Sathya (1988 film)

{{Infobox film | name = Sathya | image = Sathya 1988 poster.jpg | image_size = | caption = | director = [[Suresh Kri | producer = Kamal Haasan
Chandra Haasan | writer = Ananthu (Dialogues) | screenplay = Uncredited:
Ananthu
Kamal Haasan
Suresh Krissna
Javed Akhtar | story = Javed Akhtar | based on = Arjun
by Rahul Rawail | starring = Kamal Haasan
Amala
Rajesh
Nassar
Bahadoor
Vadivukkarasi
Vaali
Kitty | music = Ilaiyaraaja | cinematography = S. M. Anwar | editing = N. R. Kittu | distributor = Raaj Kamal Films International | studio = Raaj Kamal Films International | released = 29 September 1988 | runtime = | country = India | language = Tamil | budget = | gross = | preceded_by = | followed_by = | website = }}

Sathya is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language action social drama film directed by Suresh Krissna and produced by Kamal Haasan. The latter stars along with Amala. The film was a remake of the 1985 Hindi film Arjun. The film is the directorial debut for Suresh Krishna. The film completed a 100-day run and was successful box office collection. The film was dubbed in Telugu under the same name, despite it already being remade in Telugu as Bharatamlo Arjunudu. The cinematography and editing were handled by S. M. Anwar and N. R. Kittu respectively.

Plot

Sathyamurthy alias Sathya (Kamal Haasan) is an unemployed youth who does not tolerate injustice anywhere. He stays with his father Mudaliar (Bahadoor), stepmother (Vadivukkarasi), and stepsister Sudha. One day, Sathya beats up a group of ruffians who are thrashing a tea vendor for not paying extortion taxes. These ruffians are the henchmen of a local goon Rangan, who works for the local MLA Mariappa (Rajesh). With this incident, Sathya's life changes as he invokes Rangan's wrath. In retribution, Rangan and his men humiliate Sudha in public, forcing Sathya to thrash Rangan and destroy his bar. Meanwhile, Sathya falls in love with Geetha Nair (Amala Akkineni), a young Malayali woman who works as a salesperson in a cloth shop.

Soon, Sathya begins to grab public attention, as he and his friends start taking the law into their own hands, thrashing anyone who tries to break the law and harass innocents. Mariappa also gets to know of Sathya and thinks that he is working for his arch-rival Dhandapani (Kitty), a social reformer. He orders that Sathya and his friends be eliminated. Mariappa's gang attacks and kills Sundar, one of Sathya's friends, in full public view. Though Sathya tries his best, no one comes forward to give witness to the murder out of fear, because of which the murderers are released. Frustrated, Sathya thrashes the murderers on their release, leading to his arrest, but is later released on bail by Dhandapani. Soon, Sathya's family disowns him for his activities, following which he is approached by Dhandapani, who convinces him to move to his own house and work for him. With Dhandapani's help, he manages to get Sudha married to her boyfriend (Anand), who is the local police inspector, saves the marriage of his other stepsister by paying the dowry of ₹20,000, and also ensuring that his father's employer (Kavithalaya Krishnan) treats his father with respect. Finally, Dhandapani tells Sathya to get some secret files and documents against Mariappa, which can be used to expose him in public. Risking his life, Sathya gets a hold of the files.

Now the film takes a twist as Sathya comes to known that Dhandapani is a corrupt person and double-crosser who used the evidence against Mariappa to join hands with him and contest the upcoming election in his place, and none of the evidence collected has been published anywhere. Sathya also finds out that his services are no longer needed by Dhandapani, and he is thrown out of his house. Enraged and betrayed, Sathya barges into a political meeting where Mariappa and Dhandapani are present and tries to expose Dhandapani, but is forced out and thrashed by the workers of Mariappa's political party. Undaunted, he sneaks into Dhandapani's house a few days later and takes the file containing evidence of both Mariappa's and Dhandapani's illegal activities. While on the run from Dhandapani's henchmen, he gets shot and seriously injured, but manages to survive. However, the evidence against Mariappa and Dhandapani is destroyed as Sathya used the file as a shield against the gunshots. Sathya escapes from the hospital, confronts Mariappa and Dhandapani, and kills them both.

Cast

Production

The film was a remake of Hindi film Arjun directed by Rahul Rawail and starring Sunny Deol.^[1] Sathya marked the directorial debut of Suresh Krishna who earlier assisted K. Balachander.^[2] S. P. Balasubrahmanyam lent his voice for Kitty who played the negative role in the film.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were penned by Vaali.^[3][4] Ilaiyaraaja had originally composed the number "Valayosai" for one of his studio albums, and on Kamal Haasan's insistence, included it in Sathya.^[5] The song is set in the Sindhu Bhairavi raga.^[6]

Themes and influences

Sathya is basically the story of one man who wants to make a difference and ends up becoming a henchman to a political leader who has his own agenda.^[7] The movie is an effective commentary on the sorry state of such unemployed youngsters and the resulting unwilling choices they have to make to earn money. It clearly shows us how the youth, in their time of need, become willing toys in the hands of the people with the money to hire them.^[8] Kamal's characterisation was similar to his previous film Varumayin Niram Sivappu (1980). Kamal's character is of a person who hails from a lower middle-clas family, he is unemployed, has rough attitude and cannot tolerate injustice.^[9]

Legacy

The character name of Ajith from Yennai Arindhaal is called as Sathyadev. The director Gautham Menon initially wanted to keep this title for the film as he has affinity towards Kamal and the film but later opted against to do so.^[10][11] Gautham Menon's Film Vaaranam Aayiram had a scene in which the lead actor Surya was shown dancing in front of the theatre in which Sathya film was shown and there was a huge cutout of the character Sathya behind him. Entertainment portal Behindwoods placed this film along with Nayakan (1987) in Top 10 Gangsters of Tamil cinema.^[12]

References

External links

• Sathya on IMDb