Sarkar Raj - Movie Review

Cast: Amitabh bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai
Director: Ram Gopal Verma

Sarkar Raj, Ram Gopal Verma's sequel to his godfather inspired Sarkar was aggresively promoted as the film brings the Bachchans- father , son and bahu together. The last film has Subash 'Sarkar' Nagre ( Bachchan Sr.) and son shankar(Bachchan Jr.) of the criminal/politician family battle a whole lot of people bent on destroying fiefdom. This film has Nagres battle a new set of villains, it's just that the stakes are higher.

This time coming in to the picture is Anita of Shepard corporation, with a proposal to set up a multi-billion power project in Maharashtra. It means dislocating 40,000 people, which Sarkar does not want to allow, but Shankar thinks the short term loss to these people would mean long term gain for the state. Suddenly, this glum, frowning fellow who speaks through his teeth is a visionary, who is interested only in progress and not in profit.
Opposing Shankar's power project is Somji(Rajesh Sringarpure), the grandson of sarkar's wily mentor Raosaheb(dilip Prabhawalkar.)

Varma simplu reduces everything to gangsterish violence, which is what he does best, why he even pretends to build up and enron-like scenario when it doesn't really matter in the larger picture. odd lighting obscures the faces. The music with its "Govinda Govinda" refrain, and "sam dam dand bhed" is loud and the songs are like those in Balaji soap operas. The performance of AB sr is commendable while the performances of Ab jr. and Aishwarya Rai are passable. Overall the film is just a tribute to the bachchans.