“Mumbai ka king kaun?……Bhiku Mhatre!” When Manoj Bajpyee screams this dialogue standing in front of the Arabian Sea, we feel his authority over the city and that he is not afraid of anyone.

But did you know that he actually never said that dialogue there?

Yes, while shooting this scene in the 1998 film Satya, Manoj was afraid that he might fall into the water and injure himself and he was cursing at the top of his lungs.

That is why we see a quick wide cut in the middle of this iconic dialogue.

The dialogue was later dubbed and became so legendary that Manoj Bajpayee announcing things became a thing in the films.

His line from Raajneeti, “Karaara jawab milega,” is closest to the Bhiku Mhatre dialogue, but there’s something enduring about Satya that still holds up over time, making it one of the best gangster films ever made in India.

If we measure the era of massy films before and after Sholay, then Satya should be the mid-point from which gangster films should be classified.

© Ram Gopal Varma

When I grew interested in films in my early teens, several websites suggested that I watch Satya, as it is one of the best gangster films ever made, but when I saw the film, I couldn’t find any relatability or soul in it.

Maybe it was because I was still watching Jajantaram Mamantaram without knowing that it was inspired by Gulliver’s Travels.

© iDream Production

But then, as I turned 17, I watched the film again and was blown away by it.

First of all, Satya is set against the backdrop of Mumbai, and the Mafia was still on the rise in the late 90s in the city.

In the film, we are not shown the backstory of the main character, Satya.

He comes to Bombay in search of work and has nothing to lose, but in the first ten minutes, we get to know that he cannot be bullied and will now compromise his self-respect.

These things are perfectly depicted in the scenes where he injures Pakya (Sushant Singh) and attacks Jagga Hyderabadi (Jeeva) when they try to bully him.

This sets the bar for his gutsiness, which is later channelled into Bhiku’s gang.

Giving no backstory to the hero was a clever, intelligent idea by Ram Gopal Varma, as he left the part for the audience to decide.

This was never done in Bollywood gangster films before Satya.

Either the hero used to turn to bloodshed because his wife and kids were killed or his sister was sexually assaulted.

Later, when we are introduced to Bhiku’s gang, we instantly pick our favourite characters.

Mine was Kallu Mama, as he was the brains of the group.

© Ram Gopal Varma

Before Satya, no particular character from a gangster movie became fans’ favourite.

In the film, we see them struggling to speak English, dancing at a wedding and even laughing at lame jokes, something a layman would do.

This made the film humorous and relatable to the common man, and it reminded them that gangsters and shooters are also humans and they live and breathe among us.

In these particular parts, Satya appears more like a slice-of-life film than a hardcore crime drama.

The tragic ending

No character in this film was white.

Saurabh Shukla didn’t sugarcoat or go easy while writing the characters with Anurag Kashyap and showcased the fate that every criminal deserves.

While we smile seeing Bhiku with his wife and kids and grow hopeful when Satya and Vidya fall in love, we don’t feel sorry when each and every member of their gang dies except Kallu Mama.

The tragic ending depicts that if you climb the mafia world with blood on your hands, thinking that you are invincible, you will end up serving time or, in Satya’s case, in the grave.

This film had one of the most realistic endings and told us how people related to criminals suffer.

We never see what happens to Vidya or Bhiku’s wife after their partners die, but we know that nothing good is waiting for them.

Apart from these points, the writing of Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap and the cast performances are, of course, the main highlights of this film.

After Satya, we got Black Friday, Shootout At Wadala, Gangs of Wasseypur and more films, which also had tragic endings, but Satya was the school of inspiration for all these movies and till now, it is considered the ‘Bible of modern gangster Bollywood film’.