floccinaucinihilipilification

An Act of Estimating Something as Worthless.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

How do you say "Make an offer you can't refuse" in Mumbaiyya Hindi?

That's a tricky one; you don't.

Instead, you offer a haunting background score and some awesome cinematography, and hope the masses will lop up your acknowledgement of a bigger movie classic.

Yup, Sarka[a]r is Ram Gopal Varma's best so far, but still doesn't beat Nayakan (నాయకుడు) as the best Bombay-gangster movie ever; also, I'm still waiting for the day we have good characterisation in pop-Indian cinema.

And oh, casting Kota Srinivasa Rao as a Tamil gangster wasn't an atrocious casting decision, seeing a Kota-isque villain in a Hindi movie being surprisingly fresh, it was an atrocious script-writing decision; as anyone south of Pune will immediately point out, his Hindi accent was Dakhni and Tamil accent was Telugu. You shouldn't be doing this, Ramu, you're a Hyderabadi yourself.

10 Comments:

  • At 4:03 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hated it from the word go. I kinda thought it was a Nayakan remake, but you don't want to be making movies where it feels like you're ripping an older movie off, but suddenly end up doing your own thing. Disappoints one and kinda makes you feel the director's being too clever by half. You wanna make a remake, you make a remake. Don't be half and half about it.

    Lousy movie anyway. Two thumbs way down.

     
  • At 7:43 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ram Gopal Varma is from Vijayawada...not a Hyderabadi.

     
  • At 9:52 am, Blogger The Cydonian said…

    Oh, in case you didn't get the sub-text, I thought it was more of a *Godfather* remake, not just Nayakan. The film had its moments frankly, like I said, loved the cinematography and possibly, sets, but am disappointed that the storyline doesn't answer cruicial questions of *why* Subhash Nagre was doing it:- why did he consider himself above the law? *How* did he consider himself above the law (meaning, what is his code of honour)? We only got vague glimpses into both questions, albeit sacharine-coated in wholesome the-poor-come-first-no-matter-what goodness.

    Which, of course, is another of my famous rants; why doesn't Indian cinema ever show *how* a business grows? All contemporary movies start off either when the father is rich coz of some shady dealings, or summarize the latent entrepreneural spirit in a single song-and-dance sequence (a la Kal Ho Na Ho). It is almost as if Bollywood doesn't quite understand the craft of making money, just knows that people automagically make money.


    Anon... that's just even worse isn't it?

     
  • At 1:15 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yeah anon... what he said.

    *insert jersey thug accent*

    Marshal Mathers poser...: I thought the opening sequence was more of a nayakan theme than when the undertaker Bonasera comes to plead about vengeance for his daughter's anguish. Same story no doubt, but had a nayakan feel. I don't know, just me I guess.

     
  • At 1:21 pm, Blogger The Cydonian said…

    No denying that Nayakan also took inspiration from Godfather, but that was a true story based on Varadarajan Mudaliar's life.

    This, on the other hand... well, santabanta.com insists that Subhash Nagre is Bal Thackeray in celluloid, but that's just them being intellectually lazy. Godfather rip-off all the way.

     
  • At 8:50 am, Blogger Metlin said…

    Nayakan wasn't bad for its day, but its no Godfather. But I wasn't aware that it was a true story!

     
  • At 12:19 pm, Blogger Anurag said…

    My two-cents worth. All bashin up is more than welcome.

    As far as the 'Whys' of the movie goes I do not think that Subhash Nagre needs to dwell into the reasons behind him taking things into his own hands. His character has the same motivations that Travis Bickle (De Niro) had in 'Taxi Driver', Velu Nayagan (Hassan) had in 'Nayagan' and Vito Corleone (Sir Brando) had in 'The Godfather'. Having depicted the plight of a common man at the hands of the system innumerable number of times on screen, it would have been repetitive and unnecessary to dwelve into it once again. Even Coppola didn't feel the urge to depict Vito Corleone's 'motivation' until Part II. Subhash Nagre stood up against the mediocrity and scum around him. And it comes as no surprise that anyone who even thinks of doing good to the masses has to go against the system. Ironic and sad, yet true. Furthermore, the story is more about the coming of age of Shankar (Jr. Bachchan)than that of Subhash Nagre( aka Michael Corleone in Part I). Its his journey from the hunky-dory life in the States to the realties of ground-zero. And RGV is straight-forward in saying that 'The Godfather' is his inspiration. Cleary, the movie has it written all over. Though there were certain sequences which looked a bit out of place, Varma did an excellent job in bringing the legendary story of the Corleone family to the Indian masses. Only if we can do away with the comparisons, may be people will appreciate 'Sarkar' much more. Comparing it to The Godfather is futile, leads no where because, obvioulsy, there isn't any comparison. The Godfather is a legend, cannot be surpassed. Sarkar has just started its journey. Let's see where the movie rests 30 years from now :)

     
  • At 2:28 pm, Blogger The Cydonian said…

    Seventhseal, welcome to the blog!Thanks for posting.

