Sarkar Raj

Sarkar Raj is the sequel to Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar. Though the earlier film was chiefly an adaptation of “The Godfather” but influences of the later is lesser in the current movie.
Here the theme starts with one Anita Raj, a businesswoman from London, on her father’s advice, makes a project plan of setting up a power plant at Thakarwadi, Maharashtra. But she is informed by the sleezy Hasan Kazi that for this they have to acquire permission of Sarkar, Subhash Nagre. Agreeing to that, Anita asks Kazi to arrange a meeting with Sarkar. The meeting is also attended by the CM and Shankar Nagare. On hearing that the project will require evacuation of the 40000 residents of the nearby villagers, Sarkar is enraged and opposes the plan. But Shankar, who now handles much of Sarkar's works, understands the implications of the project and convinces Sarkar of how it will help in the development of Maharashtra. Believing in his son, Sarkar asks permission of Rao Sahab, the lord of Thakawadi. Once Rao Sahab gives his consent, Shankar launches a campaign through the villages informing the actual implications of the project. He quickly gathers huge support but problem arises in the form of Somji, the grandson of Rao Sahab and a very popular figure in local politics, who stirs up protest campaigns against the project. Meanwhile, on Shankar’s hint and sensing foul play in the project finances, Anita kicks out Kazi from the project. Now Kazi teams up with Kangra, a corrupt politician and plots revenge on Shankar. Shankar asks Chander, the right hand of Sarkar to arrange for a meeting with Somji but while on a phone call with the later, Shankar withnesses his pregnant wife getting killed by a bomb planted in their car and was supposed to carry both of them at that time. The Nagre family goes to mourning while Shankar removes Chander from his post as the head of security and places his man, Billu as his replacement. Chander gets enraged by this. At the same time Somdhi gets kidnapped. The media tries to use this as a possible break up between the Sarkar and Rao Sahab but both maintains harmony in front of the public. Meanwhile Chander locates the wherabout of Somji and he along with Shankar and Billu recovers him. In the process Shanker kills Kazi, the actual kidnapper. Understanding Shankar’s good intensions, Somdhi promises to co-operate Shankar on the project, in front of the press. But another problem crops up in the form of Wora, a minister of Gujarat, who makes a pact with Anita’s father and tries to shift the project from Maharashtra to his place. Undeterred, Shankar feels he can manage the situation when there is again a blow to the project as Shankar is assassinated by a contract killer. Then we find an enraged but composed Sarkar set to unearth the real plot and the masterminds behind the conspiracy. A horrifying pack of surprises awaits the audience as the evil minds are unmasked one after the other.
As a whole the storyline is more original than Sarkar but I felt that it lacked the compactness of the earlier film. Amitabh outshines the others in the last twenty minutes and Aishwariya Rai is brilliant in conveying feelings through expressions only. Supriya Pathak is a silent but important character who plays her part exquisitely. Others, including Abhishek, seemed ordinary in that respect.
At times the story touches on ‘The Godfather’, the important ones being:

1. The sequence involving the car bomb blast which reminds us of the same type of fate that awaited the unfortunate Apollonia Vitelli, the 1^st wife to Michael Corleone.
2. An important character, who could not stand Shankar in Sarkar’s position, though remotely resembles Fredo Corleone in action, shares the same fate as the later. In ‘The Godfather Part II’, Fredo had the same type of hatred towards Michael.
3. There is also another character who remotely resembles Hymann Roth of ‘The Godfather Part II’.
4. Near the end we find the Sarkar lamenting of Shankar’s death, the same feeling had been conveyed by Michael Corleone following her daughter’s death as depited in ‘The Godfather Part III’.

Parts of the scenes, where the detailing and directing seemed amiss include:

1. Shankar’s table where he meets his clients doesn’t appear to be a working table at all.
2. Why the camera was required to be projected towards the light during several shots of the interiors, specially those involving Shankar’s office, defies my imagination. Infact, the alternation of light seemed irritating to my eyes.
3. When the 1^st shot is fired at Shankar, normally a cool headed person, he never takes ground but remains upright. I don’t think he wanted the shooter to have a better aim!
4. The actual motive behind the setting up of the power plant seemed too much far fetched and not at all realistic.
5. Sarkar has been portrayed as someone whom the CM visits for seeking permission of setting up the power plant. This implies that the power of Sarkar surpasses the CM as well, I don't know how anybody can justify that!
6. Why don’t Chander ever change his clothes? From the previous movie, he seemed to be wearing the same set.
7. Till the day that I watched the movie I understood that it was only electricity that travelled through bare conductors. But the film shows that fire too uses the same property when in Kazi's hideout when one of the electrical poles caught fire it transmitted via the conductors!!

Barring these the movie is quite good and should be watched by those who want to follow the Sarkar chapters.

To add a very personal conjecture to the summary I want to make an observation. The title of the film contains the word Raj. This is the same as the surname of Anita who is shown to be handling the project while residing in Sarkar's villa as the movie finishes. Maybe this is purely a false assumption but it may so happen that the next episode features Sarkar & Raj teeming up in their operations for the welfare of Maharashtra.