STARRING
Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Govind Namdeo, Tanisha Mukherjee, Victor Banerjee and others.
DIRECTION
Ram Gopal Varma
STORY
The story of the film is essentially a study in power politics through the Nagre family and the machinations of a multinational company. Anita Rajan(Aishwarya Rai) is Chief Executive Officer of an international company Sheppard Power Plant and comes to meet Nagres with a proposal to establish a power plant in rural Maharashtra. Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan) quickly grasps the fact that the plant will bring benefit to the people of the state.
But Sarkar(Amitabh Bachchan) is not convinced about its benefit to the people and hence opposed to it. However, Shankar manages to convince his father about the benefits that this new project would bring to the poor people and undertakes a tour of the state to mobilize public support in favor of the proposal. Anita accompanies him in this tour of the state.
However, somewhere things go terribly wrong and the power project proposal creates a political storm in the politics of the state which threatens the regime of the Nagre family. The opposition to the proposal and Nagres grow to an alarming proportion and the family is under siege. How Shankar manages to come out of this political storm and what happens to proposal forms the rest of the film.
PERFORMANCE
Amiatabh Bachchan’s performance is par excellence and leaves the audiences awe-struck. His legendary acting prowess in the last few reels takes the film to a new height. Abhishek Bachchan in the character of Shankar has shown the rare maturity and sincerity which has continued from Mani Rathnam’s Guru. For the first time, Abhishek has not given any room to his legendary father as far acting is concerned.
Aishwarya Rai, who plays the character of Anita Rajan, looks fabulous and enacts the character with natural ease. Even in this deglamourized role, Ash has done a superb job as far as acting is concerned. The scene of her first meeting with Bachchans to explain about power project is especially superb. Tanisha Mukherjee, in the character of Abhishek Bachchan wife, passes the muster.
Other supporting actors too have excelled in their respective roles. However, of all of them, the name of Dilip Prabhawalkar is worthy of special mention. Govind Namdev, Sayaji Shinde, Ravi Kale and Supriya Pathak too have provided competent support to the main cast of the film.
The direction of Ram Gopal Varma is terrific and his special stamp is clearly visible in every department of the film. Ramu has bounced back with a vengeance. He has not only extracted best performances from his actors, but also executed the project in a perfect manner. He has handled this sensitive subject with aplomb and come out with flying colours.
Editing is crisp and narration smooth. Prashant Pandey’s script is first rate. The background music by Amar Mohile is superb; especially the ‘Govinda’ chant enhances the whole experience. The cinematography by Amit Roy is terrific and the sequences have been superbly canned. Allan Amin’s action is in accordance with the mood of the subject.
STARDUST VERDICT
Sarkar Raj rocks! It has career best performances from Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai and will increase the value of Bachchan brand in bollywood immensely. The film will be lapped up by the multiplex audiences due to presence of the three Bachchans and the hoopla created around it. An outstanding film.
