REVIEW 491: SARKAR 3

Release date:	May 12, 2017
Director:	Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Language:	Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Amit Sadh, Ronit Roy, Manoj Bajpayee, Yami Gautam, Supriya Pathak, Bajrang Bali Singh, Rohini Hattangadi, Bharat Dhabolkar, Suhas Phalsikar, Fiza, Cameo: Abhishek Bachchan’s photograph    Hindi

When the climax of the first film in your series packs the punch that Sarkar’s ending did in 2005, be aware that each sequel is a potential victim of the “can it throw up a surprise to match that one?” syndrome. Chances are, viewers have spent your entire film guessing 10 likely twists in the finale. The only way you can live up to expectations then, is to think up an 11^th option no one else could possibly envision. 

Director Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar 3, the follow-up to 2008’s Sarkar Raj, has a decent enough conclusion – not breathtaking, not astonishing as a whole, but with at least one unexpected touch that helps it pull through. The film is pulled down by another symptom of sequelitis though: fatigue. Varma tries hard to conjure up the same intimidating atmosphere here that he created in Sarkar and Sarkar Raj, but his direction lacks zest, the writing by P. Jayakumar lacks depth and the film ends up looking like a tired effort to cash in on the success of its precursors.

What happens then in the closing minutes of Sarkar 3 matters less than it otherwise might have, because of the soporific effects of the preceding two hours.

Amitabh Bachchan returns in Sarkar 3 as the Godfather-like Maharashtra gangster-politician Subhash Nagre, known to everyone as Sarkar. Nagre continues to be loved by the masses yet misunderstood by many who assume that he fakes altruism to front his underworld activities. With his sons Shankar and Vishnu gone and his wife (played by Supriya Pathak) bedridden, Nagre leans heavily on his loyal lieutenant Gokul Satam (Ronit Roy). Enter: Shivaji Nagre (Amit Sadh), the son of Vishnu who, you will recall, was killed in the first film by Shankar.

Shivaji wants to join his granddad’s business, but his arrival on the scene leads to tension within the gang, making them vulnerable to manipulation by Nagre’s rivals.

Who is truly committed to Sarkar? Who is pretending? These are the questions the film throws our way as it rolls along.

It has been nine years since the release of Sarkar Raj. In that film, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Anita appeared to take over the reins of Sarkar’s empire, if not fully then at least in part. She is nowhere on the scene in Sarkar 3. While this could be because the actress has made herself unavailable, that is no excuse for why the screenplay does not bother to explain the character’s absence, considering how crucial she was in Sarkar Raj. If you want an example of how dispensable women – artistes and fictional characters – are considered in Bollywood series, you have it here. Repeated references are made to Vishnu and Shankar in Sarkar 3, but there is no mention of Anita, the bosswoman who might have been.

This is the least of the film’s failings though. The fact is the storyline has little by way of excitement, and frankly, it is natural to wonder why Sarkar 3 was made at all. The first half hour is promising because potentially interesting characters are introduced – in particular, the self-righteous neta Govind Deshpande played by Manoj Bajpayee – and you wonder where they will take the plot. Soon though, boredom sets in.

The novelty of hearing Bachchan speak in that gravelly-voiced rumble is now past. The clash between Deshpande and Nagre turns out to be a damp squib. And the bombastic conversations written by Ram Kumar Singh are poor cousins of the seeti-worthy dialoguebaazi we Bollywood buffs have grown up on – you can either go the natural way, as many films have since the 1990s, or go the whole hog in the opposite direction to revive memories of grandiose 1970s-’80s Hindi cinema that Bachchan was so much a part of. Sarkar 3 tries to be the latter, but cannot pull it off.

Bachchan is one of the many cast members lost to this film’s unimaginative writing. The veteran has nothing new to offer in Sarkar 3, coming up with a performance he may well have delivered with his eyes closed. Bajpayee, still fresh from his brilliance in Aligarh (2016), is completely wasted here. Jackie Shroff as a Dubai-based gangster is a bit of a joke, participating in Sarkar 3’s many leery scenes featuring what seems like double entendre aimed at the breasts of his bikini-clad moll. 

Sadh has been remarkable in some of his previous films, most notably Abhishek Kapoor’s buddy flick Kai Po Che (2013) and in a small role in the unfortunately little-known Maximum (2012). He tries to infuse life into Shivaji Nagre, but cannot do much in the face of dull penmanship.

