Looking back at the gritty political thriller Sarkar, in this fascinating installment of Subhash K Jha’s This Day That Year series, where we also hear from the star Amitabh Bachchan about making the Rsm Gopal Varma film which released in 2005.
In Sarkar, nothing is as apparent as it seems. Take a look at the plot: a saviour-of-the-masses hero, his two heir-apparent – the bad son and good son, the tussle of power between the two sons in a world that Varma has over the years patented and portrayed inside-out.
Dark, gleaming, ominous corridors hiding anguished pain, characters who look like they could do with a bath… and a massage to release some of the nervous tension that comes from a blurred perception of crime and morality – these characterize the givens in a Varma film.
Sarkar too takes us through a world governed by the rules of survival of the fittest. So what makes this film the most special achievement of Varma’s career? It’s the father-son combination of Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, furnishing Varma’s ebony vision of the world gone awry with a kind of blazing and bridled intensity that one last saw when Dilip Kumar and Amitabh played father and son in Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti.
Sarkar is a far more complex jigsaw of patriarchal intensity, filial crises and familial obligations. Its ethical complexities go far beyond politics and cinema to embrace a kind of multi-dimensional secularism where religion is not about gods but definitions of goodness.
Who’s the real villain? The people who rape society, or the ones who check crime and corruption by means that are extra-constitutional? The socio-political issue becomes more tangled in the light of the septic corruption that has crept into the governmental structure.
Into this world comes Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief. Thackeray’s name is changed to Subhash Nagare in the film. But the power and the socio-political positioning of the man remains unaltered in the movie version of his life. No other actor in the universe could’ve played Thackeray’s screen version, or done the astonishing things that Bachchan has done to the character. Bachchan plays Nagare, the frail and yet all-powerful man.
Marlon Brando’s The Godfather act provides a prototypical starting point for Subhash Nagare, one of the most entrancing heroes ever in Indian cinema. Varma brings out the protagonist’s power and glory through a demeanour that never screams for attention. Little gestures and nuances, agreeable and yet sinister, swathe the screen in a splendid arc of life and vitality.
Abhishek Bachchan as Shankar, the quietly faithful, duty-bound younger son destined to take up the strange family business — a role that has its roots in Al Pacino’s character in “The Godfather” — is in-sync with his character and the senior Bachchan’s prismatic persona.
Abhishek’s delicately balanced facial expressions, his projection of the character’s fierce unquestioning loyalty towards his father’s politics, is done with such rare care and sensitivity that you cease to look at the actor.
Kay Kay Menon as the archetypal son gone to seed remains understandably outside the two-member circle created so vividly by the Bachchans. His villainous grimace seems a trifle exaggerated in a film where the main characters express themselves in small print rather than italics.
Another over-the-top character is the Chandraswami-styled godman with a wig that mocks the muted makeover of the main characters.
The background score by Amar Mohile hammers in the emotions of every scene. You wonder why subtlety and delicacy are qualities that need to be counter-balanced to be fully effective! Wisely, Varma has constructed the story of Nagare’s political and domestic drama as a crime thriller. The scion glares contemptuously at a drug dealer from Dubai: “I didn’t have to be here to kill you personally. But I didn’t want to miss out on the pleasure of watching you die.”
The line, so stringent and sarcastic, defines some of the most prominent and passionate moments in Ram Gopal Varma’s gripping political thriller.
Speaking on the film Amitabh Bachchan says, “For one it gave Abhishek and me a completely different platform than Bunty Aur Babli. Sarkar is completely Ram Gopal Varma territory. My look in the film is something Ramu and I worked on jointly. Surprisingly, there was unanimity in the choice and style and colour almost immediately. We did not waste too much time on it… and it worked! It looked striking from day one and helped immensely in the characterisation of Sarkar. It is my belief that when things are meant to be going right they start going right from the littlest of things, the LOOK being a small but important one.”
For father and son Bachchan Sarkar was a complete departure from Bunty Aur Babli.
Says Mr Bachchan, “Bunty Aur Babli was fun and light, smart, witty, and laid-back. Sarkar is intense, quiet, introspective, dramatic and yet emotional… And how wonderful that the same two artists can get such a contrasting performing opportunity within such a short span.And father and son together in both. I couldn’t ask for more… truly blessed. In front of the camera Abhishek and I are two professional artists… trying to give their best. Nothing disconcerting or disorienting about it.”
Ram Gopal Varma, known to go overboard, commented after Sarkar that Abhishek was a better actor than his father.
To this Bachchan Saab says, “He must have his reasons… and he must be right. But what a terrific compliment for me as a father. For that matter, any father in the world. It’s a moment of greatest pride when the son out-excels his father. Sarkar added immensely to Abhishek’s stature as an actor, more so because it comes soon after Bunty Aur Babli. Not many young actors get contrasting opportunities like this in such a short span of time. It’s wonderful that Abhishek got it. But somewhere it also it shows the confidence of the respective makers in the actor. Two different directors from two different schools and ideologies seeing something different in the same actor and then going ahead to manifest this difference on screen…. It speaks volumes about their perception too and if the actor delivers…and I pray that he does (he has proved it once already in B&B). Then it speaks volumes on the capability of the actor as well.For Abhishek who was loaded with expectations and crushed under the burden of successive failures, to suddenly find himself as the chosen one, is God’s benevolence and the incumbent vagaries of this profession. My assessment of him as a performer in Sarkar will always be somewhat harsh. But in Sarkar he truly came into his own.”
