Sarkar Raaj

Ram Gopal Varma8217;s right. All his films- at least the good ones8211; have a bit of Godfather8217; in them. So does Sarkar Raaj8217;. It also has Bollywood8217;s First Family in full array, accomplishing several things at one go: giving Pa Bachchan a role he fills with conviction, getting Beta B back on screen after a long gap, and re-confirming our deep- rooted suspicion that there8217;s an actress in Bahu B.

The sequel to Sarkar8217; takes the story of Subhash Nagre Amitabh forward, with son Shankar Abhishek having been anointed his successor. It wastes no time in any re-caps : just one brief scene flashes back to the previous film, where the dead elder son Kay Kay is shown. That one laid the ground for why there is an extra-constitutional authority in Mumbai ; here Nagre, who is the thinly-disguised alter-ego of the real-life Thackeray, gives permission8217; to an NRI billionaire Victor to set up a power plant in rural Maharashtra. Echoes of Enron are completely intended.

The billionaire8217;s daughter Anita Rajan Aishwarya is the pointsperson on the project, and through her hazel eyes we see the raaj8217; of Sarkar : the absolute power he wields over politicians and police and goons, and how his son sets his sights on bigger things. Some of the proceedings are very RGV8212;the ultra-tight close-ups gobbling up the whole frame, the swelling background score not as overwhelming as it usually can get in his films, thanks be, the faces of the bad guys all look very familiar.

But the film does deliver some surprises, and that8217;s why it8217;s much better, and tauter, than the first. The intrigue is sharper. So is the acting . Amitabh, dressed in black kurta-lungi and double rudraksha, is played to his strengths, as is Abhishek, who doesn8217;t have Kay Kay this time around to overshadow him. Best of all, RGV keeps Aishwarya in check, in chic power-suits and chignons, giving her lines which belong to a character, not a star.

Sarkar Raj8217; resurrects the reputation of RGV, in tatters after the monstrously bad Aag8217;. And it does a strident Jai Maharashtra number on Bachchan Sr8217;s nay-sayers. Both Amitabh , in his Thackeray avatar delicious irony, that and Abhishek are handed out numerous opportunities to talk about vikas8217; and badlaav8217; and the state. UP mein jurm kam hai8217; is old. The new mantra, loud and clear, is 8212;Maharashtra mein dum hai8217;. Take that, Raj.