Satta

Raveena Tandon, whom, I consider as one of the few real actress of the Hindi Screen. She has vesatality and range in her acting that sets her apart from the flock. So far, she has been known for "Golimaring with Govinda" as in "Akiyose Golimare", where she has displayed her dancing skills. But, you have only seen one end of the talent, when, she is teamed up with an actor the caliber of Govinda (a rotund thespian, who appeals to type of crowd-with their favorite hero on the horseback appearing from nowhere to rescue the heroine from the clutches of a villain, used to be played by characters like Pran, with coiffured toupees and bulging eyes OR the hero finds out that his car brakes are not working going downhill after rescuing the heroine. The ratio of Villains to Hero in Hindi films used to be 2:1 but I'm not sure this ratio has changed lately!) Here, we see the real potential of an actress, when she is taken out of the typical song&dance routine. Along with Atul Kulkarni, who portrays a conniving politician to the brim. she portrays how an innocent Anuradha becomes Anu, a feisty woman politician in a male dominated field who is a ready target of an exploiting politicians. This is one great direction from Madhur Bhandarkar, one of the Top Ten directors in Indian Cinema. This is one heck of a movie that I had the pleasure of watching.

"Satta" can be watched from two different perspectives. On one side, the film advocates the woman empowerment through the story of Raveena Tandon, a newly wedded bride to a rich political family, where the stand of a woman is not more than that of a house-wife. She refuses to be intimidated by anyone and raises voice against his abusive husband and in-laws. The other and the major part of the film deals with the dirty politics, where the politicians are indulged in every ugly crime like smuggling, murders, and corruption. The film portrays how politicians befit and betray anyone for the sake of power.

Madhur Bhandarkar, known for making movies on relevant subjects, chooses the dirty politics this time. It views politics as a dirty game to secure power and position on which few politicians fulfill their personal ambitions. Well, the film starts with a common canvass and shows all the familiar glitches; but still the film remains pretty interesting to its tight screenplay. The role of Raveena Tandon is the major strength of this film for which the film remains watchable and adds a dimension to a familiar subject. Not to a surprise, this film remains the best one yet to be delivered by Raveena Tandon. Regarding the subject or script, the film is not weaker to Bhandarkar's other movies. But the presentation and other technical aspects like music, score, pictuarisation, characters are a bit weak comparing to Bhandarkar's later movies like "Corporate," "Traffic Signal" or "Fashion." Its pretty low production values and rugged look of Raveena Tandon may keep the viewers aside from this movies for a while; but overall, the film if you watch will hold you due to the subject it chooses which is still remains a common scenario. Just one last point to mention is its muddled end which goes for an incompleteness and glibness.

Resting: 2 stars out of 4

Politics is a game of power. It is practiced to gain power and stick to it. Since the political arena contains a lot of power, politics in that field is also more extensive and more complicated. Indian politics is no different. Since decades, we have been watching how numbers are gained (because numbers only matter to gain a majority in some house for the sake of gaining power in a democratic set-up) by hook or by crook by the shrewd politicians and how people switch their loyalties for the sake of sharing the pie of power. The ultimate loser in such games is only the common public, i.e., the voters who only vote the politicians to power. And that's the irony of (Indian) politics.

Director Madhur Bhandarkar has been touching various issues prevailing in India in his movies. He has touched the politics of India in his movie Satta (2003). He has shown through the story of a housewife who has to enter politics, how power is snatched from others and then kept in own hands without allowing the grip on it to loosen. He has also shown that the political power can be used to do wrong things (to grind own axe or harm others) but it can also be used to do good things when the intention of the power-holder is pious. The movie shows how females of political families are used as puppets and compelled to join politics when the males, due to some reason, are not able to fight election. Political families do so because they consider legislative seats as their fiefdom. Plus their patriarchal mindset also instigates them to use the females of their family as puppets only having no say in any matter of the family but do whatever asked for to do.

