Sarkar Raj: Even now Sarkar can Raj : NAACHGAANA

Sarkar Raj: Even now Sarkar can Raj

June 8th, 2008

Not too many things could have gone wrong with this flick, a successful first installment, trio of may be the “legendary” family, the most successful heroine in recent times, and the most talked about couple in India, but then at times things don’t go as per script and yes many things went wrong with this movie.

Why RGV has to show cartoonish villains is beyond me, though I have accepted that he has a knack of showing villainous people in positive light, be it Dawood in Company, Satya in Satya, Sarkar in Sarkar series. Sarkar, though operating a parallel government is still doing it for the sake of good of Maharashtra is as unbelievable as it is to understand kis kis kone se RGV ne camera angle liya.

Now before you make any guesses i really liked the movie, for me it was fun to see Amitabh is a role which he deserves and able to carry off, moreover even Abhishek showed signs of his potential in whatever little he was offered. Aish in one single scene redeemed her plastic pose, and towards the end movie finally gets the audience though must say the last shot is HORRIBLE.

I won’tgo into story as you must have heard and read it enough already, I will straightaway go to point. First half is darn slow, charaters take a whole lot of time to build wheras minutes to die. Why they are in the movie can be questioned at times, moreover the dialogues they utter are kinda elvish, or anything but something which can be comprehended by an average human brain. They hiss like snakes, sing songs, bite off their thumbs, talk with finger gestures, all in all look cartoonish or someone out of movies like Makdi, Hanuman returns kind of children’s movie. But they are very dangerous goons, how i know it??? there was extremely loud Govinda song and dimly lit room to suggest that.

Abhishek is shown intense and something similar to Al Pacino in Godfather 2, where he tries to solve everything with an iron fist. Only problem is that he is so grumpy that even when his wife tells him that she is pregnant, Abhishek has to try real real real hard to let out a smile. But there were a few scenes where you notice the potential of this star son, that he can actually become something more than just star son, if given enough opportunities and scripts, sadly SR wasn’t one of them.

Aish on the other hand is practically wasted. Her image of being plastic is carried forward with her being shown in all dressed up pant suits, something along the lines of Hillary Clinton. She does nothing except escorting Abhishek to various hospital visits, which was kind of odd considering Abhishek’s wife was still alive and kicking and even pregnant. Though Tanisha was too busy making some puris with her mother-in-law.

Movie don’t move an inch till a tragedy occurs in the family, infact second tragedy. And what follows is one of the best scenes I can recall in recent times, Amitabh, Abhishek and Aish all in one room, and THE Bachchan giving a few lessons in acting. Aish cries real hard over here and gives her best performance in otherwise dull movie.

After this scene movie takes a bit of pace and whodunnit unfolds in the low baritone of Mr. bachchan himself. this scene becomes tad bit too long, and along with Aish even you start crying to end it. Well one shocking revelation after another, finally the real culprit is revealed and I bet many guessed him right from the begining though the motives were still unknown.

Towards the end of the movie Amitabh again makes a long long speech, and I know his voice is real commanding, but after so many long speeches you tend to go tired and start looking towards the exit sign where you find some people leaving the hall. The scene’s end shows Amitabh, very authoritatively, getting back the reigns of his empire in his own hands, asking for his grandson to return home, and without any sense of remorse or loss picks up the phone. And there I seriously believe the movie should have ended. But movie has one more surprise in its bag, and I swear I was disgusted to see that. Neither it was authoritative, nor commanding and certainly not logical. But the stage is set for Sarkar to return with part 3.

In thee end its the power packed performances towards the end of both halves of the movie which makes you feel somewhat alright in otherwise very dark, loud and slow 2 hours of your life. The movie certainly belongs to Mr. Amitabh and all those who have a knack of saying he is over. But then you, as a fan, also think, why he don’t take assignments like these, why he has to become some Sam and burn his credibility in Aag?

My rating of the movie 2/5, both points to Mr. Bachchan

There Are 39 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Kanwal on 8 June 2008:

i agree completely with you kunal. For some novelty i would give this movie 2.5/5 . I will not be surprised if the movie does only decent business. Nothing great but good performance by the bachchans. And yes my best part are the villians,way cartoonish but my best in the movie and of course big b.Yes kunal even i was confused by the ending.
Comment by Kanwal on 8 June 2008:

Aishwarya’s father is killed by someone and she readily and eagerly joins him. WOW. Good career decision.
Comment by akshay shah on 8 June 2008:

