Audio CDs say “The Power of SARKAR”, the film kicks off with, “theres no right, theres no wrong, theres only Power”
Sarkar – (hindi) – directly translated as Government and colloquially in India, means the Big Boss!
Ram Gopal Verma’s, after-a-long-hiatus-directorial presentation, is a marriage of sorts of Mario Puzo’s (not Francis Coppola’s movie version) Don Corleone and and real life Bal Thackeray.
Complete with loose fitting kurta, rudraksh beads on his wrists, Amitabh Bachhan
(Subhas Nagre!!) looks every bit a take off on Bala Saheb.
RGV’s find Manish Gupta has done a remarkable job with the writing. The dialogues are crisp, hard hitting without being too dramatic.
The star cast is impressive in terms of performance. RGV, definitely makes his characters emote more than just be present in the frame.
Supriya Pathak (Pushpa Nagre) as Subhas Nagre’s wife, torn between her love for her sons and the feudal supremacy of husband, is quite a return to the celluloid. With few dialogues, few tears and presence in the frame, she lives the character.
The female characters for that matter don’t have much to say and do, but then the story has been structured in away, where in whatever little attention the screenplay pays to the women, is strong and defining.
Rukhsar as Kay Kay Menon’s (Vishnu Nagre) wife looks a typical Maharashtrian Daughter in law.
Kay Kay as firebrand wayward elder son, with anger against his self righteous dad, is one to watch out for. So, are the cameo and supporting cast. Every character looks acts and even emotes in body language absolutely the part. All the actors are the regulars of RGV Company.
Katrina and Tanisha as women in Abhishek (Shankar Nagre- younger son), are okay. Tanisha, does ham a bit and doesn’t look quite comfortable with the character.
Sarkar is a family drama that an Indian middle class will relate to a lot, the plot and orientation towards family values, the movie shows a patriarch family where the head of the family happens to be in a powerful position and who does things outside the law.
The whole fabric is been interwoven with a story of family and a story of a man, who lives life according to own terms and nevertheless has a sense of right and wrong.
The superbly shot promos, began with Mahatma Gandhi quote: 'Think Rightly. Act Rightly. Live Rightly” and then an antithesis in Amitabh's baritone, 'Mujhe jo theek lagta hai, main vohi karta hoon.….” (I do things that look right to me). The dialogue has in fact been included in the soundtracks.
The film opens up with an old man come to see “Sarkar”, telling the story of how his only daughter was raped and tortured by her classmate and then police and justice system later, and how she committed suicide and now the he wants a revenge for his dead daughter.
And, “Sarkar” with a look, nod, a frown, and a one-liner “mein yeh nahin janana chahta who kaun hai, lekin agli baar inke chehre par muskaan honi chahiye”; does justice.
In Varma’s word about his character - By nature, he possesses the ability, the charisma, the intelligence and the Machiavellian cunning to control the working of the city. He even dispenses justice when the common man cannot obtain it from the law keepers - the government, the police, the judiciary.
While, Bunty and Babli did see them together; this one’s about a serious and mature relationship of father and son between the Bachchan Sr and Bachchan Jr.
One cannot miss the undertones of respect Abhishek has for his dad and yet he is not guilty of playing Abhishek Bachhan to Amitabh but is thoroughly Subhas Nagre’s son Shankar; who cannot help feeling responsible, respectful and understanding of the different guy his dad is.
The scenes:
1.When Subhas Nagre (victim of political scheming) gets arrested and asks Shankar to leave for America since the latter doesn’t understand anything about this kinda world and Shankar quietly answers that he is staying, and he too has responsibilities.
When Shankar is looking for help from, all, his entire dad’s aides, only to find that each and every one of them have turned against him
When his dad’s closet man-Friday gives up himself to bullets for Shanakr to escape from the enemy.
When he finds out that his elder brother also is a part of the group against his dad
When after killing his elder brother* he climbs up to his parents room and tells them about this.
And, when he dons the mantle of the new Sarkar.
are very significant both for Abhishek, as an actor and hindi cinema as whole.
Abhishek is the real star of the movie. The Big B, is his usual stellar self. But, the second half of the movie absolutely belongs to Abhishek. He is a director’s actor and Sarkar only goes on to reinforce the same. While in Yuva, his character was full of violent anger and entirely “thod-phod” guy, Shankar is full of restrained anger and has his head firmly on his shoulders. Even in the theores of his own emotions and his conflict with himself about his decision to step into his dad’s shoes, while he would have preferred otherwise; he has a precision of calculation about him. Abhishek is superlative and this one’s probably his best performance till date. He is also looking quite handsome on screen.
Vishnu was sent to kill Subhas by his adversaries, the screenplay is brilliant here, when, Vishnu comes back home and tells his brother and mom that this is what the opposition was planning and that though he is a black sheep, yet he is his dad’s son and would not dream of doing such a thing and the re-union is all too hunky dory and then he in the dead of the night, he climbs up to his dad’s room and is pointing a gun on his sleeping dad, and Shankar comes in beats him up and there isn’t a single line he says
The film also has some technical credits to its name:
Music by Amar Mohile, Kunal Mehta, Pariksht Lalwani, Anup Dev is not hum able or anything but is in the same vein as the theme, the two tracks “Govinda, Govinda” in Amitabh’s and Kailash Kher’s vocals and “Sam Dam Dand Bhed” by Kailash Kher can be heard throughout in the background. Amit Roy’s Cinematography too is quite good. No flicks, this one talks in camera angles and close-ups and head shots. Nipun Gupta and Amit Parmar are good with the editing, and Sunil Nigvekar’s art direction also is quite impressive.
All in all, this one is quite a treat for the viewers. The movie stays with you even after its long over.
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