Sarkar Raj. Review on Sarkar Raj

SARKAR RAJ

A friend of mine from Philippines, who is very eager to learn Hindi and who was a great fan of Bachhan family, asked me the English translation of a Hindi song. I did not realize that that wonderful song was from the film SARKAR RAJ. She also seemed to be very eager to see the movie in Manila. Although I was not very keen to see this movie in the first instance, on my daughter’s insistence on Father’s Day (15 June 2008) – and Amitabh and Abhishek Bachhans being my favourites - we went for this movie.

The story starts with a NRI girl named Anita (Aishwariya Rai) coming up with a Rs. 200 thousand crore project for a power plant in Thakarwadi in the State of Maharashtra. Since it was to displace 40, 000 villagers, the plan was not originally approved by SARKAR, named Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachhan). The insightful son of Sarkar, named Shankar Nagre (Abhishek Bachhan), realizing the benefits the power plant can bring to the people of his State, convinced Sarkar for this project.  He visited Thakarwadi to mobilize support from the masses and the way in which he talks with masses impressed Anita. He however failed to realize that his dream project was gradually becoming a political battlefield.  The first shock comes when Shankar Nagre’s pregnant wife (Tanisha Mukherjee) was bombed; simultaneously Sarkar gets a heart attack.

Anita starts respecting Shankar Nagre and the death of Shankar’s pregnant wife clears the way for Anita and Shankar to indulge in romance but it is short lived as the opposers of the project or the gang of villages who were trying to obliterate the name of Shankar from political horizon, also kill Shankar, leaving Sarkar to take the reins again. He then sorts out the puzzle as to who killed whom and why.

Perhaps the script of the movie has very poorly developed the villains in the movie. Compared to Ashwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachhan, Abhishek Bachhan’s performance was better. Ashwarya Rai hardly had a role and the villains and supporting actors were awful.

Overall the film was a mediocre one, depicting the poor political situation in the country.