Sarkar Raj Review
Most Bollywood movies resist easy description and defy genre classification; Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar Raj (2008), on the other hand, represents an attempt to synch up Bollywood stylistic tropes with the conventions of a Heist-like Hollywood crime thriller. On it own terms, it works splendidly.
The picture - a sequel to the 2005 Sarkar - continues the saga of Subhash Nagare, aka Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan), a Vito Corleone-like figure who rules Mumbai with an iron fist, stepping in where the law has failed to protect ordinary citizens or to dispense justice satisfactorily. The narrative deals with the attempts of a western corporation to persuade Sarkar and his heir apparent, Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan's real-life son, Abhishek Bachchan) to clear the way for the construction of a power plant - construction that will require the demolition of numerous rural villages in their district and the displacement of the residents, and that raises the ire of a local spiritual guru's son, the populist leader Sanjay Somji (Rajesh Shringarpore). In the process, feelings develop between Shankar and the gorgeous daughter of the corporation head, Anita Rajan (played by Abhishek's off-camera wife, Aishwarya Rai, who resembles an Indian Vanessa Williams).
Sarkar Raj thrives on its narrative cliffhangers, and to reveal more would be grossly unfair. Let it be said, however, that the film never once fails to engage the audience; the premise and its characters are rock-solid, its dialogue convincing, and its suspense palpable. Varma (who also authored the screen story) and scriptwriter Prashant Pandey pack such unusual twists and double-crosses into the tale that even the most hardened and seasoned moviegoer will find the conclusion impossible to foresee. That the film accomplishes these goals while retaining narrative clarity is no mean feat. It will never be mistaken for having any thematic depth, but as a cut-and-dried crime thriller, it delivers.
The film owes much of its success to the lead performance of Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood superstar with at least 175 films to his credit, who plumbs so deeply into the role of Sarkar that he adds complex emotional undercurrents not present in the script and openly explores them on camera. One character compares Sarkar to a lion ("the king of the jungle"), and that comparison feels apt: with his thick mane of white hair, salt-and-pepper goatee, and deep-set, soulful eyes, he indeed suggests the graceful and wise yet subtly threatening presence of an Aslan-like creation. As a performer, Bachchan is so magnetic, in fact, that his failure (or hesitancy, whatever the case may be) to cross over to Hollywood superstardom strikes one as rather amazing; he exudes a magnetic screen presence and could easily find a massive audience in the west.
Fans of traditional Bollywood cinema will find themselves in heaven with this outing; those unseasoned to the Bollywood approach might find the standard stylistic conventions jarring and overwhelming, from the continual swells of world music in mid-scene, to the musical cues that tell the audience what (and how) to feel, to the swooping, flashy camerawork and excessive stylization. To an unseasoned western viewer, this may feel outrageously overwrought, even manic; but it represents a different way of looking at a film and a different set of expectations for a film, and it would be unfair to blast the entire Bollywood movement by singling out this one feature as an example, hence the aforementioned comment about accepting the motion picture on its own terms. Actually, if one consciously makes the mental adjustment to take these elements as part and parcel of the cinematic experience, such acclimation is not a difficult task in this particular instance, and on many occasions, the extreme stylization of Sarkar Raj provides us with shocking, inventive visuals that we wouldn't typically get in a Hollywood film - such as a slow-motion attack scene shot from a victim's perspective (that aligns us sensorially with his loss of perception) and an utterly majestic moment when one of the perpetrators emotes just a little too histrionically and catches a sidelong, knowing glance from Sarkar out of the corner of his eye, who suddenly recognizes the individual's duplicity. Those elements lift this feature several notches above standard Bollywood outings.
Overall, Sarkar Raj may not embody the perfect Bollywood-western crossover, but it feels poised for commercial success in niche markets, particularly among adventurous fans of the crime thriller and Bollywood genres who feel open to the concept of a hybrid. Nathan Southern, Rovi
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