the director-writer, he is brilliant. Needless to say, the story of the film is amazing. Comedy scenes are superbly written and directed and also there are few fighting scenes but Chaplin knows very well how to make them funny. And when I say funny here, I mean hilarious. Though I loved every scene in the film, but still I would like to mention a couple here: Of course the last scene in the film, then the scene where the millionaire invites the tramp for dinner and the fight scene between the Tramp and the boxer who was changed when the original had to flee and with the original one, the Tramp had a pact of 50-50 if he lets the Tramp win. Both the scenes are insanely funny. And I think I won't be able to stop my laughter even if I'm watching them for 10th time. I don't have to say much about Chaplin the actor. I will definitely fall short even if I write a page in his praise. According to me, there have been only one actor who has delivered every performance with no more scope of improvisation: Charlie Chaplin. He has played the Tramp for about forty years. To tell you the truth, I can't imagine him otherwise. I have watched many of his movies and I have loved his performance in all of them. In this movie, he is excellent. In emotional scenes also, he is brilliant. He has had a great impact on the film industry and it won't be an oversaying that he actually revolutionized the genre and the industry.

Chaplin the composer does a swell job. Music changes accordingly with the requirements of the film. This is a silent movie and so music becomes a very important part. It supports the funny scenes brilliantly. The movie is black and white so there is not a question of brilliant visuals. The cinematography is good overall. About the other actors in the film, the blind girl is played by Virginia Cherrill and she is very convincing in the role. Her later films didn't see much success and she dropped her film career. The millionaire Harry Myres and he is good. As required, he is very funny. He trusts our Tramp and helps him very much, with his money of course. All other actors are fine.

City Lights is definitely one of the best Chaplin movies, if not the best. I loved this movie and while writing this review, going back to every point and remembering everything is making me watch this movie again. You know what? I will watch the movie again after I finish this review. There has been a lot of discussion about the movie title "City Lights". Many believe that "city lights" are allegorical for the types of shallow luxuries and excess that can be found under the lights of the city, e.g., the rich man's drinking, cars, and clothing, when compared to the life of the Tramp and the blind flowergirl. I am kinda satisfied with this theory. City Lights is a very special film for me and I will remember this film for a long long time. And I will definitely watch it many times.