Dear Sathya Movie Review: Of women’s safety and a multitude of emotions

In recent times, we have seen many films tackling themes revolving around middle-class values, family sentiments, mother-son relationships, revenge etc...What makes Dear Sathya stand out from the crowd is director Shiva Ganesh’s narrative style, which employs the reverse screenplay method. Apart from the balanced direction, the strength of Dear Sathya is the script, written by Aryan Santhosh, who is also the protagonist of the film.

Being a film that is based on a true incident, Aryan manages to get close enough to reality and brings out the experiences of people around whom the story revolves.

Cast: Aryan Santhosh, Archana Kottige, Ashwin Rao Pallaki, and Aruna Balraj

Director: Shiva Ganesh

The film begins with Sathya (Aryan Santhosh) coming out of the prison with a revenge-fuelled heart. Thus begins the flashback, and we see Sathya as a friendly food delivery boy and a doting son. His other weakness is the love of his life, Anjali, (Archana Kottige). A man full of dreams, Sathya is inspired by the Japanese lifestyle and their hard work, and wants to set up a Karnataka-style food restaurant in that country. On the other hand, Anjali aims to become an air hostess. Even as both are working towards their goals, Sathya receives a double blow as Anjali is murdered and he is arrested for the same.

How Sathya goes about proving his innocence is one part of the story, and the other part delves into how he takes the law into his hands while also helping police to destroy a notorious gang. This journey leads to not one but two climaxes giving a justifiable but abrupt end.

Director Shiva Ganesh, who proved his directorial capabilities with the remake of Jigarthanda in Kannada, has done a good job with Dear Sathya. However, the director, who has tackled a realistic subject, does get carried away with the commercial elements. With neat performances, the film could have made for a crisp thriller if the repetitive scenes were cut short.

Aryan Santhosh makes all the right moves with his acting, and Archana Kottige too puts in an earnest effort. Aruna Balaraj, Ashwin Pallaki, and Aravind Rau make their importance felt in the film. Another highlight of Dear Sathya is the music by Sridhar Sambhram, and DoP Vinod Bharathi has wonderfully captured some stunning locales

There are a lot of films, which highlight women’s safety issues, however, Dear Sathya takes it a notch higher with a blend of varied emotions.