Things happen so easily in Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha. The story is about the efforts of an Anna Hazare-like elder (Daduji, played by Amitabh Bachchan) to tackle systemic corruption in a small town named Ambikapur, and at one point, a formerly corrupt policeman steps up to a microphone and declares he’s turning over a new leaf. At another point, an industrialist (Maanav, played by Ajay Devgn) writes away his crores because he doesn’t want to be labeled a corrupt capitalist. Does the policeman feel a twinge of fear that his former bosses – all-powerful politicians – may unleash their fury on him and his family? Does Maanav hesitate, just for a minute, before giving up everything he’s worked for all his life? Or take the student leader Arjun (Arjun Rampal), who becomes part of Daduji’s movement. What does he do elsewhere? Does he have friends, family? Does he down the day’s frustrations with a drink or two? More importantly, why does he affiliate himself with Daduji’s cause?
The answer, of course, is that the screenplay asks him to. Over the years, Jha has become the kind of filmmaker who gathers huge stars and a ripped-from-the-headlines premise and does little else. The scenes are loose. Characters aren’t developed – their traits, instead, are marked out for us with a helpful highlighter. (An underling approaches the journalist played by Kareena Kapoor with a sleazy story and she refuses to look at it. Ergo, she’s a principled newsperson, who won’t do sensationalism.) Other characters – like a doha-spouting mendicant named Transformer Baba – are introduced with a great flourish, but then they have nothing to do, nowhere to go. And despite a flabby running time of 150-odd minutes, Jha seems to be in a tearing hurry. Maanav hacks into a government computer and finds all the information he needs in a matter of minutes. Later, he frets that Daduji is missing – the next second, he’s exactly where Daduji is. Who can take any of this seriously?
The tragedy is that we want to take this seriously. We want filmmakers to grapple with headlines. We want inquiries into (and reflections on) what’s happening around us. What we don’t want is lazy manipulation, with the soundtrack bursting into strains of Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram every time we’re meant to register something profound. (Jha goes all out to paint Daduji as the new Gandhi. We see him walk with support from two young women, and he even exclaims ‘Hey Ram!’) The refrain Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram finds its way into a song as well, and it’s staged so indifferently that we have wonder why Jha insists on following the commercial Hindi-film model when his heart is so clearly not in it. This song comes about when people are at a low point, and you only have to think back to O Paalanhaare from Lagaan to see how such a song sequence should be filmed. There, the music was a balm on our frayed nerves – we were as involved in the plight of the characters as they were themselves. Here, we reach for a non-existent fast-forward button.
Copyright ©2013 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Somari
September 1, 2013
First p0st just because… http://xkcd.com/1258/
Well nothing more to say at present, but thanks for the short review of such a movie 😉
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Soham
September 2, 2013
I’m more looking forward to your review of “Madras Cafe”… hopefully you’ll post it soon!
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SR
September 2, 2013
‘Who can take any of this seriously?’ – brevity is the soul of accuracy.
Majority of current directors patronize the audience – expect and encourage intellectual laziness, bipolar caricatures a la world of Dubya. What other explanation exists for the same continent with outputs like ‘do aankhen baara haath’ to now reliably churn out gyrating monkeys on celluloid. I suspect the remake of that classic would involve sequences of jailer with his nubile wife whipping up fusion food in an Arclinea kitchen inside a scenic farmhouse replete with studly (but gold hearted) delinquents (Randeep Hooda and company)…. please confirm that Ajay Devgn/John Abraham is in furious battle over this script remake with the prolific Khan production houses. Breathlessly awaiting this future Criterion collection candidate.
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Amrita
September 2, 2013
Reading your review, especially the 2nd paragraph, I couldn’t help but think of Madhur Bhandarkar. Like he takes various ‘industries’ & paints them in the broadest black & white brushstrokes possible, Jha’s movies seem to take the burning issue of the moment & attempt to find ‘solutions’ to the problem in the most reductive way possible. Alas, in life there’s plenty of grey & no easy answers.
