Besides, there was also Shekhar KapurвЂ™s Bandit Queen, obscenely real including a shocking rape scene. вЂњThis shot is very good,вЂќ a seasoned shooter says approvingly in Maximum City, as they sit around in a hotel room watching Parinda on TV. Many critics argue that before Satya, there was Vidhu Vinod ChopraвЂ™s Parinda, an On The Waterfront spin set in the ganglands of Mumbai. Satya (and the Factory that produced it) created more filmmakers. So, simply put, The Godfather created more films. Think of all the top trendsetters today, be it Anurag Kashyap, Sriram Raghavan, Jaideep Sahni, Shimit Amin or AR Rahman and they all owe their breaks to Varma. In the case of Satya, itвЂ™s Ram Gopal Varma, the man and his talent and not his creation, that led to a revolution. ItвЂ™s crucial to note that, for example, The Godfather (very much an influence on RGV) gave birth to imitators and no gangster film made after it can honestly claim to have had no truck with it. Satya could well be a fallen page from MehtaвЂ™s gripping Maximum City. More importantly, the mob looks and behaves like a mob, at least if those who have met the mob are to be believed. ItвЂ™s awashed with guns, ganglands, grime, extortion, violence and cuss words. Or, was it that Satya simply said it as it was, not breaking the mould so much as doggedly following the mould? ThereвЂ™s no doubt that Satya pointed a way to new realism, inspiring not just films but filmmakers.

We have had gangster movies before, but none that broke the mould the way Satya did. It made itself.вЂќ Despite being a mainstream film with a stark and bold language, a sense of visual and spoken realism that we hadnвЂ™t seen in Hindi cinema previously, Satya delighted the mass audience. He spoke to someone in Indore, who said вЂForget it, itвЂ™s gone.'вЂќ The maverick director added, perhaps tellingly, вЂњWe didnвЂ™t make the film. вЂњI remember I was in Boney KapoorвЂ™s office and asked him if he can find out from his distributors how the film is doing. вЂњOn the first day, it took a 30 per cent opening,вЂќ RGV told Film Companion. Nobody, least of all the filmвЂ™s mafia-mad director, expected it to do so well. Its success epitomised the sweet victory of the underdog. But when the Bhiku fever finally caught on, there was no cure for it. Sneaking into cinemas with minimal fanfare in 1998, Ram Gopal VarmaвЂ™s gritty Satya was a slow-burner. Montana is an immigrant, while Mhatre is the consummate son of the soil. As Montana explodes in the famous Scarface restaurant scene, telling off a crowd of upmarket diners, вЂњYou need people like me so you can point your fuckinвЂ™ fingers and say, вЂThatвЂ™s the bad guy.вЂќ Bhiku Mhatre is the bad apple, but one vital difference separates the two. As a gangster, Mhatre has the gun and glamour (not to mention, fawning side-kicks) but his lower middle-class native Marathi cred bars his entry to BombayвЂ™s upper echelons, a bit like ScarfaceвЂ™s uncouth Tony Montana. If black-collared Bhiku Mhatre, counting Shakeel too, were a film star or a banking CEO, he would have been a respectable member of the elite society. As don Chotta Shakeel once lucidly observed (courtesy, Suketu MehtaвЂ™s Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found), вЂњThere are blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. The city rewards hard work, smartassery, ambition and a hunger to be at the top. Like all crooks, MhatreвЂ™s secret weapon is his wiseguy gloss. In that moment all the Mumbai metaphors are perfectly aligned - thereвЂ™s political-criminal nexus, high-rises in the backdrop, the sea that was used in a curious mixture of poetic doom in Maqbool and at the top, the figure of a Mumbai gangster, a symbol of self-made success who wins our sympathy precisely for that reason. As it turns out, that hellishly enjoyable and critical scene declaring Bhiku Mhatre as having finally arrived also marks his downfall. вЂњBhiku Mhatre!вЂќ Mhatre is the kingpin of Mumbai and of Ram Gopal VarmaвЂ™s scintillating Satya (1998). When flattering replies are not forthcoming the kill-machine supplies the answer himself. HeвЂ™s not just facing the sea but also talking to it. Tossing off his recent mob conquests and flushed with newfound political success, Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee) climbs up on a cliff overlooking the vast jungle that makes up Mumbai, the prize he covets most.

Take a look at our pick of all-time top 10 Hindi gangsta line-up.

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