    Perhaps a bit of a context should be necessary here to clarify things here.

    There is, firstly, author motivation which you so rightly speak about ("Having depicted the plight of a common man at the hands of the system innumerable number of times on screen, it would have been repetitive and unnecessary to dwelve into it once again").

    And then there is character motivation, which, namely, asks why a particular character does X. You make a case, albeit thinly I'm afraid, for the existence of *a* beat-the-system character; the movie, as it exists, doesn't explain why *Subhash Nagre* grew to be such a character. This, I'm afraid, is where the movie completely fails; ironically enough, we the audience know surprisingly very little about that character. What is his story? How does he get all his power? Why is he doing this? *How* is he doing this? What is his "code"? What sort of people does he help? Why was he silent when Abhishek Bachchan's character killed his brother?

    You're right, too early to say if Sarkar will be a classic or not. But I believe that it falls short of being a great movie, mostly because, unlike Godfather or Nayakan, it treated its lead character so shoddily. We know Don Corleone as a person; we know his code, we speak his language, and we feel for him when he falls down. Can't say I feel the same way about Subhash Nagre.

     
  • At 3:16 pm, Blogger Anurag said…

    You almost had me convinced! Agree with your Author Motivation Vs. Character Motivation POVs and yeah..I do feel that the the gaps in the story pertaining to the character development of Subhash Nagre leaves a lot to be desired. It would have definitely helped to give us all a peek into his past aka Nayagan. Allow me to present my pov on why Sarkar never adhered to the story-skeleton of Nayagan.

    'Nayagan' ws about Velu. His life, his journey to becoming a 'crime lord'(if you can call him so) and his death. 'Sarkar' is about Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan's character). His character arc shows a well-defined and superbly etched bend thru the movie. 'Sarkar' is about Vishnu (Kay Kay)...about the insecurities and frustrations of a son who has to live under his powerful father's shadow. He attempts to break out time and again. A somewhat similar character was Velu's daughter in 'Nayagan' and if I remember correctly, the sub-plot was given due footage and was very detailed.

    In Varma's movie, that sub-plot takes chief importance and the entire story is weaved around that. Hence, the past of Subhash Nagre does makes its absence felt, it never over-shadows the rest of the movie. How many of us think that even if Godfather II and III were never made, Part I alone would still be one of the most magnificent movies ever? I see a lot of raised hands. However, it isn't until Part II that we meet young Vito Corleone and the character comes a full circle. well...

    but i digress ..comparing this movie to The Godfather (or to Nayagan) leads us nowhere. Godfather dealt with organized crime mafiaso families hailing from Sicily and what not. It was alomost like a cult. Hence, the "code" you spoke about. Fancy any such thing in Mumbai?

    anyways...i guess i am blaberring a lot here. Both of us liked the movie..I liked it way too much and you didn't like it as much. So no contradictions at all. But yeah...readin thru ur posts did make me realise a cpl of things which I had missed earlier. its always cool to bash everyone who doesn't agree with ur point-of-view. we end up learning a lot about ourselves :):)

     
  • At 7:06 pm, Blogger The Cydonian said…

    Seventhseal,

    Before I go on, DAMN. Didn't realise you weren't some anonymous blogger until T came over to my cubicle. :-D

    That said, when I said character motivations, I didn't mean just his childhood and all that; I meant the actual morphing of an imagination into a believable person. Now, one of the many ways to achieve that is to show Nagre grow from a kid, but that's not the only way; in Scent of the Woman (which, btw, you *have* to watch), for instance, Al Pacino's character "grows" on you in that your feelings for him change from apathy to empathy. This, you'll note, was achieved without showing him as a kid; a few well-placed dialogues achieved that.

    My comment on Nagre's espoused values must be seen in that context; that the movie wasn't clear on that meant that I cant understand the character as a person. The narrative, therefore, was sorely lacking in its intended effect, particularly one with such a subversive theme.

    Nothing about bashing up here, of course, just trying to clarify my position, that's all; we can agree to disagree after we understand each other's points correctly. Bashing can start after we hit some alchohol. ;-)

     

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