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Those of us who have loved Ramu for Rangeela, Satya, and Company will recall our regret on how film after film the brand RGV’s coffin was getting nailed (Naach, James, Shiva-II, Nishabd, Darling, Aag). With Sarkar Raj he saves himself from certain destruction. But then with Ramu you can never be too sure; he might have this formula working for him: get to produce & direct half-a-dozen odd films, and even if one works, the financiers will commission another adha dozen films. Sarkar Raj is that one ‘hit’ after the ‘six’ misses.

Sarkar Raj is sequel to a Sarkar (2005); the latter was a daft remix of Coppola’s Godfather film series and imagined power politics in Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray’s household (nonetheless, Sarkar managed a general positive response from the critics and the audience). Presently, in the sequel, Shankar Nagare (Abhishek Bachchan) finds himself drawn to an NRI-funded power generation project that is being proposed by a business heiress, Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). The project requires government support and thousands of acres of rural land. Despite Sarkar’s (Amitabh Bachchan) reservations, Nagare Jr. sees the project as key to the development of the state, and lobbies for it in the most personal way. To oppose him are set of power brokers and another political family who uses the issue to show Nagares their place. The rest of the film is a tall tale of ambition, scheming, violence and retribution.

What works for Sarkar Raj is the high decibel drama and the breathless speed with which a barrage of sub-plots unfold, at least until the first half. Ramu takes an ‘economical’ approach to laying out his story – actors literally spell out their case in affected (noir-lit, constant pans & tracks) close-ups. This somewhat works – especially with Amitabh Bachchan carrying the day – though one misses the loftiness of RGV’s Company (2002) that also had far better compositional motivation.

On surface, the canvass is large as the story tries to take in two important development debates in India – the politics of power generation and the allotment of special economic zones (SEZs) to corporate houses. This factor alone takes the story of Sarkar Raj several notches higher than its prequel. However, it must be stated that Nagare family as pro-development politicians sound off-key if you still remember them from the earlier film where these characters were far bloodier and foolhardy (one may argue that wisdom comes with age!).

We do not get any significant insight on the actual corporate-politicians’ nexus or engagement with real development issues. The power project proposal soon becomes a personal issue and bone-of-contention between the Nagares, the middlemen and a rival political family. It also remains unclear why Shankar Nagare chose to support this project because we do come to learn that the NRI owner, Mike Rajan (Victor Bannerjee) is certainly not a philanthropist and out there only to make moolah (I mean if after all the trouble that Nagares take, Mike announces, ‘Nah! the other state is giving us a better value for money. We go there.’ What then? And he gets very close to doing just that). If it is because Shankar is attracted to the heiress daughter (Aishwarya), he expresses it in a manner that befits a Mills & Boon novel, rubbing fingers and holding hands that are discredit to even the RGV-brand of gangster genre. Aptly, Nagare Jr. is shot dead for this anomaly.

By the time we are approach the climax, I impatiently waited for the key plots to get resolved and the film to finish. It does so with aplomb and a fine twist, only that the exposition comes through a lengthy speech given by Subhas Nagare (Amitabh Bachchan) to Anita Rajan (Aishwarya). I couldn’t help feeling a tad uncomfortable here – how come Anita hears out the whole long-winded talk about the carnage that is being unleashed by Nagare Sr. even after being told at the very beginning that her own father has just been killed by his people. One can debate why would a daughter choose to sympathize with a ruthless, affected, coldblooded Subhas Nagare over a snobbish, selfish, multi-m(b)illionaire father? Over her own father! Desi appeal I guess.

The dialogue between the principal characters is peppy – writer Prashant Pandey who started out as lyricist for Dil Dosti Etc shows great feel for emotive rhetoric that are also packed with humourous punch lines helping the scene transitions. I must also mention two supporting performances, Sumeet Nijhawan, as the Nagare loyalist, stands out for his quiet presence in this otherwise verbose drama and there is the debutante Rajesh Shringarpure who plays the rival Sanjay Somji and brings an effortless performance as the left-talking young Turk. These three to look out for!

In the end, I was more amused than thrilled by how Ramu was pulling himself out of the hole he has slowly dug himself into. So now, on to the next round of adha dozen of RGV films!
- Padmaja Thakore