Satya Meva Jayathe is so heavily inspired by the Bollywood flick Khakee that it ends up not only borrowing heavily from the original flick but also uses original footage. The item number by Lara Dutta gets dubbed in Telegu which makes you wonder why the makers took the pain to “remake” the original when they could have easily dubbed it in Telegu thereby sparing the viewers the agony of sitting through this amateurish, boring and violent movie.

What is it about : For those who haven’t seen the original, the story goes like this: Encounter specialist DCP Sathya (Dr Rajashekhar) and his special police team (Sivaji, Neetu Chandra, and Siva Reddy) have to escort Ansari (Atul Kulkarni) from Vizag to Hyderabad. The bad guys led by Ranadev (Milind Soman) are out to eliminate Ansari on the Home Minister’s (Sayaji Shinde) orders as a part of a larger sinister conspiracy. Over time, there is a flashback on why Ranadev is hell-bent on taking revenge on DCP Sathya while there is a love story between the double-crossing Mahalaxmi (Sheryl) and Sivaji. By the end, DCP Sathya exposes and kills all the bad guys and probably lives happily ever-after.

What is Good: Nothing much to recommend in this section... the gripping story- screenplay and performances of the original are something that could have been a surefire winner here. In the acting department, Sanjana shows some spark her brief appearance while Sayaji Shinde excels again for the nth time as a loud boorish character. Atul Kulkarni relives the role all over again while Ali provides the only comic relief in his 5 minute role that comes towards the end.

What is Bad : Overall, the movie is very amateurish in its production values as well as the acting department. The movie required the strongest performance by Dr Rajashekhar who unfortunately does not deliver and instead ends up as a loud, lecturing cop. The other big disappointment is Milind Soman who hardly comes across a menacing villain. The music is forgettable while loud and jarring background music accompanies each and every frame. The movie fails to generate any enthusiasm or interest in the audience.

Me Thinks : This family production which had Dr Rajashekhar writing the story, screenplay, dialogues with his wife Jeevitha directing him could have been a much better effort. Dr Rajashekar tries very unsuccessfully to revive magic of the angry young man of Ankusham!

Tailpiece: In one of the many unwanted scenes…there is an outburst by Dr Rajashekhar on how individuals are using the name of noble personalities like Mother Teresa to further their political gains...no points for guessing who the intended target is!!!