Andhracafe.com- Sarkar Raj: Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai. Govind Namdeo, Dilip Prabhawalkar. Direction: Ram Gopal Varma.

Thankfully RGV takes from Sarkar and not his Sholay.  The style, the crisp narration, the signature tune angles, the darkness, the playing with light is all there. There with élan.  A mafia story fits the RGV factory and without too much effort the scenes and c characters fall into place. This truly is his genre- just as snow-clad mountains and chiffons is the monopoly of Yash Chopra. The problem is that these filmmakers having set the grammar of their cinema get clichéd and repetitive. Artistic innovation dies at the dictates of the box office or their understanding of how to handle a script.  The sequel to Sarkar carries the punch and the energy, the intensity and drama of the earlier essay.  Add to it the presence of the Bachchans and the entry of the “new addition to the family” and the rendezvous is complete but compelling enough.

    The narrative is predictable. and designed for the formula space. Do not expect the extra ordinary.  That is too much asking from a mainstream filmmaker leave alone RGV.

    Sarkar Raj could well be christened The Return of Sarkar..  the narration begins with snippets of how Shanker (Abhishek) is operating his ‘ideals in crime’ Empire. The guiding figure- Subash Sarkar( Sr. Bachchan) is in semi retirement but with hawk like observation .  His delegated supervision is all too obvious.  Political big wigs still hobnob  and seek his guidance and discuss hard-core politics.

    A Power Project at Thakarwadi is on the anvil. In to the new “environ” comes Anita (Aishwarya Rai) .  Her assignment is to plan , install and kick start the power project sponsored by her moneybag Dad Mike Ranjan ( Victor Banerjee) Predictably the project gets into various controversies.  On the one hand you have the likes of Kanga (Sivajirao Shinde) Hasen Qazi (Govind Namdeo) and Kantilal Vora (Upendra Limaye)  who are eyeing the project to make money there is Sanjay Somji ( Rajesh Shringapure) fighting the coming of the project as a threat to the locals.

Sounds familiar?
Sarkar , Shanker, Anita seek the blessings of Sarkar’s political Guru Rao Saheb ( Dilip Prabhawalkar)  who is a Gandhian.  Local protests orchestrated by Somji , Rao Saheb’s grandson clearly draws the battle lines between progress and local interest.

    As power play unleashes men die, muscles flexed, blood spilled, Death comes calling everywhere. Vendetta gets viral .  In a RGV world- death and morbidity reign.

    RGV keeps the script tight and strips it off any needless frills. Many scenes get predictable but most often than not the Bachchans take them on their enigmatic shoulders.

    Like ever so often the support cast do their job with intensity and credibility.  Notice hat RGV gives his character  flesh and blood.  The characters are not just props. The likes of Shivaji Shinde, Govind Namdeo and Ravi Kale ( as Chander) add a lot of passion. Dilip Prabhawalkar as the Gandhian leader  is NOT  type cast and does a very sincere interpretation.

    Aishwarya Rai is not disappointing. She lives up to her reputation of being an actress who adds no real value to a script.  Yet another role that could have been power packed looses effect by the choice of the actress.  If only she had learnt a few lessons from ma-in-law in Sholay!!

Abhishek Bachchan still looks gawky and takes that to an advantage.  Good if not over done performance.  It is awesome how Bachchan Sr. can steal style and screen presence out of a cliché.

His presence adds a punch to the script.   The problem with the film , in the final analysis, is that it is too predictable and filled with too many clichés. The parallels are all too obvious and class takes a beating- despite the presence of Amitabh.
See it and forget it.

L.Ravichander