Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s classic Satyakam was screened here on Saturday at Madhya Pradesh State Tribal Museum under its regular series ‘Cine Aswaad’. Satyakam is a 1969 Indian Hindi film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, based on a Bengali novel of the same name by Narayan Sanyal. The film stars Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjeev Kumar, and Ashok Kumar. The film was scored by laxmikant Pyarelal.
The story begins in 1946, just a year before India’s independence. For Satyapriya Acharya (Dharmendra) India’s forthcoming independence spells a paradigm shift towards a sympathetic-rationalism that would take India’s populace from rags to riches. Satyapriya’s conviction is guided by his ascetic grandfather ‘Daddaji’ Satyasharan Acharya (Ashok Kumar)’s world views, whose pursuit of truth has led to him living in isolation in a Gurukula studying religious philosophy and observing a variety of rigid rituals.
Armed with an engineering degree, Satyapriya ventures out to realize his dreams about building a new India but encounters characters who share little of his ideals. During his first assignment he meets Ranjana (Sharmila Tagore) who is about to be sexually exploited by a debauched Prince, the employer of Satyapriya. Despite the obvious awareness that Ranjana loves him, Satyapriya hesitates in rescuing her, letting her become prey of the morally corrupt Prince. The incident shakes the moral foundation of Satyapriya who has betrayed his conscience and feelings. To redress the mounting guilt he marries Ranjana, but their lives are never same again. She bears a child whose paternity is never clearly established.