Sarkar 3 Movie Review: Sar-Dard!

When maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan had teamed up years back to make Sarkar, the Indian version of ‘The Godfather’, the film had attained cult status and though the sequel Sarkar Raaj did not fare well, die-hard fans of RGV were still hopeful about Sarkar 3, primarily because of its powerful star cast.

However, fans of Varma would be disappointed to know that the third installment of the film is as bad as Varma’s latest duds and has nothing to write home about.

When Shivaji (Amit Sadh), the hotheaded grandson of Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) decides to leave his home and join the powerful ‘Sarkar’, it causes a major upheaval in Nagre’s organization as Sarkar’s loyal sidekick Gokul Satam (Ronit Roy) feels sidelined and threatened by Shivaji’s presence and his volatile nature.

Soon, Sarkar’s enemies, led by mysterious business tycoon ‘Sir’ (Jackie Shroff) decides to take advantage of this and wage war against Nagre with the help of local politician Deshpande (Manoj Bajpayee) and Anu (Yami Gautam), who wants to avenge the murder of her father. Will Sarkar manage to vanquish his foes this time? Is Shivaji the dark horse of the Nagre family or will he prove to be a Trojan horse? All these questions are answered as the film progresses.

Amitabh Bachchan is intensity personified as usual in this film too, but at times, he sounds deliberately hoarse, bringing to mind his dialogue delivery in Agneepath while in certain sequences, he seems to be playing to the gallery. Bachchan had effortlessly portrayed an aura of raw power in ‘Sarkar’, but this time, it seems like the veteran had to put in efforts, which somewhat dilutes the impact. Amit Sadh was apparently instructed to glower at all times because that’s what the lad has done throughout the film. Manoj Bajpayee is possibly the only highlight of the film while Jackie’s scenes are unintentionally funny and Yami Gautam seems to have nothing to do but try and project meanness through her eyes, which is a failed attempt. Ronit Roy is dependable as usual in his role as loyal sidekick Gokul Satam.

As for the film, Varma probably decided that as ‘Sarkar’ had worked, it would be acceptable to borrow heavily from it. Hence, there is the hotheaded heir (like Kay Kay Menon’s character Vishnu from the first movie), a detractor who criticizes Sarkar and gets killed so that Sarkar can be blamed for it (Anupam Kher had a similar track in the first movie) and a gangster-businessman, who approaches Sarkar with a lucrative offer and conspires to kill him when he is turned down (Zakir Hussain’s character ‘Rashid’ does the same in ‘Sarkar’).

Varma has gone crazy with the camera again this time but frankly speaking, it has stopped impressing us anymore, especially when the story lacks the ability to hold the attention of the audience. The pace is quite sluggish and though there is a surprise twist in the climax, the damage has been done to such an extent that it doesn’t really matter at the point of time.

The dialogues too are quite unimpressive and at many places, Nagre is seen saying his dialogues in Marathi and then repeating the same in Hindi, which comes across as absurd. The sub plots too are quite 70s with factory workers being victimized by their employers and shady builders plotting to clear slums by employing violence for their high-rises.

To sum it up, if you are still a RGV fan, better stick to his earlier classics like Satya, Company and Sarkar….