Superb piece Kunal….
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

Bachchan is never ‘over’. That is absurd by definition, no matter who says it. But it is not enough for Bachchan to be better than the competition. His standards are the loftiest ones in Indian cinema. Those are the ones that I use to measure him. The idea that ‘even when far from his best he is better than everyone else’ is one that I have indulged in myself on many occasions but mostly for polemical reasons. My standards remain the highest for him and I stick to these. Also one should avoid certain errors in these matters. Shakespeare is the greatest playwright (at least since classical times) but this does not mean that the worst Shakespeare play is better than the best Chekhov or Ibsen! Of course the other talent must be minimally a Chekhov or an Ibsen! Kishore Kumar had poor days but Udit Narayan on his best day cannot beat Kishore on his poorest! This however does not mean that Kishore did not have poor days!
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

To my mind it’s a violation of the memory of everything that’s unparalleled about Bachchan’s career to blindly suggest that he’s great in every film. Sometimes the true Bachchan fans also fall into this trap. They are afraid that they will make Bachchan vulnerable to partisan politics if they do otherwise. But if there’s one thing Bachchan fans should have learnt from Bachchan’s great roles it is not to be afraid!

One sees how the partisans will never give even a Mohabbatein to Bachchan while on the other hand keep giving him Abhishek starrers whether he enters after the second half or takes over in the last 20 mins! This argument is used to undercut Bacchhan’s own heir! Not anyone else!
Comment by Simply Som on 8 June 2008:

ohhhh, yes, there can be no replacement to Mr Bachchan.He is no doubt the best star-actor India has ever produced so far.
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

It’s precisely Abhishek whom Bachchan has never mastered in film. Mastered the way he simply ate up SRK or Hrithik or whoever in the moments he shared with these stars. But I’ll be fair here. Akshay Kumar held his own in Khakee, the only time he did so in a Bachchan film but he was fine in Khakee and even a bit of a scene stealer. This is a complete Bachchan film but Bachchan does not dominate Akshay here. There are some other examples as well. SRK especially appeared with bachchan multiple times and simply got swallowed. Therefore Johar had to keep Bachchan off screen for large sections of K3G. But when he was around he was the man. The most famous thing about K3G is now Shava Shava. Consider how SRK measures up to Bachchan here and then look at Abhishek with his father in Rock ‘n roll soniye (KANK). Is there even a comparison?! The closest Bachchan gets to being the ‘man’ in an Abhishek starrer is BnB. Because here Bachchan is his iconic self while Abhishek is in a more naturalistic mode.
Comment by Qalandar on 8 June 2008:

Satyam: let me add Sanju in Deewar -LBOHH, where he had the more colorful role and made great use of it. I think he was very much the scene stealer there.
Comment by Simply Som on 8 June 2008:

Satyam: as far as I am concerned, I do like to believe SRK was very good in Mohabbatein if not better than Bachchan, though cant say the same in case of K3G.

BTW I felt Sakar Raj belonged to Mr Bachchan more than Sarkar where there were quite some stunning performances from KK and Abhishek(expecially in the 2nd half)as well.I thought in SR, Abhishek’s character was not well developed to give him the scope to show his potential.
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

Actually Som Bachchan at his best is the greatest star-actor I’ve ever seen in cinema. Can’t think of anyone really major I haven’t seen in any industry worth mentioning. So I am not just exaggerating when I make this claim.

If I had to say Bachchan was extraordinary in Sarkar (either film, though I prefer him in the new one, some moments anyway) I do not know what adjectives I would have to use for other works of his. Including in recent times performances like Dev or Khakee.
Comment by rudresh on 8 June 2008:

“Actually Som Bachchan at his best is the greatest star-actor I’ve ever seen in cinema”
Totally agreed
Comment by akshay shah on 8 June 2008:

In DEEWAAR the scene stealer was Kay Kay then Dutt……Bachchan was surprisingly dull here!
Comment by Simply Som on 8 June 2008:

Kay Kay is a superb performer, I am yet to see someone completely overshadowing him in the same movie.loved his works in Deewar,Sarkar and Black Friday.
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

Agreed with both Qalandar and Akshay. Dutt was better than bachchan but yes Kay Kay was quite a scene stealer here. This is still to my mind Kay Kay’s best outing and after this I have liked him most in Shourya.
Comment by satyam on 8 June 2008:

Som: Never much cared for Kay Kay in Sarkar. He was just over the top here. This kind of performance is fine for one of the villains in Sarkar but Kay Kay could have done better. What he had in Deewar was restraint. But in any case I don’t rate Kay Kay as highly as you or many others do.
Comment by sandy on 8 June 2008:

I honestly believe Kay Kay’s was the most interesting and well-played part in Sarkar. Without Vishu’s character – and the way it’s enacted, it would have been an unbearably dull film.
Comment by Kunal27 on 8 June 2008:

Satyam I guess that you are getting wrong here. Neither Abhishek’s character, nor his dialogues were given enough thought.

Abhishek Bachchan though was supposed to be the “hero” of the movie, still was reduced to character role due to deficiency of director and script not because he acted anything less. Whenever in one or two scene he was given freedom to dominate, he did. But then he was not given enough room in SR thats for sure.

