When Anita Rajan, CEO of an international firm, brings a power plant proposal to set up in rural Maharashtra, before the Nagres, the insightful Shankar is quick to realize its benefits.
After convincing Sarkar, Shankar along with Anita goes to the villages to mobilize support of the masses.
However, things are not what they seem to be. From shady fixers with an eye on multi-million kick-backs to wannnabes who are ready to incite millions of people against the highly controversial project, Shankar’s dream project gradually becomes a political minefield.
Evil forces gang up to bring down the regime of Sarkar and obliterate Shankar’s name from the political horizon.
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Tanisha Mukerji, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Govind Namdeo
Sarkar Raj is released 6th June
Critics Review
In this sequel, the Nehra dynasty lose some of their edge being more 'Mumbai'd'
Villains fail to portray a sense of real fear and although the characters played by Govinda Namdeo, Sayaji Shinde, Upendra Limaye all start out strong, by the end they are demoted to the sidelines in this enterprise.
Aishwarya Rai is just a blatant add on. The whole Anita-Shankar track seems terribly forced. Obviously if it was not for the real life comparisons that Ram Gopal Verma was trying to make, this was a character that could have been done away with. To start with she is hardly the woman of substance that all the pre-publicity hype was making her character to be. Surely RGV, there is more to such a woman than just a shirt unbuttoned look. However Aishwarya's character of Anita hardly had anything substantial about her and is disappointing when you consider her impressive showing in Jodhaa Akbar.
Abhishek Bachchan continues from where he left off last time, and the man delivers in his rather cold approach to the proceedings. However while he grabbed all the accolades first time around, it is Amitabh Bachchan who shines this time.Bachchan snr does manage to redeem his character from this debacle like RGV Ki Aag in a big way. And RGV makes up in a sense for the loud Babban with this calmer Subash Nagre. The film again demonstrates why Amitabh Bachchan is an acclaimed actor.
Of note is the RGV find of Rajesh Shringarpure, who with just a few scenes, creates an impact that makes up for the abscent Kay Kay. Though it must be said his character fails to live up to its potentiality. So expect a similar fate to that of Kay Kay's.
Though RGV films were cutting edge, the same cannot be said of his latest offerings, however RGV still puts his stamp, be it on the music, the screenplay, the angles, the feel. Yet one cannot help feeling how over indulgent he gets with these mediums. He lets Amar Mohile go wild with his ear scorching background score, while Amit Roy seems to have lost direction with some of the camera work.
Too many close ups make you wonder if the aim is to count the wrinkles on the stars' faces. Some of the key moments definitely could have done away with that. But Ramu thinks every part of an actor's body has a say in acting.
Irrespective of all that, this is still one of the finer attempts from RGV in a long time. However it would be too generous to claim that he is back to his best.
Sarkar Raj still manages to retain some of the punch and feel of the original, though it is too early to decide whether this one deserve a trilogy. This is one that RGV can easily pick up and take the series for a third go. But for the time being, here is a rather pleasing and fitting sequel that ties up to the original in a much better way than many previous Bollywood sequels.