John Abraham is angry. He wants to break stuff, burn people and destroy whatever he can get his hands on. Maybe he’s mad at how he’s been doing precisely this – all too often in the recent past. Or it could be a reflex action to how everything around him is absolutely falling apart.
Satyameva Jayate not only goes all antediluvian and take up vigilante justice, which decades ago was the largest factor behind the rise of popcorn sales across South Asia, it does so unabashedly, outmuscling any inkling of subtlety just as it does pretty much every other thing remotely affiliated with the art of filmmaking.
That there is violence galore, and the liberal use of gore in the film, should be a given by now. And while going all slasher is absolutely within the right of the filmmakers, Satyameva Jayate does not exactly do that.
What it does is fill up grotesque violence wherever there’s a void in the film. And considering the sheer volume and frequency of the loopholes, blood and ashes were spilt all over the screen more often than not.
There’s a merciless serial killer on the loose. His victims have two things in common: they’re all Mumbai police offers and have a proven track record of corruption.Why there are people being killed is relegated to a subplot, when how it is being done takes the front seat.
The serial killer in question, Veer, played by John Abraham – if that wasn’t obvious already – takes inspiration from his past, and has taken it upon himself to clean up the Mumbai police, which has been marred by corruption.
With no other solution evidently striking his fancy, he wears a hoodie and couples it with a matchbox, and lets his daunting physique do the rest. He does it with dialogues almost as ancient as corruption itself and a numbness as devoid of any actual feelings as the film’s storyline.
As would be expected, Satyameva Jayate is a cliche-laden shipwreck that pulls no punches, even when it’s smacking itself on the face. Similarly, the writing is from another era entirely, and doesn’t factor in what the audience demands in the year 2018.
Just as this nonstop gatecrashing freight train seemingly has no stops, Veer, too, has virtually no challengers preventing him from what is a bloody massacre in the name of justice. The only stop that his violent juggernaut has is Shivansh (Manoj Bajpayee), who in a film overloaded with stereotypes, is your typecast honest police officer. In a parallel universe, he would have been doing the cleansing of the corrupt in a significantly less murderous manner.
The helplessness that Shivansh expresses in dealing with the seemingly impossible task of capturing Veer is matched by Bajpayee himself in his failure to get out of a project that he realises he should never have signed up for.
Unfortunately the supreme actor only manages to make a mockery of his unparalleled prowess by finding himself in the middle of situations that are just so ridiculous that they cannot be salvaged by acting talent, no matter how much its magnitude.
Meanwhile, for John Abraham, it is yet another role where he gets to flaunt his muscles and use them brutally against living and non-living things alike. It’s probably a combination of the man finding his niche and a complete lack of other offers on the table.
Satyameva Jayate might be a disaster unfolding in front of one pair of eyes, and might just as easily be the action-packed thriller that another pair of eyes crave. But any demographic that desires some form of the brain to be functional would not find much to rejoice during the torturous sitting.
Satyameva Jayate not only goes all antediluvian and take up vigilante justice, which decades ago was the largest factor behind the rise of popcorn sales across South Asia, it does so unabashedly, outmuscling any inkling of subtlety just as it does pretty much every other thing remotely affiliated with the art of filmmaking.
That there is violence galore, and the liberal use of gore in the film, should be a given by now. And while going all slasher is absolutely within the right of the filmmakers, Satyameva Jayate does not exactly do that.
What it does is fill up grotesque violence wherever there’s a void in the film. And considering the sheer volume and frequency of the loopholes, blood and ashes were spilt all over the screen more often than not.
There’s a merciless serial killer on the loose. His victims have two things in common: they’re all Mumbai police offers and have a proven track record of corruption.Why there are people being killed is relegated to a subplot, when how it is being done takes the front seat.
The serial killer in question, Veer, played by John Abraham – if that wasn’t obvious already – takes inspiration from his past, and has taken it upon himself to clean up the Mumbai police, which has been marred by corruption.
For John Abraham, it is yet another role where he gets to flaunt his muscles and use them brutally against living and non-living things alike. It's probably a combination of the man finding his niche and a complete lack of other offers on the table
With no other solution evidently striking his fancy, he wears a hoodie and couples it with a matchbox, and lets his daunting physique do the rest. He does it with dialogues almost as ancient as corruption itself and a numbness as devoid of any actual feelings as the film’s storyline.
As would be expected, Satyameva Jayate is a cliche-laden shipwreck that pulls no punches, even when it’s smacking itself on the face. Similarly, the writing is from another era entirely, and doesn’t factor in what the audience demands in the year 2018.
Just as this nonstop gatecrashing freight train seemingly has no stops, Veer, too, has virtually no challengers preventing him from what is a bloody massacre in the name of justice. The only stop that his violent juggernaut has is Shivansh (Manoj Bajpayee), who in a film overloaded with stereotypes, is your typecast honest police officer. In a parallel universe, he would have been doing the cleansing of the corrupt in a significantly less murderous manner.
The helplessness that Shivansh expresses in dealing with the seemingly impossible task of capturing Veer is matched by Bajpayee himself in his failure to get out of a project that he realises he should never have signed up for.
Unfortunately the supreme actor only manages to make a mockery of his unparalleled prowess by finding himself in the middle of situations that are just so ridiculous that they cannot be salvaged by acting talent, no matter how much its magnitude.
Meanwhile, for John Abraham, it is yet another role where he gets to flaunt his muscles and use them brutally against living and non-living things alike. It’s probably a combination of the man finding his niche and a complete lack of other offers on the table.
Satyameva Jayate might be a disaster unfolding in front of one pair of eyes, and might just as easily be the action-packed thriller that another pair of eyes crave. But any demographic that desires some form of the brain to be functional would not find much to rejoice during the torturous sitting.