Sarkar (2005)

It's Ramu's(Ram Gopal Varma)turn to pay homage to the Cult Classic 'The Godfather'.I have no idea how many Directors actually got inspired by THE GODFATHER,but I am least bothered.Because Ramu's 'Sarkar' is good enough for me.Subash Nagre(Amitabh Bachan/Big B) is a ray of light for the down-trodden and ill-treated in the dirty lanes of Mumbai.He is respected by the 'aam janta'(public) and feared by the sinners.If found reasonable,Nagre is a man who will murder a person for the sin he committed!!!His family comprises of his wife,elder son Vishnu Nagre(Kay Kay Menon) a wastrel,foreign returned MBA graduate Shankar Nagre(Abhiske Bachan),Avantika(Tanish) Shankar's cousin.Nagre is up against Selva Mani(Srinivasa Kota Rao),Swami Virendra(Jeeva)amongst other.Rashid(Zakir Husain in a chilling villainous role) approaches Sarkar with a drug and the latter warns him against moving forward the drug plan.Rashid teams up with Sarkar's other enemies and they try their best to dethrone Sarkar,but to no avail.In the midst of this,we have Shankar returning to Mumbai with his girlfriend Pooja(Katrina Kaif),who later is force to ditch him for obvious reasons.Vishnu lands himself in trouble over a murder and he is thrown out of the Nagre house and he is aptly used by the Rashid team.With everything against him,Sarkar is is imprisoned and an attempt is made on his life.And at this point of time,Abhishke(Shankar) takes over the show and delivers one of his unforgettable performances ever.His revenge spree coupled with the haunting 'govinda govinda' background score,sends shivers down the viewers spine!!! Big B is too good for us to ignore his performance and the scenes are power-packed with his presence.Things get even better when his Shankar slowly gains screen presence and marks his stamp during the final part of the movie.It is difficult not to make comparisons with 'The Godfather',but when Ramu has given us an excellent piece of adaptation,who is to complain.I thoroughly enjoyed the film..two thumbs up Ramu!!!

Ram Gopal Varma wrote a disclaimer in the extras on this DVD which includes a praise of his idol Francis Ford Coppola (the director of The Godfather) the inspiration for this masterpiece of a film. If that is not enough for you haters, then I really think you need to go park someplace where the sun don't shine. This is the sort of film that makes you proud and every actor in this film does just that. From the double whammy Bachchans (Abhishek actually manages to upstage his father here) to Kay Kay Menon, there is truly nothing to complain about. Katrina Kaif, a surprise actress in this film plays an NRI Barbie doll and does so with utmost conviction! This is probably her best performance to date, too bad that if you join the film too early or too late you might miss her. I haven't seen the Godfather myself, so for those people who like me are unfamiliar with the storyline, that of Sarkar goes like this: Amitabh plays the Godfather of Mumbai's most mistreated, ill-treated and poor people. When the government fails them, he steps in to bring justice. His only crime is that he doesn't believe nor abide by the law of the land but otherwise he is admirable. He has two sons, one good (Jr. Bachchan) and one bad (Kay Kay Menon). The former is an overseas business man and the latter is a film-maker. The latter soon grows tired of listening to his father's wisdom as well as abiding by his ways and decides to go and join forces with the wrong kind of crowd, one of whom is a shady business man from Dubai hell-bent on taking down the Sarkar (because of a business deal that did not cinch). Together this team of bad guys temporarily succeed in bringing down the Sarkar but encounter trouble when trying to destroy his philosophies. Thankfully, Shankar (Jr. B) who is visiting from America takes it upon himself to redeem and ultimately save his father. I tip my hat to Jr. B for his performance (his best so far, next to his turn in Yuva) in this film, he totally blew me away, as did Kay Kay Menon. This film is a 10 with a capital T.

