Action genre has been the favourite and safest bet at the box office since the mid-70s and 80s, though a lot of crap has also been served in the past hampering the genre itself. Such films have regularly been there in the list of new Hindi films released every single year but they also miss having any major representative as Dharmendra or Sunny Deol in the present. Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan and more have repeatedly tried to be in that space coming up with their action oriented films, but they never relied on the same and kept trying other genres too including mad comedies.
However, two names constantly and intentionally trying to fill up the void have been John Abraham and Vidyut Jammval in the most recent past. And SATYAMEV JAYATE is John’s latest attempt on the path, trying to be the new-age Dharmendra (in the absence of Sunny since last many years).
So what you get to see in the film is John Abraham fighting against the corrupt police officers, doing everything in the famous Deol-style, including ripping apart a truck’s tyre shouting loud on the screen. He goes after the men in uniform like a clever serial killer but the absurd strategy adapted doesn’t even allow you to ask for any logic right from the first murder case in the film.
Having said that, what’s marginally good in the script is its basic plot that could have resulted in a gripping crime thriller focusing on the cat-mouse game between the investigating officer and the murderer. But the writer and director never try to make it an intelligent serial killer movie, intentionally emphasizing on the bloody violence along with cheap, witty dialogues addressing their target audience (forgetting all about logic and reasoning).
The first half manages to hold your attention well despite the usual unwanted songs and romance, but the second half loses the grip completely resulting in an unexpectedly below average or rather ridiculous film. Adding visually appealing sequences like a (sudden) cabaret, a chase in between the Muharram procession, saving the street dogs and a beach cleaning activity, SATYAMEV JAYATE desperately tries to look like an A grade film, whereas in reality it’s typically similar to B-C grade action films of the 80s solely made to entertain the fans of this specific genre. Plus it also has an age-old flashback too which reveals the same repetitive story of an honest police officer being framed, leading to a family tragedy.
So in case you are only interested in biceps, muscles, murders and a social message preached following the set formula, then SATYAMEV JAYATE might work as purely an action film. Otherwise it’s strictly avoidable that should only be tried on Amazon Prime soon without spending some extra bucks on the high priced tickets. Ending on an important note, even Manoj Bajpayee must be thinking that did he sign this very film or was it something else he heard in the effective story narration?
Rating : 1.5 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 only for its potential plot)
Note 1: Recalling a few scenes of the film, I am really sick of watching repetitive shots of camera moving in circles around a specific character and top shots taken from drones that actually serve no purpose at all.
Note 2: Following the same old exploitive practice, the ticket prices were yet again raised by the multiplexes for both the releases on the festive Friday.
But this time the paradoxical catch reveals the hypocrisy as at one end they release their supposedly patriotic movies on the occasion of Independence Day. But on the other don’t care or even bothered when their films are sold at a higher ticket price looting the people of their country.
On the contrary, the stars should have shown the guts celebrating Independence day by offering their films at reduced ticket prices from their side, and again not asking for Tax-Rebate from the government.....at least on the day of Independence as a contributing gesture.
Anyway, continuing the tradition, a big one gets deducted from the ratings as BTC’s individual revolt against the timely rise in prices that nobody seems to be interested in, within the industry itself.
Net Ratings : 1 / 5