Satya cast in heroes’ mould, mobbed by crowd

MUMBAI, October 20: When a film like Satya--the veritable dark horse of the year with an almost unknown star-cast--completes 100 glorious...

MUMBAI, October 20: When a film like Satya–the veritable dark horse of the year with an almost unknown star-cast–completes 100 glorious days, how does its maker celebrate success. Apart from holding a fancy filmi party, director Ramgopal Varma decided to pay a tribute to the nameless face in the crowd, the man of the street, who inspired his unusual film.

So, one by one, the entire Satya team walked into Eros cinema — where the film is still running to packed houses — on Tuesday afternoon, springing a pleasant surprise on an unsuspecting crowd. Seeing members of the cast enter the cinema hall half-way through the film, the entire hall got into a mad frenzy, with cries of Bhikhu Mhatre ko bulao‘ renting the air.

The film forgotten, collegians and the tapori crowd that easily identify with the film mobbed a pleasantly shocked cast. “This is awesome,” said one open-mouthed teenager to another.

As each member of the cast walked up on stage, the applause and cheersgrew louder till they reached a feverish pitch. The crowd was still rooting for its favourite, Bhikhu, and appeared quite unfazed by the conspicuous absence of the film’s lead pair — Urmila and Chakravarthy.

Each actor who walked up on stage was greeted with a warm round of applause along with whistling and mad cheering, regardless of the length and significance of his role.

And when music director Vishal broke into the famous Kallu mama number, the audience was on its feet, chanting the lines in unison. The cast too rose to the occasion, mouthing dialogues from the film — on public demand.

Finally, when it was time for Manoj Bajpai aka Bhikhu Mhatre to make an appearance, the audience nearly brought the roof down, and the applause just refused to let up. “It’s overwhelming and also quite scary, because with a response like this, the audience also tells you that you can’t afford to make mistakes,” said Bajpai, still in a state of shock from his newfound stardom.

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A sentiment echoed by othermembers of the team. “What can I say to something like this? When we started working on the film, none of us thought it would be such a huge success,” said Saurabh Shukla, the film’s co-writer, who has also played the role of Kallu mama.

Ramgopal Varma himself was groping for words to express his gratitude to the audience. “We have worked very hard, and this kind of response actually makes us believe we can make more films like Satya,” he said.

Finally, as the Satya crew moved on to another movie hall to pay their respects to the janta, they were still reeling from their overwhelming experience. Asked how he felt basking in the film’s success, Snehal Dabhi, aka Chotya, said: “It’s impossible to express my feelings.”