The movie, as says the director says right at the beginning, is an unabashed copy of ’ Godfather’ . This would have sounded like an alibi coming from any other director - to not expect anything new- but Ramu being Ramu u salute his cheek and blank your mind to watch the film.
We are introduced to this family in Mumbai where amitabh is Subhash ’sarkar’ nagare - a king/king maker/ don/ rogue/ fixer overseeing his empire with elan and ease - much like the way he rolls the rudraksh in his hand. He has two sons the younger one - shankar- who spent his time abroad (abhishek) and the elder one (kay kay) who spends his time seeing a broad.
Story moves and we get a glimpse of all characters- sarkar’s wife supriya pathak, daughter -in-law prospect tanisha, son’s lover katrina, chela (telugu actor ) kotta srinivasa rao- these and other odd hangers on make sarkar’s a happy family solving others’ problems . But before u say touch wood vishnu gets involved in a shoot (no, not the movie kind) and is thrown out of home . A politician is shot dead and the blame gets to ’sarkar’ - he is arrested.
That leaves Shankar who is caught in the middle of these and runs helter-skelter looking for help from near and dear - one by one, he realises their duplicity, and that he is ALONE. How he handles the law, the law breakers , friends and foes proving a worthy successor to ’sarkar’ forms the rest of the movie.
Nothing new, would you say? True, but trust ramu for despite being the 3rd of his ’satya’-’company’ trilogy he has his grip on the movie- and on you. It moves at a brisk pace- and there is nay a sense of ’boredom’. No wastage of scenes. Each add to story.
Performance wise, Amitabh is - what else? - is excellent in a role written for him. Cool, caring, philosophical, natural, hurt , silent - he is perfect. So is Abhishek. He can no longer be just amitabh’s son - has carved a name for himself. Brooding, worried, caring, angry, menacing- he is there to see. Add to it his trademark swagger and gait - these add to the role and he sure fits.
All parts were given to with care- supriya pathak, katrina, some new faces (?) like vishnu’s wife, sarkars’ bald aide - but they are just right. So, who does the film belong to ? For me, there are three who leave a clear mark- Kay Kay for one. Two and a half scenes, he has. But he doesnt leave you, as the wayward son. Looks the part. Tanisha, as the sweet girl in love with abhishek - she too comes out of the adjective’ kajol’s younger sister’ . Kotta Reddy as the ’ south mannes-north operations ’ villain . He is a treat to watch, a natural providing the proceeds with tempo - full marks to him, especially in the crucial scene where he does a turnaround.
So is it full marks for ramu? well, no. He has indeed kept it clean- no cliches, no songs. No flashbacks of poverty/ dad killed etc or explanation as to why/how ’sarkar’ got into (t)his act. A simple axiom of ’someone’s got to be doing it, so I am ’. No jutifications. Just acceptance- with a rationale, of its own. Thats the good part -but yes (even) ramu could have bettered it. You feel a little short on the story. The metamorphosis of shankar into ’chotte sarkar’ could have been bit more pronounced- and not just by making him wear jackets -just like that- over his shirt to look the part. Also, his love for tanisha too is left hanging- did he accept her - or hey, didnt he, though? Some of the other characters could have been more etched. The chant of ’govinda govinda in the background could have been avoided. So is the (only) cliche of ’sarkar-helping-rape-victim-find-justice ’ which has been shown in zillion movies earlier.
How do we compare this to other movies in the genre- say ’Nayakan’? Well, kamal towered over the movie itself- both amitabh and abhi are not able to . And this could be due to ramu’s grip on the film not letting any character raise (even) an eyebrow without his approval. And as far as story telling is concerned (personally) Nayakan was better.
More importantly, Ramu has certain assumptions and comes straight to the point by taking the audience into confidence right at the beginning by admitting - ’like countless others, I am inspired by godfather. this is perhaps my way of paying a tribute’’. Probably he felt a lot of explanations could be avoided- even within the story- with that line, thereby bringing the audience to his wavelength, right at the start.. and porbably where he jsut about slips.
But no mistakes. Watch it. Cappolla may not (possibly) jump with joy but neither would this make him see red like a lot of the other ’godfather’ clones have in the past.