Tendulkar, Manjrekar and now Sarkar .. Review on Sarkar

As Sarkar didn't get the deserved 'justice' in Mouthshut court, I have taken it upon myself to avenge this wrongdoing.

RGV's tactic (and bravado) to make an opening dedication to Godfather was like a shot in the own foot. The plot of Sarkar is so far removed from Godfather that the comparison was uncalled for. He simply went overboard with unwarranted GF references and calling it his 'best movie till date'. For this reason, I AM going to pan the movie for being fake and failing to deliver the false promise.

The main strength of Godfather was obviously the superb original novel .. It's riveting plot and deeply nuanced characters. Sarkar falls flat on both these counts. It DOES share the same great direction and able cast with the Godfather film version.

I have come to expect a gritty, hard hitting cinema from RGV. He is especially good at the plot twists and unexpected turn of events because of the very nature of underworld and it's fickle denizens (e.g. Company scene: vivek oberoi mistakenly kills one of devgan's top aides who came for peace .. and hell breaks loose). Sarkar unfolds as a neatly master-minded plot and has a joint committee feel to it. You can see the plot direction miles ahead and movie becomes a laborious AND painfully slow process of validating 'I told you so's. I guess RGV was clever in making such a dumb plot for the masses.

Now the RGV directorial trademarks; steady-cam sequences and double-tone cinematography; takes care of the classes. The movie is EXTREMELY slow. Dialog delivery is deliberately dramatized just for the effect and the punch lines have preceding pauses that last a bio-break. The scene where Shankar kills Vishnu drags on as AB Jr took us for a tour of Sarkar residence as if he was a realtor. The plot is so evenly tense, with a smattering of comic relief from southy don. The movie should have had atleast some relief scenes apart from gangsters going about their business in a relentless way.

One more noticable quirk is overused background music. It's annoyingly intrusive and hinders the tension it wants to create. The chant of 'govinda, govinda' every time AB shows up quickly got on my nerves.

All characters here are one dimensional and monochrome. For some reason, the movie itself was shot in only two shades: yellow (for being about a dirty fellow) and black (to show the dirty fellow in irritatingly mis-attired black dhoti kurta). Choose white, choose saffron, but I cannot fathom a reason to show a Marathi religious person clad in black (considered very inauspicious). It's also distracting to see non-maharashtrian actors struggling with Marathi dialogs conspicuously thrown in copious quantities. (To imagine the effect, imagine Hindi that you hear amongst mumbai crowd ''Mera local aaj ushiraa aaya'') Any attempt at bringing authenticity to the Marathi don 'Subhash Nagre' is further defeated first time you hear AB .. (now try to take the earlier sentence for AB spin). We are more used to hearing Nilu Phule and Laxmikant Berde's Marathi accent when it comes to Marathi in Hindi cinema, so I guess even non-Marathi audience will find the whole setting equally uncomfortable.

Both baba AB and baby AB's performances are competent, but an actor can do only so much in beaten-to-death stereotype characters. For e.g., Shankar (supposedly Michael from godfather) should have had his bit as 'innocent, reluctant son gets dragged into family affair'. In movie, first criminal act he does is to kill his own bro ! I think 'Parinda' was much better adaptation of the same theme. Rest are stock characters from bollywood: a typical builder, typical politician, dubai don, south indian don (with atypical sense of humor), police commissioner (one first: a Marathi DCP ! I am used to seeing only Marathi hawaldars), a good son, a bad son, a US girlfriend and an indian girlfriend.

Sarkar is a major departure from RGVs realistic gangsta flicks and sits more snugly with his Naach or Rangeela. Maybe it was intentional, and movie IS a hit. But, I personally like Satya style (or lack of style) much better. Movie can be recommended, but I have no hesitation in asking you to wait for DVD.