Not even one reviewer would say that Abhishek’s role or performance, or anything was concentrated more than Amitabh’s.

If you have a problem with this, I guess you should voice it in front of RGV’s office rather than people saying Amitabh stole the show.

It doesn’t matter when Amitabh enters the screen, but role given given to him which made him “hero” of the movie, though he actually wasn’t. Just like Akshay Kumar enters at half time in Bhool Bhulaiya, still was hero of the movie because of his role. In Mohabbatein, Shahrukh and Amitabh both had a small percentage of roles compared to the whole movie, but were still central character of the movie, due to the weight given in the characters.

SR started as an Abhishek Bachchan movie, finally transformed into an Amitabh Bachchan movie, if you believe otherwise, then may be you saw some other movie.

And though I don’t want to dwell in anything related to Shahrukh Khan discussion, but if you want then I am all game.
Comment by Kunal27 on 8 June 2008:

And I agree with Sandy about kay Kay’s character.
Comment by ragingbull on 8 June 2008:

what about Govinda in BMCM or dutt in kaante & deewar ?!?

Bachchan looked helpless , wont count khakee in here as bachchan’s track was almost parallel to akki’s track & there weren’t any confrontation scenes either.

On k3g , yeah the only thing u remember now is bachchan’s shava-2 !
Comment by beld o beld on 8 June 2008:

Agree with sandy. Kay kay was awesome in sarkar but so was abhishek

I believe I have commented before that I actually preferred abhishek over amitabh in sarkar. Having said that, this whole srk fixation is ludicrous. Be it mohabattein, k3g, veer zaara, kank - whatever - all are known as srk movies even tho others may have acted better. Except for jbj and bnb - I. don’t think any other movie where both bachchans acted would be termed a abhishek starrer until sarkar raj. But now it seems even sr will be known as amitabh’s movie
Comment by beld o beld on 8 June 2008:

And if the point is that abhishek has acted more in movies than srk has - well maybe true. Srk just figured that its enough if he could entertain and acting wasn’t that important for success. But hey even there, any poll would tell u that a swades or a cdi is far more impactful and better pieces of acting than all the gurus and sarkars of the world
Comment by N I T E S H on 8 June 2008:

Amongst the big star, only Aamir has not worked with BigB…

wonder how will he perform against this personality giant.

This according to me limits Aamir’s ability to prove his worth as he still has to work with the best in the industry.

I am afraid he may be apprehensive to do so…he knows in how many pieces he will be decimated by BigB.
Comment by beld o beld on 8 June 2008:

oh cmon Nitesh. Amitabh is obviously a great actor but he has not decimated anyone in his old avatar. if anything - he will enhance the performance of his co-stars and not decimate them.

as far as aamir is concerned - he will very much hold his own with Amitabh as SRK has. Of course, I have always believed that aamir’s strength is his choice of movies/script and not necessarily his acting. other than a lagaan - its fair to say that he has been outacted in all of his movies pretty much - RDB(Siddharth), TZP(Darsheel), Fanaa(Kajol), DCH (Saif/Akshay).
Comment by Simply Som on 9 June 2008:

oh cmon,Beld!! in those movies you mentioned, Aamir might not be the best thing as far as the performances are concerned, but certainly he held his own.Its not like he was completely overshadowed by a Siddarth in RDB or a Saif in DCH.
Comment by akshay shah on 9 June 2008:

Saif Akshaye in DCH?? Darsheel in TZP?? SIDDARTH IN RDB?!?!!?!

A.Shah
Comment by sandy on 9 June 2008:

Yup. Aamir’s never been a natural actor. For that matter, I don’t consider SRK a very great actor either. Much depends on their choice of script. Neither of them have the acting finesse of a Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh or Naseeruddin Shah –who you can enjoy watching even in a very average film.

So yes, as Beld rightly said, Aamir main strength lies in his selection of scripts and since he’s a competent and dedicated actor, he pulls off most things. Sadly, Amitabh has never had much script sense and that’s especially clear in recent times.

As for Aamir getting overshadowed, well, he had some fine moments in DCH – he was spectacular in the second half. For the longest time, I’ve said that Aamir is simply brilliant when he plays intense parts (Sarfarosh, Lagaan, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (Pooja was the more effervescent one here), Rangeela, Earth 1947) as opposed to comedy.
Comment by beld o beld on 9 June 2008:

som - sure aamir did a good job/great job in all those movies - but i think most people agreed that the others acted better - maybe because their roles were better or whatever. again - lets be very clear - all those mentioned are “Aamir” movies - and thats the point i was making earlier - just bcoz someone had a better role or acted better doesnt influence whose movie it is. Aamir, SRK and Hrithik - if they act in a movie - it will always be their movie. If they act with each other in a movie - then there could be debates on who ‘carried’ the movie
Comment by beld o beld on 9 June 2008:

>he had some fine moments in DCH – he was spectacular in the second half
true sandy - but to me his first half was more enjoyable. He was playing a happy-go-lucky character after a long time - a la Dil hai ki manta nahin/Dil
Comment by sandy on 9 June 2008:

Coming back to Sarkar Raj, I was seriously looking forward to a very good movie - given that this year has by and large been very disappointing.
All hopes on the mighty Ghajini now!
Comment by rks on 9 June 2008:

Q: “I think he was very much the scene stealer there.”

