Sarkar 3

It's been a fortnight since "Baahubali 2" has released & as I had predicted it has crossed the 1000 C mark with ease. As the epic's box office collections steadily makes it way into unchartered territories, the other film makers back home have been skeptical regarding when to showcase their wares lest they get drowned in the Baahubali tsunami. However, we did have a reasonably high profile release this week in the form of "Sarkar 3". But will RGV's creation have the quality to make us sit up & take notice? Seems like a tall ask after all his creativity (does he still have it?) is a pale shadow of what it was more than a decades back. Subhash Negre (Big B) is still the darling of the masses & headache of the corrupt as he maintained an iron fist over the political climate in the state. Inspite of having lost both his sons & survived numerous assassination attempts on his life, he continued to make sure that the commoners were not exploited by the rich & powerful. He was ably assisted by his trusted lieutenant Gokul (Ronit Roy) & as expected just as his followers increased, his enemies also grew in number. The latest adversary who sought to end Sarkar's reign happened to be Michael Mallya (Jackie Shroff), a real estate businessman who operated from Dubai. But a bigger problem was when Sarkar's grandson Shivaji (Amit Sadh) sought to come under his grandfather's wings. Just like his father, Shivaji was impulsive & brash which created unrest in Sarkar's camp much to the delight of Michael & his men who milked the situation to their benefit. Can Sarkar trust anyone on his side or was it the end of the road for him??? There was a time when Ram Gopal Verma was one of the most exciting directors in the country with movies like " Siva", "Company", "Rangeela", "Ab Tak Chappan" etc. But a couple of years into the new millennium, he seemed to have lost his touch to enthrall the audience as he churned out mediocre ventures at alarming regularity. However, on saying that this is surely one of his better efforts in the past decade. When the first part came out in 2005, it gripped the audience as it was inspired from Bal Thackeray & the Godfather series. Even the sequel had a story to tell with Abhishek & Aishwarya put into the mix. But the latest installment didnt have anything to convey as Nilesh Girkar, Jaya Kumar & Ramkumar Singh might have just taken the CDs of the prequels & changed the name of the characters. Interestingly even a fleeting mention of Aishwarya's character is not made in the movie considering she was calling the shots at the end of the second part. The only portion which did interest me was the climax though by that time I was waiting for the movie to end. RGV always had a fascination for bikini clad chicks, silhouettes, odd camera angles, focusing on inanimate objects even as the characters are blurting out their corny dialogues & all of this is present in ample measure here as well. It has been captured through Amol Rathod's frames & the blaring BGM has been the contribution of Ravi Shankar & Rohan Vinayak. When it came to performances, it is basically a Big B show but he doesnt have anything to do apart from slurping his coffee & speak in his baritone voice. He has done justice to his role though he could have done it even with his eyes closed. Amit Sadh impressed as the short tempered instinctive Shivaji along with Ronit Roy. Manoj Bajpayee was wasted, Jackie evoked a couple of chuckles with his double entendres while Yami Gautam & the rest barely had anything substantial to do. Verdict: There is hardly any factor which works in its favour to the extent that I would rate "Meri Pyaari Bindhu" way better than this. With "Baahubali" going strong, it will struggle to make it to the next week & will end up as yet another flop in RGV's career. In short, dont bother as it's as trivial as his tweets!!! Rating: 1.75/5 Regards...Ben

Sarkar 3, a political crime thriller film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, the latest one in the Sarkar series absolutely falls flat. Sarkar 3 has nothing new to offer, rather none of the scenes are exciting enough to make one watch the film. The palace politics, as it is defined and shown in the film, is inexplicable. Ram Gopal Varma does not showcase any new perspective or any new aspect through Sarkar 3. The screenplay and editing are not at all deft. As a viewer, I kept wondering what is the overall idea behind making this film. The film has the same old story of a leader who with his power of influence has earned many enemies as well as supporters. It also has the story of deceit, manipulations, betrayal, playing double games etc. The mood in every frame of the film is grim. There is not a single moment in the film which is light. As far as the character sketching is concerned, even the most powerful character has been portrayed in a very weak manner. Sarkar 3 is the third in the series. Sarkar aka Subash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) is still powerful. He is a loner. His trademark hand-wave can still mesmerize thousands of people. The first half of the film sees Amit Sadh's entry as Shivaji, the grandson of Sarkar. Shivaji chooses to address his grandfather as Sarkar only. Ronit Roy as Gokul and Parag Tyagi as Raman are Sarkar's credible aids. But once Shivaji comes, troubles begin in this camp. Shivaji is in love with Anu (Yami Gautam) who is the daughter of Sreeram who was killed by Sarkar. The film moves further without any twists and turns, any major conflicts, without any unpredictability of the plot. The tempo of the film is very slow. We have seen Amitabh Bachchan in Sarkar and Sarkar Raj earlier. Nothing new is added, no new dimension is added to his role. He slurps tea, offers tea to his friends as well as foes when they visit him. Abhishek Bachchan's photograph with garland is almost there in every frame. Amit Sadh is a wonderful actor. We have seen him creating magic in Kai Po Che, Sultan etc. but here his role is sketched out very poorly. Whereas, his role was supposed to be at par with Sarkar, but it does not happen so. Manoj Bajpayee has the knack of getting into any character he plays, but he did not have much to do as Govind Deshpande in the film. His character had very less of screen space. A very talented actress Rohini Hattangadi as Govind's mother also has a very small role. Jackie Shroff's role as businessman Michael Vallya is perhaps the most unexplained character in the film, though he plays the mastermind behind many conflicts but the scenes given to him are absolutely absurd. Rest of the actors Supriya Pathak, Ronit Roy, Parag Tyagi, Yami Gautam and others are wasted in this pointless dark film. Sarkar 3 has nothing new to offer, rather none of the scenes are exciting enough to make one watch the film. The palace politics, as it is defined and shown in the film, is inexplicable. Ram Gopal Varma does not showcase any new perspective or any new aspect through Sarkar 3.