Sathyaa

Sathyaa (1988) was a great gangster film by Suresh Krissna in the Tamil cinema. It stars Kamal Haasan, Amala, Rajesh and Janagaraj. The movie centres on Satya, an unemployed young man who cannot abide injustice. In the process, he is played by a shady local politician, Thandapani and unknowingly helps him execute unscrupulous schemes which are detrimental to the populace.

Sathyamurthy “Sathyaa” is an unemployed youth who fights injustice and his family. He gets sucked into the law and gets sucked into the life of his friends, including his childhood archrival Dhandapani, a doggedly determined social reformer. Mariappa, a local MLA, had Sathyaa and his friends killed to cover up a hit-and-run accident, resulting in the murder of his best friend, Sundar. Sathyaa, furious, beats up his mother’s murderers and is booked into jail, but is shortly released on bail. When Sathyaa’s family disowns him, Dhandapani persuades Sathyaa to work for him. He helps Sudha marry her boyfriend, saves his stepsister's marriage, and ensures his father's employer treats him with respect.

Dhandapani then orders Sathyaa to get classified records on Mariappa, a task he puts his life on the line to undertake. Sathyaa comes to know that Dhandapani is a swindler and backstabber who, on his own, uses the proof against Mariappa to fight elections instead of Mariappa. When Dhandapani throws Sathyaa out of his home, he subsequently stabs his former mentor in the back during a political conclave. He breaks into Dhandapani’s home and steals a file full of evidence of Mariappa and Dhandapani’s illegal activities. In a climactic action scene while still on the run, Sathyaa is shot and seriously wounded by his pursuers, but he escapes and ends up in hospital. During this investigation, he is informed that the evidence against Mariappa and Dhandapani has been burnt, which leads to him confronting and killing the duo before getting justice for the schoolgirls.

Sathyaa is a heartbreaking Tamil gangster movie that takes some swirling narrative turns to its tragic conclusion, with career performances from Kamal Haasan, Amala, Rajesh, and Janagaraj. At its heart, our film is a character-driven story about injustice, corruption and betrayal as a young man tries to escape the grips of the very powerful forces that are manipulating him for their gain. With high-stakes drama and action, the story vividly brings home the struggle between idealism and brutal political realities. It is a reboot of the 1985 Hindi film Arjun.