Fil Review – SATYAMEVA JAYATE

Genre: Thriller
Rating: 2/5
141 minutes
Director: Milap Milan Zaveri

Exiting the auditorium, one gets the clear impression of the producers sitting in their plush air-conditioned offices and glancing inquiringly at each other as if to say “Which story shall we lift now?” Replies one, “In two words — John Abraham. Let him do the lifting, literally.”
Veer (JA) is an efficient cleaner — cleaning up the beaches during the day and the city of its corrupt, callous and rapist cops by night. His modus operandi: burn the cops with names such as Sadashiv Patil, Irfan Qadri and Damle (get the point? No one community can then have a grouse), alive.
It’s left to the city’s Commissioner of Police (Manish Choudhary) to beckon his Sherlock Holmes — DCP Shivansh Rathod (Manoj Bajpayee), who, in double-quick time, unravels the pattern of the gruesome murders. He quickly latches onto the next corrupt cop, er, intended victim. Of course it’s a different matter that Rathod fails to save his corrupt colleagues.
SJ works on two fronts — the quintessential twist just before the interval and the reason behind Veer’s killings. Neither the twist nor the reason is novel. It’s a tried and trusted formula, remniscient of the 70s films. It’s not the ideal debut for Aisha Sharma, who’s a vet and play’s JA’s love interest.
With oodles of sentimental scenes in favour of Muslims, the film should surely be patronised by the community. And if watching John Abraham tearing bus tyres and yanking car doors out of their hinges appeals to you, you may as well proceed to the cinema hall. But don’t say you weren’t warned.