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MANK
September 2, 2013
Well that was a really short review for such a long movie and i guess it deserves it. Ever since Rajneeti became a surprise hit jha has sought of hit upon a winning formula where he assembles a large cast with ripped from newspaper stories and with absolutely no honesty or conviction he executes them in an attempt to create the next Rajneeti like hit. With absolutely simplistic solutions to searing problems . How is one to take the movie seriously when every minute Kareena Kapoor looks like she has walked out of a beauty parlour rather than chasing the hottest story around.But i would have liked to hear more from Brangan about the movie making style of Prakash Jha especially his metamorphosis from a serious minded filmmaker to a creator of commercial kitsch and what he thought about his earlier work like Mrittyudand and Dhamul etc. and how he has changed from there to creating pure pretentious cinema. I also wonder why we really don’t have an Oliver stone who can really create movies from real stories without comprising their integrity and still make engrossing films out of it.
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Akther Ghori
September 2, 2013
Reblogged this on My take.
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brangan
September 2, 2013
Amrita: I wrote about Jha’s “Madhur Bhandarkar”-ism in my review of “Chakravyuh” here.
MANK: I can understand that the filmmaker of “Damul” doesn’t exist anymore. Because that kind of NFDC-sponsored art cinema model doesn’t exist anymore. But even within the commercial format, Jha gave us — as you say, “Mrityudand” (a far better “feminist” film than “Fire” IMO), “Gangaajal,” “Apaharan,” etc. There were at least a handful of powerful moments in these films even if they were problematic in the overall sense. And now we don’t even have that. Jha seems so… uninterested in these films, as if he couldn’t be bothered.
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ramitbajaj01
September 2, 2013
I wish there is ‘like’ button for comments.
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Amrita
September 2, 2013
Brangan: Ha my bad. Perhaps it was embedded in my subconscious 😀
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MANK
September 2, 2013
Brangan, I was intrigued by your mention of NFDC. I had totally forgotten that such a body exist/existed. I am curious to know whether NFDC still exist , does it still fund movies because one does not get to hear anything about it anymore. I agree with your assessment of Mrityudand” (a far better “feminist” film than “Fire” IMO), “Gangaajal,” “Apaharan etc. There were some really powerful acting performances in them by Madhuri(perhaps her best),Shabana azmi,Nana Patekar etc.Even that seems to have disappeared from his movies One wonders how he manages to attract such a stellar roaster of stars to his movies,Maybe it is his past record with actors or may he fools all his actors as he fools the movie going public that he is going to do something really profound and powerful as he claims in interview after interview that he gives as part of promotions on TV,Don’t you think?
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vikram
September 3, 2013
BR,is the ‘Satyagraha’ review your way of letting us know that a ‘Madras Cafe’ review is not on the cards…coz, MC released earlier than S…
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Kiruba
September 3, 2013
MANK: Tasher Desh released just about a week ago.
And a few months ago, I remember watching a Punjabi NFDC film which got released here.
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Kutty
September 4, 2013
No reference to ostriches & head buried in the sand in the review of a Prakash Jha movie. Continuity is lost! Have no plans of watching the movie but hoping for the above reference. 🙂
MANK : If I am not mistaken, NFDC has played some role (not sure if it is as producer or distribution) for Tasher Desh and Lunch Box. So, maybe that organization perform certain functions even now.
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MANK
September 4, 2013
Kiruba/Kutty: Thanks for your information. Glad to know that NFDC still exist in some form.As for ‘No reference to ostriches & head buried in the sand’, I guess that BR has gotten a little affected by all the criticism about him unleashing a list of puns and indulging in smart wordplay in his reviews ,Right BR?
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Arsaib
September 4, 2013
I believe Dibakar Banerjee’s SHANGHAI was also co-produced by NFDC.
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prasun
September 6, 2013
Here’s a list of movies produced by NFDC:
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0007480/?ref_=fn_al_co_1
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