Bachchan’s return as Angry Man in Sarkar 3

Finally, RGV as we call him, Ram Gopal Varma has announced sequel of his most successful attempts. By the way, let me add ‘Sarkar’ was RGV’s most successful effort both critically and commercially in the last decade or so. Not for his entire career. For my kind of Bachchan fan ‘Sarkar’ was good news.

The fact that Amitabh has done some great work in movies like ‘Cheeni Kum’ and ‘Pa’ to name a few; we all have missed the motorbike driving, door smashing, gun totting and screaming Bachchan on the screen. Sure some of us loved him as the shawl draped school principle in ‘Mohabbatein’ kind of movies but most of us always wanted angry Vijay back.

RGV delivered that with ‘Sarkar’. The most remarkable scene of ‘Sarkar’ was when Rasheed, (played with such controlled and remarkable ferociousness by Zakir Hussain), visits Amitabh’s Subhash Nagre with a proposal which he strikes down. He does not just strike it down he does something else too. As Rasheed walks away from the discussion table, Subhash Nagre warns him and says – “Aur sun... tujhe bhee nahi karne doonga!”

Then Nagre gives a cold stare back to Rasheed; while sipping tea from the saucer. In that one stare, Rasheed realises that Nagre cannot be messed with and goes about seeking a powerful united attack on Nagre. That stare is worth a watch again and again. That stare and that scene established yet again for many of us that when it comes to revenge, retribution, settling scores and violence genre – Big B remains the Big Daddy.

We all Bollywood fans in that sense should remain at some level indebted to RGV for bringing that good old Bachchan back to us. The only other effort remains respectable came from Raj Kumar Santoshi in ‘Khakee’, a movie which for some strange reasons did not work at the box office.

‘Sarkar’ was also an immensely watchable gangster saga for the characters like RGV created particularly Selvar Mani – Kota Sreenivas Rao – delivered an epic chameleon-like villain in this one. So was Vishnu, one of Kay Kay Menon’s biggest efforts on screen as the wild child of Subhash Nagre. Abhishek Bachchan’s Shankar was a sincerely driven loyal son performance.

A son, who decides to take on all those, who have wronged his father, particularly when he tells Rasheed before he is killed – “Tumhein marne ke liye yahan hona zaroori nahi lekin tumhein marte hue dekhne ka mazaa main khona nahi chahta thaa!” In that one line, the director establishes that Shankar is a worthy successor of Subhash Nagre. And then that chant of “Govinda…Govinda”. Each time that music plays you are totally awestruck. The score lifts the plot and character chemistry to heights. ‘Sarkar’ gave us back our Bachchan, and the name was Subhash, but it was just a Vijay, who got older.

‘Sarkar’ was big. Then came ‘Sarkar 2’. At the cost of sounding a totally awestruck fan of Bachchan, which in any case, I am. I did not find anything wrong with ‘Sarkar 2’ it had one of our most mature plots on how big corporates and political power, when combined with an evil motive can destroy lives.

I think most were disappointed with Abhishek Bachchan’s Shankar dying in the movie. I still feel many in the audience wanted the father-son duo to take enemies down repeatedly. RGV tried to challenge himself and failed at the BO but if you were to ever watch ‘Sarkar 2’ it is a mature attempt at engrossing political thriller cinema.

Therefore at the cost of sounding biased and excited, I can tell you that I wait for ‘Sarkar 3’ with the same eagerness as I wait for the other biggies of 2017 like ‘Baahubali’. Bring it on RGV! We wait for the goose bumps chants of “Saam Daam Dand Bhed”!

By: Rahul Deo Bharadwaj http://thesocietyasiseeit.blogspot.in