’Godfather’ and ’Nayakan’ are amongst my favorites, more importantly they are classics, they have both strived to touch perfection: they might have, infact, managed to graze it, some people like myself might reckon. Unfortunately, ‘Sarkar’, a tribute to one and loosely inspired by both fails to come close to the masterpieces.
The contention of some people that the comparison is itself an injustice and that this movie needs to be viewed independently without referring to other movies is totally valid, I dare not refute it, infact I preach it myself and I honestly tried to practice it during the movie. But I could not resist the first paragraph. No point denying the truth, is there?
Getting down to a disassociated evaluation, the most striking character of the movie is the signature style of Ram Gopal Verma who has carried forward that gripping, detail oriented and powerful style of story telling from his previous movies. His characters are well defined, true to life and live in the real world. He knows exactly what a character is supposed to do and he makes sure they do not overdo their bits (sometimes prefers under-playing the character, which means we don’t see heroes who can dance, sing, cry, laugh, have a fantastic sense of humor, be successful and in the process romance a beautiful heroine). Every role has a purpose and they live up to it. An extra in his movie is only an extra and is not an attention grabber. This movie is no different and prominently carries his stamp. But, is he becoming redundant making the type of movies he has been making?
The story has the capacity to carry itself, “Sarkar”/ Subhash Nagare (Amitabh Bachchan) rules Bombay successfully and firmly with an iron grip of his Tulsi mala bound hands, he refuses to aid and opposes the plans of a Dubai based don who wants to traffic drugs into the city and in the process makes some obvious and some hidden but powerful enemies who stop at nothing to end Sarkar’s durbar. He also has trouble with his power intoxicated and spoilt eldest son Vishnu (Kay Kay) who is manupilated and used by his detractors against him. His foreign returned younger son Shankar Nagare is not ready to step into his shoe and Sarkar does not want him in his shoes. Sarkar’s and Shankar’s tremulous times filled with power struggles, violence, betrayals, growing up and taking over constitutes the movie.
The movie moves wonderfully well, keeping you gripped and excitedly expectant till the first half, this primarily belonging to Bachchan Sr., but sobers down to an almost disappointing and indifferent second half which seems and feels like any other masala movie where the hero is on a path of retribution trapping, avenging and happily killing away the villains, the plot gets progressively less realistic and we are subjected to scenes like the hero escaping from a gang of trained killers and then running in slow motion to foil the assassination attempt on daddy, an expected twist of friend turning foe and Katrina trying to emote. It is almost like Mr. Verma looses interest by the end of production and hands over charge to the nearest available spot boy. The fact that the second half of the movie offers ample scope to one Mr. Bachchan Jr and still manages to be relatively disappointing may be coincidental, maybe not!
Without going into the justifications of comparison, Abhishek falls short of expectation, especially with Amitabh Bachchan in the same movie. He flatly refuses to carry the movie and is left to the Senior Bachchan to carry out the duties which he does wonderfully as has always has. The difference is stark and not ignorable. Amitabh has done a marvelous job and continues to convince people about his acting prowess. He needs no dialogues and can emote with his eyes, you can see pain, anger, grief and power there. He epitomizes the character and you come out convinced that a wave of his hand can indeed create an uproar.
Supriya Pathak and the other family members along with the support cast have done a decent job. Especially mentionable is Kay Kay’s character of Vishnu Nagre (based on ‘Sonny’ from ‘Godfather’) that he has performed almost to perfection. He makes you angry, at the same time wanting to hit him on the head and drag him from his foolhardiness, coming across as not a totally cruel person but just weak minded.
Cinematography and editing get full marks. Music is at times overbearing and unnecessary but on the whole blends in and at times adds to the fluency of the storyline.
This movie, though relatively good, could have been much better if solely for the fact that the imprint of this movie on you is rather temporary, unlike for example Nayakan or even Satya. You will not, in all probablity, want to buy this movie into your collection and watch it whenever you feel like. I read in another review here, that RGV is the pioneer of modern Indian cinema……….. Ya, sure!!!!!!
P.S - Comments are welcome and greatly appreciated