Another promising young artiste who suffers similarly is Yami Gautam playing Shivaji’s girlfriend Anu, one of Sarkar 3’s many cursorily written characters. With little meat for her to sink her teeth into, our takeaway of Anu from the film is Gautam’s beauty, nothing more. 

The politics of the underworld – or the overworld for that matter – in any country, state or city is always rich material for a good writer. India today is as fascinating as when RGV gave us his fabulous Siva (Telugu, 1989), Shiva (its Hindi remake in 1991), Satya (Hindi, 1998) and Company (Hindi, 2002). There are so many hooks that Sarkar 3 could have pegged itself on, not the least of them being a fellow called Deven Gandhi (Bajrang Bali Singh) who is no Gandhiji, although one character – quite amusingly – does refer to him as such. It required a greater talent to carry that forward.

This is not to say that Sarkar 3 is insufferable. It is not. It is certainly a far cry from Ramu’s worst, which remains Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007). The problem is that we have seen this man’s best. And his best was such bloody darned genius, that it is hard not to be pained by the ordinariness that has been the hallmark of so many of his films in the past decade.

Sadly, Sarkar 3 too is lacklustre and ordinary. Coming from the House of Ram Gopal Varma, in some ways that counts as worse than being bad.

Rating (out of five stars): *

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	132 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/sarkar-3-movie-review-amitabh-bachchan-ram-gopal-varma-magic-goes-missing-3439566.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkar_3

REVIEW 394: VEERAPPAN

Release date:	May 27, 2016
Director:	Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Language:	Sandeep Bharadwaj, Sachiin J. Joshi, Usha Jadhav, Lisa Ray Hindi

Ram Gopal Varma’s new Hindi film Veerappan would have been better served by the title Killing Veerappan that he gave to his Kannada film on the late forest bandit that was released earlier this year. The name might suggest otherwise but Veerappan is not a biopic of the notorious sandalwood and ivory smuggler who eluded the police of two states for over two decades. It is, instead, a documentary-style portrait of Veerappan as seen through the eyes of the Special Task Force set up to capture him, while they work towards achieving their goal.

One of the most notorious criminals in recent Indian history, Veerappan’s life no doubt is rich fodder for a filmmaker. And R.D. Tailang’s script has all the ingredients that could make for a great film. That it is not is a result of three factors: the overly loud background music that overpowers everything else in the film, the casting of Sachiin Joshi as the policeman who led the operation to nab Veerappan and Lisa Ray playing the wife of a slain policeman.

The decision to keep the score at a screeching level is inexplicable since the story itself does not scream. Besides, Sandeep Bharadwaj playing Veerappan does a very convincing job and does not for a moment raise the decibel levels of the film, although it might have been tempting to caricature a criminal who was famous for his massive handlebar moustache. Bharadwaj does his version of a Kannada/Tamil accent in Veerappan’s Hindi, but he does not let that overshadow the rest of his performance, as a lesser actor might have. His styling as Veerappan too is very very impressive.

The music might still have been forgivable, but Joshi’s expressionlessness and Ray’s excessive expressions are too much to take. Joshi of course is the film’s producer (his wife Raina’s name appears in the credits though), so RGV most probably did not have a choice with him. But what accounts for the casting of Ray? Her limitations are further underlined by the fact that in many scenes she is placed opposite the very natural Usha Jadhav playing Veerappan’s wife Muthulakshmi.

The film’s deficiencies are most unfortunate because in its pluses we get a glimpse of the old Ramu that we all once knew and loved, the man who gave us pathbreaking gangster and crime flicks such as Shiva, Satya and Company. For instance in Veerappan, it is interesting to see the subtle ways in which RGV plants seeds of doubt in viewers’ minds about the ‘truth’ as it is recounted by the police. The God complex of the lead policemen too is unbridled and not softened up for the viewers’ palate or in the interests of political correctness. The action is well-handled, completely not Singham-style, formulaic, over-the-top Bollywood but realistic and believable as it might have happened in real life (barring a hilarious overhead shot of Joshi on elevated ground scanning the surrounding area for Veerappan – the man is such a bad actor that he cannot even stand correctly).

That being said, the difficult terrain in which Veerappan operated is remarkably captured by Aniket Khandagale’s camera in a way that is intended to overwhelm us, to remind us of how challenging it would have been for the police.

In certain aspects of storytelling then, this is a film that cannot be ignored. It is however hard to get past the poor acting by Joshi and Ray and that overly loud background score. I kept imagining this film in my head with the same director, but with music at a lower volume, starring Adil Hussain or Kay Kay Menon and Tabu in the roles played by Joshi and Ray. What excellent co-stars they could have made to the very talented Sandeep Bharadwaj. Too late for that of course.

