A One Cine Creation and Aatman Films’ Satya Sai Baba is a devotional film. It is a fictional story about the miracles of Satya Sai Baba.
Satya (master Azaan Ali) lives in a village of Andhra Pradesh and he performs miracles even as a child. He calls himself an avtaar of Sai Baba. Satya grows up and becomes famous as Satya Sai Baba (Anup Jalota). MLA Ranga Rao (Zakir Hussain) is corrupt to the core and deals in drugs. His man, Nagi Reddy, is in jail in a drugs case but Rao manages to make Reddy escape from jail. Nagi Reddy takes refuge in Satya Sai Baba’s ashram. Police inspector Satya Prakash (Jackie Shroff) is in charge of the drugs case. How he brings the criminals to book forms the crux of the drama. Meanwhile, Satya Sai Baba makes schools, colleges and hospitals for the welfare of the people. One day, he dies of kidney failure.
S. Sachindra’s story is kiddish and that’s putting it mildly. His screenplay is slightly better but that’s hardly saying anything. Routineness is written all over the drama so that there is not even a hint of novelty or freshness. S. Sachindra’s dialogues are ordinary.
Anup Jalota is alright in the title role. Jackie Shroff does a fair job as police inspector Satya Prakash. Sadhika Randhawa is average in a brief role as Satya Prakash’s wife. Govind Namdeo has his moments as the village mukhiya. Zakir Hussain makes his mark as MLA Ranga Rao. Master Azaan Ali is alright as young Satya. Murali Sharma doesn’t quite impress as Venkayya Appa. Kishori Shahane Vij is quite nice in a role (Satya Sai Baba’s mother) which offers her limited scope. Sudhir Dalvi makes a brief appearance as Sai Baba. Mushtaq Khan (as police hawaldar), Aroon Bakshi, Pankaj Dheer, Raj Premi, Gargi Patel and Anil Nagrath lend routine support.
Vicky Ranawat’s direction is nothing to shout about. Music (Bappi Lahiri, Anchal Talesara and Sumit Tappu) comprises one fairly good bhajan and other songs that are dull. Lyrics (Naqsh Lyallpuri, Sudhakar Sharma and Dr. Deepak Sneh) are below the mark. Ricky Gupta’s choreography deserves no separate mention. S. Pappu’s camerawork is average. Nakul K. Prasad’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Satya Sai Baba is a poor show all the way.
Released on 29-1-’21 at Carnival Wadala (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Aries Films. Publicity & opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.