Satya and Masculinity

Set in the chawls and gritty streets of Mumbai, Satya is a film-noir style gangster narrative that interrogates dominant representations of masculinity in Hindi cinema. In Satya, men are depicted as violent, cruel, and self-serving, but also devoted to conventional and nonconventional forms of family life. The manner in which the characters of Satya, Bhiku, and Uncle Kallu interact with one another negotiate conceived notions of masculinity in Hindi cinema culture. Additionally, the characters spatial relationships with the backdrop of Mumbai influence the manner in which the audience perceives the characters as representations of typical masculinity.

Satya establishes the association between masculinity, men, and violence early in the film. The opening shots of the film include explosions and gunshots set against a backdrop of police raids on gang activity in Mumbai; the audience sees the city as a war zone where territory is fought over and won at the end of a barrel of a gun. When we are introduced to Satya he appears as an every man. Satya is an orphan, and therefore can easily be interpreted as a representation of the lower, disenfranchised classes of Indian male youth. Satya quickly resorts to violence when he feels insulted or mistreated, going so far as to slash the face of gang member underneath Jagga, a local crime boss in the employ of gang don Guru Narayan. Jagga’s men beat up Satya in revenge for the attack, which begins a cycle of violence that spirals ever downward throughout the film. This cyclical pattern of violence leads the audience to believe that masculinity and violence are intrinsically hardwired into the male psyche, and the bond of the gang member and violence is even stronger considering the dangers of their profession and their proximity to criminal activity. Yet Satya also resist the pattern of violence. The theme of escape recurs in the film as Satya’s relationship with the playback singer, Vidya, grows stronger and more romantic. At one point, Satya awakens from a nightmare in which is relives all of the violent encounters he has been engaged in since coming to Mumbai. Satya’s sudden release from sleep can be interpreted as his desire to escape the system of violence and crime in which he has become embroiled. However, the masculine tropes of status prove too strong, and Satya only ends up becoming more deeply involved in the criminal activities of the Mhatre gang throughout the film.

Cinema has long been fascinated with documenting gang members amidst the trappings of their ill gotten wealth. Indeed, gangsters in Hollywood are often depicted as driving nice cars, throwing about large sums of cash, and establishing their dominance through grandiose public displays of power and status. In many regards, Satya depicts gang life in Mumbai in similar ways, thereby positioning the gang members as typical masculine examples of violent thugs. For example, when the gang member Chander first meets Satya he shows off his gun and pager in an obvious display of his status with Mhatre gang. This display of status connotes masculinity with objective wealth and power, and serves to reinforce the notion that masculinity is tied to demonstrating territoriality and strength. When Bhiku later gives Satya his own gun, the connotation is that Satya is now a fully-fledged member of the gang, and is therefore an equal in the eyes of his peers and of Bhiku. The gun becomes an equalizing symbol of power in the film, implying that those with power (guns) are in control of their own destiny, a traditionally masculine theme.

In Satya, the chawls of Mumbai provide the backdrop for the criminal dealings of Satya and the rest of the Mhatre gang. “The street is usually the primary site of narrative action in gangster films because it symbolizes freedom from home and it enables constant movement and liberation from the claustrophobia of restricted and controlled urban space. The street evokes a sense of power when gangs control it. The control of space is also an expression of masculinity, as gangsters fluidly traverse treacherous parts of the city — often, gambling and leisure joints — both at night and during the day.” (Mazumdar, 2007) Yet, the film also interrogates the traditionally male space by blurring the lines between the streets and the home, a traditionally family space. For example, Vidya and Satya are often pictured walking the streets of Mumbai together as a romantic couple. In these scenes, we see Satya not as a gangster, but as a normal citizen, a promising family man who seeks to distance himself from his criminal lifestyle. Similarly, the family space often becomes embroiled with masculine spaces throughout the film. Bhiku is often depicted taking phone calls where he discusses illegal activities in his family home, blurring the line between masculine and family space.

Brotherhood and brotherly love are tropes of masculine culture that play key roles in Satya. Bhiku and Satya’s relationship begins at the start of film as one of mutual respect, but by the end of the film blossoms into brotherly love; in the end, Satya dies for Bhiku by putting his life on the line to avenge Bhiku’s death at the hands of Bhau Thakurdas Jwahle. The gangster den run by the Mhatre gang is depicted as a place where the gang members drink, smoke, and dance raucously throughout the night, as well a place where they conduct their criminal enterprises.  Yet the film complicates this masculine, testosterone filled space through the presence of Uncle Kallu, a key member of the key. “As the wise and humane father figure in the gang, Kallu Mama (played by Saurabh Shukla), evokes the bonds of family life. In a spectacular rendering of this community, the song “Kallu Mama” projects the idea of a different kind of family through an overwhelmingly male space.” (Mazumdar, 2007) This conflation of family space with masculinity interrogates traditional notions of masculinity by transposing Uncle Kallu into the role of the gang’s matriarch. Indeed, Kallu even serves the role of the avenging mother figure when he kills the treacherous lawyer, Chandrakant Mule, for betraying the gang’s patriarch, Bhiku.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film for me was the way in which fathers played such a marginal role in the film. Satya is an orphan, and therefore his father is completely absent from the film. Vidya’s father is a mute and an invalid, leaving her to be the primary breadwinner of the family. In a sense, after her father’s death, Satya steps into the role of patriarch in her life, filling the void that her father left, fulfilling the idiom quoted by the music manager earlier in the film; “to gain something, you must give something back.” Even Bhiku, the only father figure in the film of any real note, fails to live up to the role of an honorable father due to his status as leader of the Mhatre gang. I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the way in which he lived a dual existence of doting family man and cold-blooded. This contradiction of roles created a dichotomy of identities that both Bhiku and Satya ultimately negotiate to their respective demise; men trapped between two worlds, that of family man and of criminal, of respected male figures and hated social pariahs.