Sarkar Raj ***.5

Ram Gopal Varma has had a thing about violence, crime, suspense and all that. He dropped the option of doing Engineering from Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh to make his first film in Telugu called Shiva (1989) starring Nagarjuna. Sarkar Raj is his 27th film as a director.His film with Rangeela (1995) with Urmila Matondkar (how could I not mention his muse) and Jackie Shroff made Hindi cinema viewers sit up and take notice of this. It was Satya (1998) that started the series of films on the underworld. A stylishly made film that gave the audience a glimpse of the forbidden underworld. Then came Company (2002) a fairly forgettable film. A lame effort at cashing in on the success of Satya and the audience’s insatiable desire to know how the Mafia actually operated.Ram Gopal Verma (RGV to the media) struck gold with Sarkar (2005). Widely believed to be a depiction of Bal Thackrey and the Shiv Sena, that was sort of Godfather I without subtitles. Made with the same style and with some striking similarities (including in some scenes Amitabh Bachchan’s imitation of marbles in the mouth Marlon Brando in Godfather. In 2007 it was a remake of the legendary Sholay – loosely retitled as RGV ki Aag. The film crashed deeper than the debris of the Titanic.So time to payback the loan to the bank!! Here comes Sarkar Raj – the sequel to Sarkar. Well the Godfather also had a part II and III, did it not? So why deny RGV his right to make a sequel? Then comes the million dollar question. Is the sequel as good? Let me first say what I liked about Sarkar Raj.1. I love the slick photography, the stylized shots and the pace of the film.2. Awesome understated performance by Abhishek. He clearly overshadows Amitabh. Note to Abhishek, “Dude, your wife clearly has difficulty matching up in the acting skills department.”3. Abhishek’s lines were crisp and impactful.4. Slickly edited by Nipun Gupta who also edited Sarkar and Nishabd among several other RGV films.What did I not like?1. The music or lack of it. It was like watching the film with the neighbor’s blaring music system being audible at the same time. Add to it the sound of a jackhammer and a fire engine. That is the music/ soundtrack of the film. Man, I was ready to pay Amar Mohile (the music director) to delete the music tracks so that I could watch the film in peace. Not sure why RGV felt that he needed to have someone chant Govinda. Govinda endlessly all through the film. If the idea was to create fear, well, he succeeded. I dreaded hearing the music. Try talking to yourself while this plays in the background.Here is the music audio track of Sarkar Raj

2. Sayaji Shinde whose spine chilling performance in Shool (1999) as the villain Bachchoo Yadav remains my fave villain in the same league as Gabbar Singh of Sholay. If you have not seen that film, you must. And then if you see Sayaji do the character of Karunesh Kanga, it is just disappointing. With another actor playing that role, I would have just ignored it. Since it is Sayaji, he should know that I am disappointed. I am sure that really matters to him!3. Amitabh does this mumble mumble version of Subhash Nagare “Sarkar” on the odd occasion. But I can live with those, because he was brilliant otherwise in the title role.Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5. Go watch it.