We haven’t had many filmmakers that have embraced or in most cases even considered minimalism as a tool. And right from the very beginning it’s been RGV’s forte where his gut seems to be doing all the talking and for a very long time it’s been a treat. Stardom triggers this devolution not just in our actors but also the filmmakers and hardly anyone is as popular or as quickly devolving as RGV. He seems to have developed a loose attitude towards the scripting, casting and most of what happens in pre-production in a mad rush to constantly just stay in production. And ever since he started making digital films, these cameras and their flexibility have really taken a hold of him, he doesn’t seem very bothered about the rest of it.
The plot of Satya 2 is an improvised rip off of Puri Jagannath’s Businessman where a newcomer to Mumbai creates a new kind of underworld since the old mafia and its members are either killed or in jail. Puri’s is his usual super smart, super powerful protagonist taking over Mumbai and eventually the country with a few simple tricks and fights. Satya 2 stays away from physical confrontation, he’s more of silent schemer. So Satya gets employed at a local real estate firm and they are always in need of killing and planning, so it was the right place for him and within no time and with plans that are as basic as they can get he starts an organisation which is nameless and faceless. I am not too sure of the nameless part. Satya says “the organisation doesn’t have a name, we’ll just call it company” and everyone from then on is referring to it as “company”, even the cops, so it does have a name – company.
And also there is Chitra who is Satya’s innocent (bordering on retarded) and liberal cleavage girl from his village. Which village? Satya would never tell you that, there was a passing reference towards the end as to who and where he’s come from. About that, with debutant Puneet Singh Ratn’s dazed and confused stiffness it is easier to believe that Satya 2 doesn’t actually remember where he’s come from more than him not willing to tell us. In one scene when explaining one of his basic ideas and astounding the real estate boss he walked straight into a wall, and he didn’t know what to do next, so just stayed there.
If it was better cast, slightly less obvious with its ubiquitous voice over and if Varma put in a little more thought into his sequences (the killing montages especially, what happened man) it would have been bearable and I could have appreciated the documentary like chopper camera interludes (I still kind of liked them). But the product playing in the theatres now, strictly for his bearing fans who will also be put off in all probability.
daskino.wordpress.com 