Two brand names that have truly defined Ram Gopal Varma are Satya and Company. Reeling under duds for years now, RGV invokes both the magic words in a bid to score an elusive hit.
His new film is called Satya 2, and it is about a man who wants to reinvent the Company - or, the Mumbai underworld as it is widely known.
RGV has titled his new film Satya 2 because Satya clicked once upon a time. This film is not a sequel. Satya 2 merely borrows its title from Satya, the director's pathbreaking hit of 1998 that defined the newage gangster drama for Bollywood. May be, Satya 2 is RGV's bid to remind you when it comes to gangster flicks no one has ever made them in Bollywood the way he used to.
Like the original, the hero essays the title role and comes to Mumbai as an outsider.
Newcomer Puneet Singh Ratn plays the new Satya. You have pretty much gathered the script if you have noticed the poster punchline. Dawood has retired, Chhota Rajan has become inactive and Abu
Salem is in jail. Satya comes to Mumbai with dreams of building a new underworld. Rest of the film is about his tryst with 'ek naye underworld ki shuruwaat'.
Satya 2 is erratic in the way the film has been edited and loud in the way its background score assaults your ears, neither of which offset the problem that the script has nothing new to offer. Too many underworld sagas have come and gone between 1998 and now. The world of bhais with its violence, angst and camaraderie seem all too familiar now to invoke fresh curiosity as Satya did in its time. You fail to notice any attempt on the part of RGV to add a new dimension.
Puneet Singh impressively communicates with his eyes but suffers from a sketchy character.
The supporting cast - the strong point of Satya - is a pack of duds this time. Satya 2 sorely misses its Bhiku Mhatre or Kallu Mama.
The film reveals an awful truth if you are a Satya fan. It underlines the lowest phase of a filmmaker who, it once seemed, would reinvent Hindi mainstream for good.
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