Sarkar Raj - Taut, but does not rise to be a great movie

Sarkar Raj was a move that was awaited for quite some time; it came after a few clunkers for The Factory of Ram Gopal Verma such as 'Aag', 'Darling', etc. Memories of his earlier movies such as Satya, Company, Rangeela, and Sarkar (for which Sarkar Raj is the sequel) were fading out due to these recent disastrous movies that he made. All his admissions that the movies were bad, mistakes were made, etc, don't really help in lifting his reputation. So, this movie was awaited for multiple reasons:
- This movie showcased the Bachchan clan; Amitabh, Abhishek, and Aishwarya (not Jaya though)
- It was supposed to have the same kind of suspense, the taut and slick making that was there in the original movie Sarkar (made in 2005)



Unlike some of his other movies where the actual direction was by other people, Sarkar Raj was actually directed by Ram Gopal Verma. Other credits for the movie include script by Prashant Pandey, background score by Amar Mohile (and the background score is haunting and fast throughout the movie, although a bit loud), cinematography by Amit Roy, and action by Allan Amin.
The movie takes off from where the previous movie had ended, with the Nagres (minus Kay Kay Menon) being in command of Maharashtra through their reign of force (although the way that elected politicians are seen to be humiliated by them is a bit patronising). There is the normal tussle between the ruling Chief Minister and his opponents, but both of them pay respects to Sarkar (Amitabh) and his son and heir Shankar (Abhishek). It is at this stage that a beautiful tall CEO of an energy company, Sheppard Power Plant in the form of Anita Ranjan (Aishwarya Rai) presents a plan for a power plant that will meet the future energy needs of Maharashtra. The only hitch is that the best place to setup the plant is a place called Thackerwadi, in rural Maharashtra. Sarkar is against this proposal, but his son sees this as a beneficial mechanism, and is willing to go to any lengths to move this proposal ahead. He first tries to convince the local leader and Gandhian Rao Saheb, and then convince the rest of the villagers about the advantages of this plant.
However, he is in way above his head. The grandson of Rao Saheb (Somji) starts to work against the deal, and to canvass people against this deal, making the deal a tough sell. Further, the management of the power company seems to think that Gujarat is now a better deal for this plant. Abhishek does not seem to realize what he he is against, and even his power (which he hardly ever uses) is unable to prevent harm to him, his wife (Tanissha in a small role) and in the end, he cannot even prevent his own killing by a hired sharp-shooter (the shooting scene was not very good, seemed amateurish). It is only when Amitabh, taking on responsibility again, starts to unravel the mystery behind his death and to show what he is capable of (basically kills everybody involved, somewhat like Michael Corleone ordering the killing of all those against the family).
And these are the weak points of the movie - If the family is so powerful and people so scared by them, how is that a massive conspiracy can get created against them (after all, in this case, there must be a large number of people who knew there was a conspiracy) without the involved fearing that the Sarkar will kill them if their involvement in the conspiracy became known. Secondly, the last 20 minutes seem like magic, where the writer wrote a twist in the story that seemed to have been manufactured out of thin air. So, the end where the last murder is shown, that emerged out of thin air, but was very chilling.
Acting is okay, with some strong parts. Aishwarya did not get all that great a role (it seemed in the end that she was being projected to be the leader in any sequel), Amitabh was good in parts. This was basically Abhishek's movie, but he came across a person who was not in touch with reality, could not comprehend that he was just a pawn in a conspiracy.



Videos from the Movie:



Another video from the movie: