Movie Review : Sarkar Raj
Sarkar Raj, the new RGV film on a shrewd businesswoman’s plan to build a power plant caught up in development politics, is drawing comparisons with the controversy behind the failed Indian project of US utilities giant Enron.
Sarkar Raj, billed as a sequel to Sarkar released three years ago, picks up on the life of Subhash Nagre, a charismatic, grey-haired leader played by Amitabh Bachchan, who like Thackeray, is not in government but wields enormous influence through an army of die-hard followers.
Not much in the film’s Mumbai moves without the consent of Nagre, a figure shrouded in a Godfather-like mystique. He is approached by the London-based CEO of a power firm, who realises his blessings are vital to setting up the plant. Bachchan’s son, Abhishek, plays his on-screen son, Shankar.
The female lead, who Varma insisted was not inspired by Enron CEO Rebecca Mark, is played by Abhishek’s wife, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Enron’s Mark often negotiated with Thackeray to save the controversial power plant, which was closed down in 2001, the year the US firm went bankrupt after an accounting scandal.
Thackeray’s party said the deal was opaque and did not benefit locals. Similarly, Nagre is against the project, which becomes a political minefield, but his foreign-educated, son, partly influenced by the CEO’s charms, persuades him to give the power plant a chance.
Ramu’s storytelling pattern is such that he initially builds up the drama and subsequently breaks down the politics behind the play. He effectively employs all the original techniques from the predecessor by making use of the same theme for the background score (Amar Mohile), caustic editing pattern (Amit Parmar, Nipun Gupta), sepia tone effect and erratic camera angles (Amit Roy).
But while adhering to the original, he occasionally, also sets up repetitiveness in the screenplay with similar setup and shot execution. For instance he sketches a group of negative forces absolutely analogous like the villain quartet from Sarkar with identical intentions to crumple the Nagre kingdom. Reprehensibly their caricature characterizations do not gel with the solemn temper of the film. Sayaji Shinde hams endlessly while Govind Namdeo and Upendra Limaye are consistently theatrical, appearing more as comic sidekicks.
To an extent, even the screenplay is moulded in the vein of the forerunner film when Shankar wages a political war against his opponents. But the treatment is twisted as Ramu reverses the roleplay of the father-son duo in this film in clear contrast to the format adopted in the earlier episode. While the father takes a backseat in the initial reels giving authority to son, he grabs charge of the proceedings in the concluding portions.
Like in Sarkar, Ramu sharply balances the role runtime of both the father and the son justifying the collective presence of Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. But he simultaneously swaps their zones of prominence thereby bringing a variation in their contribution. Despite drama being the highlight, the texture is subtle throughout.
From a political war, the film intermittently shifts track to a regular revenge drama till it arrives to a volatile climax that forms a highlight of the enterprise, escalating the entire graph. Sarkar Raj clearly gains major marks for its clever culmination, which was so much lacking from recent RGV products. The considerately and crisply penned dialogues by Prashant Pandey add a lot of insight to the scenes and depth to the characterizations.
From the cast, Aishwarya Rai plays a mere spectator to the scenes than a participant to the politics. She is her usual self and her act doesn’t seem to be sculpted by the RGV touch. The other two Bachchans have exhaustive scope and completely submit to Ramu’s visualization.
Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, once again, employ the intensity of their piercing eyes to give sight to Ram Gopal Varma’s distinctive vision.
When Anita [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan], CEO of Sheppard Power Plant, an international company, brings a power plant proposal to set up in rural Maharashtra before the Nagres, insightful Shankar [Abhishek Bachchan] is quick to realize the benefits the power plant can bring to the people.
After convincing Sarkar [Amitabh Bachchan], who is against it for various reasons, Shankar undertakes a journey along with Anita to the villages of Maharashtra to mobilize support from the masses.
However, things are not what they seem to be and Shankar’s dream project gradually becomes a political minefield. The evil forces, mightier than ever, mushroom and gang up to bring down the regime of Sarkar and obliterate Shankar’s name from the political horizon.
SARKAR RAJ exudes a lot of power from the word ‘Go’. But let’s not categorize SARKAR RAJ as yet another “political film”. Emotions and relationships run concurrently in those 2+ hours. What works in favor of SARKAR RAJ is its tight writing. It’s not difficult to decipher the power play, but more importantly, there’s meat in the script. It leaves you awe-struck as the plot thickens. The film throws a number of surprises, but the best is reserved for the penultimate 20/25 minutes. The culmination to the story is simply fantastic!
RGV shines like never before. He takes to SARKAR RAJ with a vengeance. He has to prove that the sequel is better, he has to prove the detractors wrong too. While RGV has handled the subject with great expertise, you cannot ignore a few scenes that leave a lasting impact…
Besides its strong content, SARKAR RAJ has been filmed exceptionally well too. In fact, SARKAR RAJ has the trademark RGV stamp in every sequence. The review would be incomplete without giving the due credit to writer Prashant Pandey’s incredible and almost flawless script. Amar Mohile’s background score is topnotch. The by-now-famous ‘Govinda‘ chant in the background only enhances the impact. Amit Roy’s cinematography is exceptional. The DoP succeeds in giving the film the raw-n-rustic look, which works very well. Action [Allan Amin], in minimal doses, is perfect.
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