Dear Mr Ram Gopal Varma, I don't know in which capacity I am writing this letter to you. I am a never-say-he's-finished Amitabh Bachchan fan, having sat through his cock-chasing act in Jaadugar. I also demand some important designation in The Godfather fan club, having watched the Coppola classic more times than you have delivered flops from your Factory. And, of course, I have been a big admirer of yours, right from the time you had Nagarjuna wrapping the cycle chain around his knuckles in Shiva.When you announced Sarkar and called it your take on Godfather, all one wanted to know was the date the first look would be out, the Sunday the promos would go on air, the Friday the film would be released. It was sheer wish fulfillment at work knowing that you, and not someone hovering between the mustard fields of Amritsar and the tulip gardens of Amsterdam, had taken up the task of recreating the Puzo pages on the Bollywood big screen.Your cast couldn't have been more you — working for the first time with the legend, casting Abhishek as his screen-son, giving Kay Kay a role he has deserved for years, bringing back forgotten faces like Supriya Pathak and Rukhsar, and picking complete non-actors like Katrina and Tanishaa to join the list… Before July 1, you had made Sarkar the most-awaited film ever for any Godfather freak who worshiped Bachchan.The opening credits stoked the hope that your stunning sepia-tinted promos on the telly had kindled. But now, you labeled Sarkar your tribute to Godfather instead of the word "inspired" which you had been using all along. Probably you don't want the two creations to be compared but when the medium is the same, then a Kaante would be compared to Reservoir Dogs and a Reservoir Dogs to a City On Fire.Also, when your first and last sequences — the heart of any screenplay treatment — are all about the establishment and the transfer of power, you can't keep the Nagares and the Corleones apart, even if you replace the American mafia moves with Maharashtrian political power play.But you got it wrong, Mr Varma… You wanted to show Amitabh in his 70s avatar, as rustled up by the pens of Salim-Javed. You wanted him to lurk around larger than life. You wanted him to be his own brand(o). Then how could you steal his voice in the name of using silence? How could you keep him rooted to his chair in the hunt for interesting camera angles? How could you leave him stranded without his voice and stature, the two things that have made his B so big? Coppola's Godfather cameraman Gordon Willis masked Brando's eyes throughout the movie because it didn't have the power to match that drawling husky voice or that sudden snap of the fingers. But you tried to repeat the Malik act from your very own Company. But Bachchan is no Ajay Devgan — his forte doesn't lie in the stagnant stare and the suffocating silence. You made the man look like a comatose patient, who's reminded from time to time to look at the cue cards and mouth those predictable one-liners. For that, Agneepath's there, any given Saturday.Which Bachchan fan would go and watch Kay Kay Menon stealing the thunder from under his nose in the scene where Sarkar asks Vishnu to leave his house? Which Amitabh aficionado would go and watch him focus on achaar and carom, in a film that talks about power with a capital P in the promos? We can't handle so much in the name of restraint and understatement! You don't even allow the camera to rest on him for five seconds when he learns that his son wanted to kill him. Give me the old-school camera-only-on-Bachchan style, any given Saturday.Kudos to you, of course, for making an actor out of Abhishek, first in Naach and now in Sarkar. You also allow him to show Mallika Sherawat that he can run as well as his father. Even in the short prison sequence, you really make the Bachchans come out of the text, an opportunity Shaad missed in Bunty Aur Babli. Wish the film could have been more a father-son story rather than a chaotic conflict between caricatures in the name of characters, who pop up like the ad windows on the Internet.You also let the women more into the script than Puzo and Coppola did and again, you deserve all the Brownie points for squeezing them in so effectively. Pathak is a welcome return as the mother in the middle, Tanishaa lovable as the lovelorn girl, Katrina a revelation as Abhishek's confused lover and Rukhsar's silence speaks volumes.But sub-plots do not a classic remake. When your free-flowing camera tries to make every frame look hatke and your loud background score irritates incessantly, we keep getting reminded that we are in a Factory. Well, maybe not a Nino Rota score but Sarkar certainly deserved better than those Govinda, Govinda chants and uncalled-for flute interludes.Mr Varma, some of your Factory directors tell me that you are involved with every project, from overseeing the shooting schedules to supervising the editing sessions. Perhaps, in the middle of all the various storyboards, the Bhiku Matre scream is being muted by the Subhash Nagare silence. Perhaps, you need to bring the shutters down on the factory and work on a single homemade product. Otherwise, your products would remain products, to use and throw, not treasure. And movie buffs like me, for whom there are no hits and flops, only good cinema, would rather choose a film without Factory finish, any given Saturday.

At the beginning of the movie, Ramgopal Verma says that "Sarkar" is his tribute to The Godfather. This one feels more like an insult. It pales terribly in comparison to the Coppola classic. Although no one was expecting Ramgopal Verma to fill Coppola's shoes, the movie did create a lot of expectation and buzz. Amitabh Bachchan plays "Sarkar", a character automatically drawing instant comparisons to Indian political party Shiv Sena's Supremo Bal Thackeray. Abhishek Bachchan plays his son Shankar who returns from abroad and gets caught up in Sarkar's politics at home. Just like Al Pacino in the original Godfather. As most Bollywood fare, incidents and characters are overtly simplistic and devoid of any kind of solid foundation. Quick phone calls and sudden announcements turn the film from one direction to another. Abishek takes to Mumbai's murky underworld politics-crime nexus like a duck takes to water. Amithab Bachchan as Sarkar is supposed to look magnificent and powerful, he just ends up looking old and clueless. Most of his acting is centered around constantly staring at different things around the movie set - the actor in front of him, the floor or in some other random direction. However, Kay Kay performs exceedingly well as the wronged elder son Vishnu. So does Zakir Hussain as Rashid, the Dubai based dope smuggler who wants to gets his footing in Mumbai. This actor has awesome screen presence and can send chills down your spine with just the way he looks. The moment he enters the screen, you want to run and hide under the bed. All its obvious flaws not withstanding, the film did well at the box office. The buzz and the big star cast obviously helping. Also Verma manages to hold your interest albeit mildly towards the later half of the film. He is actually making a sequel to this one which I am sure will be more of the same fare.