Satyameva Jayate Movie Review: Seeti Maar Dialogues, Thappad Maar Plot

Remember those films from the 70s which mostly featured an upright cop, a cynical anti-hero and their epic clash with lots of dialogues about ‘kaanon ko apne haath mein mat lo’? Milap Zaveri’s recent release Satyameva Jayate starring John Abraham and Manoj Bajpayee is a throwback to those films… and I don’t mean it in admiration! Veer (John) is a renowned artist who moonlights as a vigilante and kills corrupt cops. Desperate to catch the killer before he demoralizes the entire force, Commissioner Manish Shukla (Manish Choudhary) ropes in crack investigator Shivansh Rathod (Bajpayee) to apprehend the killer. But will Shivansh manage to arrest the vigilante? As usual, John Abraham spends most of his screen time glowering at the screen when he is not flashing his dimples and his muscles and as much as I like John as a producer, the man really needs to do something about his lack of acting skills. On his part, Bajpayee is impeccable as ever even in the absence of a good plot and holds his own rather valiantly. Aisha Sharma, actress Neha Sharma’s sister, who makes her debut with the film, is quite below average and the only bright spot in the film is Nora Fatehi’s ‘Dilbar’ number. Manish, who is usually a good actor, hams it like no tomorrow. As for the plot, the film is clichéd and over the top for no reason and the makers seemed determined to sacrifice logic for the sake of drama. Even the backstory and Veer’s reasons for killing corrupt cops is something that has been done to death in the era when actors would wear bell-bottoms. The only good thing about the film is that it has some real ‘seeti maar’ dialogues. However, as for the rest of it, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ is disappointing on all fronts and the climax is totally something out of ‘Deewaar’… sorry for the spoiler, but look at it as me doing you a favour and sparing you the trauma of enduring this film. In conclusion, Satyameva Jayate is an absolutely avoidable fare…