!! Satya Bol !! Review

At a time when cop films have reached super saturation, and refuse to offer anything other than what we already know, we have Satya Bol. This naturally follows the school of thought which begs the question, do we need one more? More importantly, do we want one more?

The answer being no, not really. Anyway, what we have with Satya Bol is the chronicling of the metamorphosis that a young recruit undergoes in the police force. He starts out all-nice and accepting in the morning, just like most Hyderabadi's, but undergoes a horrific transition towards the end. Just like most Hyderabadi's one minute into the morning.

Played by new comer (Manish Singh), Jayant Barve is an optimistic young lad all set to fight the evil in this world. Under the careful and cynical eye of his commanding officer Shinde (Sayaji Shinde), who rides his khaki ass for being such a cotton ball, Jayant starts losing his faith in the system. He does what anybody in his situation would do. He gets married. Now his wife Sandhya (Tina Parekh) is all wifey like, until one day she sees him beating up a criminal rather ruthlessly. Not being able to deal with this change in her cotton ball of a husband, she does what any woman in her place would do. She lays out her disapproval real thick like and leaves.

The final nail in the coffin has to be when during the interrogation of a suspect, Jayant drinks down his morals along with some alcohol and bumps off the suspect. To cover this up we have the senior officers, who take care of the mess by making it look like an encounter. If only he could live with the guilt.

It sets in real cold and hard when he realizes that the man he killed was actually innocent. However, by then he's neck deep in the cesspool of corruption. The first step on the road towards redemption requires, almost demands, an epiphany. And Jayant gets two, one in the form of his wife leaving him and the second when his close friend Alex dies.

The discourses on corruption and the hypocritical world of the law enforcers are rallied to and fro, and some rather valid points are made. The ending sees Jayant taking care of a dreaded criminal and getting a citation for his troubles.

Now, what this film actually does is nearly succeed in trying to show how the deplorable working conditions of the police world can change a man. But then given the setting, which always has to be Mumbai, it's nothing we haven't seen before. The only thing that might set it apart from the rest, is the way this hackneyed plot is handled by debutante director Sanjay Upadhya. The camera work is rather effective in its effort to bring reality to the screen.

Manish Singh isn't half bad as the sheep on the execution block, but not quite comfortable as an executioner of stronger emotions. Sayaji Shinde is rather a treat to watch as the cynical, yet at times approachable, cop. Music isn't really the forte in such films but it has a nice enough back ground score.

Take a chance with something that just might be a teeny weeny bit different, and you just may end up liking it.