Satta (power / rule) is the story of Anuradha Sehgal (Raveena Tandon) who gets married to Vivek (Sameer Dharmadhikari) who belongs to a political family having a patriarchal set-up and mentality. That patriarchal treatment meted out to her in that family turns her into a rebel. When suddenly Vivek gets caught in a murder case and sent to the prison, the in-laws of Anuradha compel her to fight election in place of him. She wins and quite reluctantly joins politics. She gets a mentor in the form of Yashwant (Atul Kulkarni) and gradually she not only witnesses (and understands) the nexus between the politicians, businessmen, cops and the underworld but also learns the tricks of the trade. She also learns that in politics, (almost) everybody is selfish and nobody can be fully trusted and hence there can be no permanent friends or foes in this field. However she is able to save herself from getting fully corrupted and spoiled. She ensures that her inner self remains pure only despite playing the dirty game of politics which has been imposed on her. Finally, she captures the complete power of the state (the chair of the chief minister) but instead of keeping it with her, hands it over to a politician she believes to be deserving for it.

Well, this Satta or power is not firm but shaken in this movie because Madhur Bhandarkar has abstained from making a completely realistic movie and has made a formula-based masala flick to please all kinds of audience - from the audience of the balcony to the audience of the gallery. The movie is fast paced and thoroughly engrossing. There is not a single moment of boredom in the movie. The idealist heroine of this movie remains an idealist only despite going through the highs and lows of politics. Through her character only, the director has presented an idealistic definition of Satta (power) to the viewers of this movie. The essence of the movie is contained in a dialogue spoken by Yashwant - 'There's nothing like favour in politics'. The narrative flows very well and keeps the spectators glued to their chairs. The final 30 minutes of the movie form the best part of it when Anuradha plays mind games with her opponents and thereby turns the tables on them. Every character of the story is able to maintain his / her unique identity in the movie which is the characteristic of a good movie.

All the technical aspects of the movie - background score, cinematography, art direction and editing in are in order. It's a crisp movie with no dragging of the story at any place. Music of Raju Singh is so-so. Madhur Bhandarkar's direction is good. However in this film, realism has taken a back seat and entertainment has become prime.

Raveena Tandon has done a terrific job in the pivotal role. She was a strong contender for the national award for the best actress for her performance in this movie. From helplessness and reluctance to self-confidence and putting her best foot forward, she has mesmerized the audience by her performance as Anuradha Sehgal. Atul Kulkarni has, like always, done an admirable job. Other actors have also fitted the bill for their respective roles as the director has successfully extracted good performance from the complete cast.

Satta isn't a hard-hitting political drama. It's an entertaining movie though which should be watched for the sake of entertainment only.

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After a realistic CHANDNI BAR(2001) Madhur returns with SATTA another realistic tale

This time he ventures into politics something that is done to death in Bwood but this is more realistic comparitively

The movie starts off on a filmy note but gathers steam when Raveena gets into politics and slowly we r seeped in the world of politics

The Jessica Lal murder case is thrown in between but handled well the film though gets oo idealistic towards the end but still it's a nice film

Direction by Madhur is awesome Music is okay, it would be nice if they were no songs

Camera-work is good though too shaky at places

Raveena excels after DAMAN again proving her mettle as a performer surprising this lady would be known to play the nonsense heroine roles in 90's films here she proves she is a great actress Kudos to Madhur, after Tabu he makes Raveena a powerful performer Atul Kulkarni is fab too and proves his mettle after the superb act in HEY RAM and Dumb and now in PAGE 3, RDB.etc Sameer Dharmadikari is good for a newcomer and does a good job Govind Namdeo underplays his act for once though there is nothing new in his role what he has done before Valabh Vyas is typecast and so are most of the others Manoj Joshi leaves a huge mark as the innocent Cop the actor nowdays famous for all comic roles in Priyan's films proves what a talent he is

Although Satta seemed a little confusing at first regarding the roles and positions of various political/criminal elements, everything began to fall into place and developed into a riveting tale of character development and intrigue which ingeniously captures the political and emotional growth of the Anuradha, played to perfection by Raveena Tandon.

The direction, acting, dialogue, sets, and writing are all top notch. There were only three songs but they were all woven well into the fabric of the story. The background music added to the scope and tension of the film. Everything was believable and Reveena Tandon was convincing throughout. Subtitles were relatively easy to follow.