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By Taran Adarsh
Metalight Productions P. Ltd.'s SATTA – THE GAME OF POWER, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, is a tale of a fiercely spirited woman, Anuradha [Raveena Tandon], with middle class roots.
Her life takes a dramatic turn when she marries Vivek Chauhan [Sameer Dharmadhikari], a rich and a powerful brat whose reckless and overwhelming life confines her to a neglected life.
Fate thrusts her into the murky world of active politics, a power-driven world of betrayal and survival, where no one can be trusted. Her world is encompassed with characters around her constantly casting their influences and changing her course of life.
But Anuradha fights back, evolving into a stronger individual ready to take on the challenge that life throws upon her.
She is put in a rut of selfish motives, where, instead of giving in to circumstances, she takes on the system, eventually succeeding in cleaning up the murk around her.
As the title suggests, SATTA – THE GAME OF POWER gives a microscopic view of what goes into politics. The story has nothing new to talk of, since the genre has been over-exploited by film-makers in Mumbai. The only difference being, the protagonist here is a woman who gets into politics and beats the men at their game.
The film starts off on a promising note and gathers momentum with Raveena joining politics. In order to give the film a realistic touch, the film takes a look at the games politicians play, which makes the film one-dimensional from the audience point of view. One-dimensional, because the film gets too realistic after a point, offering no relief whatsoever.
It also magnifies the nitty-gritties of politics, which a common man may not be able to fathom or identify with.
Directorially, Madhur Bhandarkar's grip on the medium can be felt, but he has chosen a theme that has been witnessed innumerable times in the past. Madhur does show sparks of brilliance in several sequences, proving yet again that he's one amongst the brightest names.
From the script point of view, Manoj Tyagi sticks to the tried and tested stuff and which tends to get too technical at times. Even the climax could've been better thought of.
Raju Singh's music is easy on the ears. 'Gungunati Hain' is the pick of the lot. Cinematography [Madhu S. Rao] captures the mood of the film to perfection.
Raveena Tandon delivers a bravura performance. The actress takes giant strides as a performer, giving the right touches to her character. Here's a performance that's bound to be noticed.
Sameer Dharmadhikari makes a confident debut. Atul Kulkarni is effective, enacting his part with conviction, without going overboard. Govind Namdeo is excellent. Vallabh Vyas makes his presence felt.
On the whole, SATTA – THE GAME OF POWER is a well-made film that will win praise from the critics and may find some flavour with the gentry as well. But a dry subject like politics finds limited patronage, mainly from the family audiences. Its dull opening as well as major oppositions – big films in the same week and cricket matches – may prove to be major deterrents.
Rating:- * ½.
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