Sarkar

Sarkar -- The Overlord*

MAIN CAST
Amitabh Bachchan -- Subhash ("Sarkar")
Abhishek Bachchan -- Shankar
Kay Kay Menon -- Vishnu
Zakir Hussain -- Rashid

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:
Sarkar is an Indian adaptation of The Godfather, featuring Amitabh Bachchan as the idealistic overlord (Don Corleone), Abhishek Bachchan as the favored son who is unwillingly pulled in to the underworld (Michael Corleone), and Kay Kay Menon as his hot-headed brother (Sonny Corleone). For more on how the two films parallel, check out this Wikipedia link, but be forewarned: there are lots of spoilers! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkar_(film)#Cast_and_Characters

FILM -- 3/5
If you're going to make a film, you need to decide between Bollywood melodramatics and Hollywood realism. You can't have both. Unfortunately, Ram Gopal Varma didn't get the message, and Sarkar bounces between the two extremes. One example of this inconsistency is the opening sequence: it's very realistic, tense, and engrossing, and I thought it was very well-done. Then it launched in to Bollywood dramatics, with Hitchcock-esque cuts of Amitabh Bachchan's face and dramatic chords in the background. What a waste! The film itself is covered with a golden-brown tint 99% of the time, which makes some scenes look dramatic and is just plain obnoxious in others. Sarkar's action scenes are realistic and wonderfully choreographed and shot, so people who are antsy about blood and gore may want to skip this flick. My favorite scene is when a-character-who-will-not-be-named is tied to a rock and left to drown--it was just powerfully filmed. The script is okay, but a little inconsistent, and the story skips between so many different things so quickly that its easy to get confused. I actually couldn't tell you what the course of events in Sarkar were. Strangely enough, I still found the on-screen happenings rather interesting. There's some good stuff here, it just isn't very well organized.

CHARACTERS -- 5/5
If you're going to watch Sarkar, watch it for the acting. Amitabh Bachchan is at his best! His gait may be wobbly and weak, but his gaze is intense. Abhishek Bachchan is also in top form, and both he and Kay Kay Menon give some of the best performances of their careers. I haven't seen Zakir Hussain in any other films, but I'd love to see more of him; his piercing, expressive eyes remind me of Manoj Bajpai. There's also an incredible supporting cast. I'm not used to seeing Anupam Kher outside of his comedic archetype, but he was really good in his brief on-screen appearance. Jeendra made Swami a really creepy, interesting character, and despite the fact that he was covered in hair, he still managed to craft some incredible facial expressions. The female supporting cast is just about flawless, especially Rukhsar, who plays Vishnu's jaded wife. The one exception to this rule is Katrina Kaif. She doesn't do it for me physically or talent-wise, and while she doesn't completely suck, I was glad her part was so small. The characters aren't given a lot of time to develope; specifically, Shankar's personality change from "good boy" to "future mafia leader" seems a bit quick. Still, the actors manage to give their characters 3-dimensional personalities through subtle glances and body language, and I connected to just about every single one of them.

MUSIC -- 3/5
Sarkar doesn't have songbreaks, just background music. Some of that background music is absolutely terrible and does not fit with what's happening on screen, or they play it too loud and make the whole experience rather jarring. There's some really well-written music as well, like the song that plays when Shankar escapes an assassination attempt: it's tense, it's dramatic, and it definitely works.

OVERALL -- 3.5/5
Technically speaking, Sarkar sucks. It's jumpy and kind of confusing, it tries to do too many things at once, and while the acting is top-notch, the characters themselves don't get a lot of time to develope. And yet...I really like this movie. It had my complete attention from start to finish. For that, Ram Gopal Varma has his cast to thank: they are absolutely incredible, and they have you emotionally attached to their characters as soon as they walk on-screen. Sarkar isn't an instant favorite, but it grew on me, and now I really enjoy it. At the very least, Sarkar deserves a rental.

TOTAL SCORE -- 14.5/20 (really good)

* Sarkar literally translates to "government," but in the film, it is used as an honorary title, sort of like "My Lord."