I think the notion of ’scene stealer’ is interpreted in wrong way. First of all there is too much weight given to stars for that role instead of writer or director. I give credit to star for doing it correctly. They are envisioned for that purpose only (which we normally say that he/she has overshadowed the other costar(s)). IMO Any competent actor of same caliber (of same level of star) would achieve same result.

ps: Most of time scene stealers are uni-directional (comedic, hard hitting) not nuanced performances.
Comment by beld o beld on 9 June 2008:

good point rks

>All hopes on the mighty Ghajini now!
Sandy - have you watched the tamil version (highly recommended) or the english one ‘Memento’. Both are great movies - but it may have the effect that the thrill of seeing the aamir one may not be that high
Comment by Simply Som on 9 June 2008:

yeah, Memento is a great piece of work, perfect example of “cutting edge” cinema.If Ghajni is 25% as good as Memento is, it will be worth a watch IMO.

So far all the big films have not lived upto the expectations,lets see how movies like Ghajni,Drona,RNBDJ and Yuvraaj in the latter half of the year perform.
Comment by sandy on 9 June 2008:

Beld: I haven’t watched either and don’t plan to! I’d like Ghajini to be a fresh experience. I just hope the songs are the masala, blockbuster variety…we have so few films with that kind of music these days.
Comment by sandy on 9 June 2008:

Yes Som. JA was a decent film, not a great film by any means. Tashan was a gonner. Now Sarkar Raj has been a let down of sorts. So yes, early trends appear a bit dicey for the most-awaited films this year.
Comment by rks on 9 June 2008:

Memento is very high on my regard list and I don’t think Ghajini would be able to over take it.
Comment by sandy on 9 June 2008:

Now when I look at JA, I feel the film again, like Sarkar Raj, had such amazing possibilities which it never exlored. I do feel JA’s vision is exceptionally narrow, which prevents it from toughing any cinematic heights. It remains, at best, an enjoyable fare but it could have been so much more.
Comment by jayshah on 9 June 2008:

Excellent piece here Kunal, I do agree with a lot.
Comment by akshay shah on 9 June 2008:

” I do feel JA’s vision is exceptionally narrow, which prevents it from toughing any cinematic heights”-Agree here…..I felt very underwhelmed by JA, and that’s increased more on consecutive watches!
Comment by jayshah on 9 June 2008:

I have hardly seen to many movies this yr to comment, but JA and Sarkar Raj both could have been more - certainly both had the potential to be “great” movies. Haven’t seen Tashan. I’m missing out on all the smaller movies, need to catch up on those, but the big releases are watchable but not great. Both JA and SR never disintegrate into bad movies at any point, they are good one’s just very rusty in parts and actually snoozy in parts too. They fail to engage throughout for me.

On Mohabbatein, I absolutely think Big B’s role is the more complex one and he just owns SRK in this one. Whereas in K3G, I very much think this is SRK’s film. I do also think in the both movies SRK gets the crowd pleasing role and Big B is authoritarian in both, somewhat stubborn portrayal so this someone pitted him “against” the crowd pleasing role.

On Aamir, and Nitesh’s new found love for him, “This according to me limits Aamir’s ability to prove his worth as he still has to work with the best in the industry.”

Quite possibly Nitesh. But it also means Aamir has got to where he is strictly on his terms and with less “help” from co-stars to get big openings! And certainly don’t agree he has been outperformed by his co-stars. RDB was an ensemble cast and quite gladly Siddharth got the final scenes (to mirror history). But in two scenes alone, Aamir stole the show - the scene with Sue in the car and the breakdown scene. DCH is a very even film and I have heard many say either one of Akshay, Saif or Aamir have taken the honours here. And TZP - well I am quite glad Darsheel gets the honours here because if the film doesn’t rest on the young one’s shoulders, it would have been a disaster.

As I see it, Aamir makes sure in all these films, he gets the edgier or more enriched scope for performance. In DCH the second half mainly revolves around his track and his breakdown scene again is knock-out. He is always picking the character one will remember the most, even if that character might not be in the “story” the main character. Even in TZP he remains the hero of the film. He picks populist characters.

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