Rating (out of five): **1/4

CBFC Rating (India):	A
Running time:	125 minutes 27 seconds

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/veerappan-review-flashes-of-the-old-rgv-peep-out-despite-the-loudness-2801876.html

Related link: Anna M.M. Vetticad’s interview with Ram Gopal Varma on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/satya-to-veerappan-watch-ram-gopal-varma-talk-about-cinema-censorship-2801654.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veerappan_(2016_film)

REVIEW 232: SATYA 2

Release date:	November 8, 2013
Director:	Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Language:	Punit Singh Ratn, Anaika Soti, Amitriyaan, Aradhna Gupta, Mahesh Thakur, Makarand Deshpande (Narrator) Hindi

The kindest thing that can be said about RGV’s latest film is that it’s not half as bad as his Sholay remake Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag.

When Priya Mehra (Priyanka Chopra) in Krrish 3 said last week, “Krrish ek soch hai”, it made sense because she was pointing out that a superhero can never die if his convictions take root in the minds of the common people. Very much in that vein I guess, the eponymous hero of Satya 2 says at one point: “Company ek soch hai.” I suppose that’s his way of explaining how his gangster network (it’s literally called “Company”) can never die since its Robin Hood-esque agenda has been adopted by the masses. Yet it makes no sense, since nothing that comes before or after that grandiloquent line explains how exactly this man set up the Company, how precisely it works, what specifically it does or how on earth the public got wind of it while a crack police team failed to crack it.

Not that it matters, because by the time the film lumbers around to this scene, it has bored with its verbosity. God, it’s wordy! The narrator talks. The hero talks. Then the narrator talks some more. Then the hero talks and talks and talks. Worst of all, none of what they’re saying amounts to much though it’s evident that they’re trying to sound deep. Whatever happened to the Ramu we knew and whose work we once loved?

Satya 2 is the story of a small-town youngster called Satya (Punit Singh Ratn) who comes to Mumbai and quickly manages to become the top boss of the underworld. How? Never mind. He sets up a crime syndicate he calls Company without declaring himself or anyone else as its leader or openly linking the Company’s name to his own (unlike what that silly boy Dawood did with D Company). This is Satya’s magnificent strategy (magnificent in his opinion, not mine) to ensure that the police never catch him. They soon do, so what was the point of that strategy? Well, never mind that again.

While he’s busy with all this, Satya also makes time for a trio of friends: his lady love (Anaika Soti) who keeps biting her full lower lip, an aspiring film maker with a thick mop of curly hair (Amitriyaan) and a starlet with a flexible body (Aradhna Gupta). I describe the three in terms of their physicality because there’s nothing about their poorly written characters that’s striking. Soti can’t act to save her life, or this film. Amitriyaan and Gupta may possibly be better in a better film, though it’s hard to be sure. Ratn, on whom Satya 2 relies heavily, is not awful or anything – it’s just that he’s ordinary which, some might say, is worse. Watching him drone on about this and that, I found myself longing for the charisma of Nagarjuna from Ramu’s very first film Siva in Telugu (1989) and its Hindi remake Shiva; for Manoj Bajpayee’s memorable Bhiku Mhatre in the Hindi Satya; for Ajay Devgn’s brooding Malik and Vivek Oberoi’s explosive Nandu in Company. Watching Soti’s strange hip vibrations in a tacky honeymoon song-and-dance number, I found myself longing for Amala’s innocent charms in Siva/Shiva and Urmila Matondkar’s version of sexy in Rangeela.

No actor is better than their director, and Ramu was the man for all these stars. He’s also the man who forever changed the way Bollywood looked at the underworld when he made Satya in 1998. It was gritty, funny, bloody, dramatic and real. Four years later, he made the equally pathbreaking, slick, beautifully acted gangster flick Company. What happened between then and now is perhaps a question to which we’ll never find the answer. What turned Ramu from a pioneer into the creator of the most lacklustre sequel-to-a-classic in the history of sequels-to-classics? We may never find out. This much can be said with certainty: Satya and Satya 2 have nothing in common beyond their titles and director.

Oh wait … there’s a third commonality: I remember being moved to tears when I first watched Satya; by the time the credits rolled in Satya 2, my eyes were moist again – this time for the Ramu that once was.

Rating (out of five): 1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	A
Running time:	2 hours 33 minutes

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_2