Sarkar 3 Review: The perfect film on palace politics

Movie: Sarkar 3

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Yami Gautam, Ronit Roy, Jackie Shroff and Manoj Bajpayee

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Writer: Ram Gopal Varma and Nilesh Girkar

Production House: A.B Corp

We just attended the special screening of Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar 3. The end credits have rolled up, and now it’s time to share with you all as to what we think about the Ram Gopal Varma directorial. But first, let’s begin with the storyline:

The film opens up with a huge crowd in focus who are cheering for, you guessed it, Sarkar, who himself is present there giving his signature wave to the audience and remind the crowd (and somewhere we felt, us too) of the reason why Sarkar exists as he talks about the unapologetic, rebellious nature of his character and what the general public means to him.

Soon after this, we see Subhash Nagre yet again coming across a lucrative proposal, this time via a power broker who goes by the name of Gandhi, played by Bajrangbali Singh. The proposal in question is of setting up a business establishment that would be extremely beneficial for the locals, which comes at a cost of turning thousands of people homeless. It was a no-brainer that he would give it a thumbs-down to the proposal after several attempts from the tycoon of luring him into it.

He refutes this proposal with a dialogue we have heard from him in the past “Main Yeh Kaam Nahi Karunga ….. Aur Tujhe Bhi Nahi Karne Dunga”(We felt that this was RGV’s way of reminding us what Sarkar, as a man as a thought, stands for). Before we know it, Amit Sadh makes his entry as the prodigal grandchild Cheeku aka Shivaji Nagre, who joins Sarkar’s force. As people who will recollect from the trailer, Shivaji is friends with Annu Karkare, played by Yami Gautam who has a beef to settle with Sarkar as he was responsible for the death of his father. So, due to this, Cheeku equally loves and hates his grandfather.

In the meanwhile, a small yet utterly powerful group of people, this time led by a Dubai-based businessman Michael Vallya, played by Jackie Shroff, once again plot a murder conspiracy against Sarkar. The progression of this plan kick-starts a complex type of palace politics, the end result of which will leave you in complete shock, so it’s advisable to see the film for that.

Now, we will get down to what we think of each and every element of the film.

Sarkar: It was a treat to watch Amitabh Bachchan get back into the skin of Subhash Nagre, the extrajudicial body in his own right who has now aged, but not at all mellowed. Due to the loss of his two sons Shankar(Abhishek Bachchan) and Vishnu(Kay Kay Menon), he has grown angrier than ever. His deepened voice of an ageing and wounded lion makes him more formidable than the previous two parts combined.

Direction: Ram Gopal Varma has outdone himself in terms of his choice of camera angles. But we do see the familiar gradual close-up shots which add the right amount of emphasis at the right time. The slow-mo shots are used to create the perfect kind of impact. At times, it would feel like the slow-motion is used to letting the audience know as to what will happen next, but that’s the kind of pampering we are happy to receive. Also, Ram Gopal Varma has upped his game in terms of dialogue delivery. At times the wordings get repetitive, but we don’t mind that at all!

Jackie Shroff and Manoj Bajpayee: After Amitabh Bachchan, these two people really owned the screen-time that they had been given. Bajpayee plays a greedy aspiring politician while Shroff plays a business tycoon. Whenever these guys appear, you are guaranteed to be entertained!

Amit Sadh and Yami Gautam: The two new entrants to the Sarkar franchise were the ones that we had high expectations from, but we had never been so disappointed. Amit Sadh plays the hot-headed Cheeku who smells a betrayer in Sarkar’s right-hand man Gokul Satam (Ronit Roy), but we must say, that he has given us nothing via his acting that is praiseworthy. We sincerely missed Abhishek Bachchan here.

Yami Gautam’s character, on the other hand, was not at all given any kind of depth. From Kaabil, we learnt that she has almost unlimited potential as an actor, which is something that the filmmakers must have tapped into.

Ronit Roy: Here’s again an underrated actor whose character could have been written better. It was almost heartbreaking to see him been given a character which did not test his mettle in any manner. Only apart from a handful of scenes, his character holds little to no importance in the film.

Our Verdict: The whole film with its own set of contextually perfect humour and it’s complicated but yet delightful narrative is very much likely to keep you engrossed right till the end to find out the fate of Sarkar. (if you are ready to overlook the abrupt endings to certain scenes and Amit Sadh’s multiple desperate attempts to put emphasis in his character)

Our Rating: 3/5 Stars