 After a disastrous ‘Ramgopal Varma Ki Aag’, many producers, directors and movie buffs have actually ruled out RamgopaL Varma; the man behind hits like ‘Shiva’, ‘Company’, ‘Bhoot’ and much more. ‘Sarkar’ being one of his finest piece comes across with its sequel this weekend-‘Sarkar Raj’.
Lots of pressure seems to be riding on Ramu this week as a lot lies with the success of this film.
Synopsis….
When Anita [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan], CEO of Sheppard Power Plant, an international company, brings a power plant proposal to set up in rural Maharashtra before the Nagres, insightful Shankar [Abhishek Bachchan] is quick to realize the benefits the power plant can bring to the people.
After convincing Sarkar [Amitabh Bachchan], who is against it for various reasons, Shankar undertakes a journey along with Anita to the villages of Maharashtra to mobilize support from the masses.
 However, things are not what they seem to be and Shankar's dream project gradually becomes a political minefield. The evil forces, mightier than ever, mushroom and gang up to bring down the regime of Sarkar and obliterate Shankar's name from the political horizon.
To begin, Ramgopal Varma makes it very clear with the sequel that film making runs right through his veins and a series of flops can’t stop his creative fluids. The style Ramu maintains is topnotch and you are drawn are into the film with the camera movements and gripping background score.
The drawback in the film comes across post interval as the writing by Prashant Pandey falls short. Post interval the movie becomes more of a series of dialogues with not much movement in the flow of events. No doubt Prashant Pandey excels at writing a plot that indeed has a very much localized maharashtrian feel covering the political scenario but somewhere falls short.
On the acting front, Amitabh Bachchan is no doubt the finest amongst all characters in the film. Amitabh carries the charisma and he personifies the word ‘power’.
Abhishek Bachchan too excels with his character and seems to be highly inspired by Al Pacino’s character of Michael Corleone from ‘The Godfather’.
 Aishwariya Rai Bachchan has been offered a very meaty and chunky role and is often seen with Abhishek in this sequel unlike Katrina in ‘Sarkar’. She does impress with her dialogues and body language.
What impresses even more is the set of character artists who are terrific and just apt be it- Ravi Kale, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Sayaji Shinde and Supriya Pathak. Tanisha is ok.
The cinematography by Amit Roy is splendid. The film relies heavily on one point lighting and it’s the cinematography that makes the characters look larger than life and gives them their desired power.
The music by Bappi-Tutul is worthy of mention. The brothers have worked really hard in creating the ‘Govinda Govinda’ chant which has become synonymous with the ‘Sarkar’ series. This time around, the chant comes across with a difference but retains its authenticity.
Background score by Amar Mohile is very good and acts as a key in enhancing the dark feel of the film.
On the whole, ‘Sarkar Raj ‘may not be as impressive as ‘Sarkar’ primary due to a dip post interval ,but it is sure set to get Ramgopal Varma a lot of accolades from the very people who ruled him out. At the box- office, success awaits the producers.
Rating : ***
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