This one for Dharmendra

The year 1969 . The movie Satyakaam..22 years after Independence and the myths begin to shatter . It was clear, that the dream of modern India which our founding fathers had dreamt of, was not being realized. Inflation, corruption, tax evasion, black money, began to shatter the illusions of many Indians. And the 70’s was the death of idealism, in many ways, as people became more cynical and started to lose faith in idealism.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s movie Satyakaam pits the idealistic nature of the hero against a society and an establishment, that don’t share his ideals. Satyakam is the story of Satyapriya Acharya( Dharmendra), who grows up imbuing ideals from his grandfather Satyashran Acharya( Ashok Kumar). Graduating fresh from an engineering college in 1946, just a year before India’s independence, he is imbued with the dreams of lifting the vast masses of India from poverty, with his knowledge. Along with him is also his best friend Naren( Sanjeev Kumar), who however is more of a realist. Satyapriya however discovers that life is not what he imagined it to be.

He refuses to compromise on his ideals even when wracked by poverty, or threat of losing his job. For him his idealism means everything.

Naren on the other hand is the Aam Aadmi. He is a person who has compromised with life, but not to the extent of weighing on his conscience. He feels it is ok, to compromise a bit, as long as it does not become a emotional burden to you. The scenes where Naren faces off with Satya’s over the latter’s refusal to pass a bill, is one of the best scenes in movie.


Satyakam is a very honest movie, it sticks to it’s basic theme “Is there a place for an idealistic man in an imperfect world?” and does not stray from the topic.

Satyakam is a movie, that does not answer any questions, but projects the reality and asks you to decide for yourself.