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After a swing of duds, RGV hits back this time with a sequel to the successful Sarkar. The movie is a good addition to Sarkar (a hotch-potch of God Father and Bal Thackeray) and carries forward the tale of the most powerful family in Mumbai.

The movie begins with the 65th Birthday celebrations of Sarkar - Subash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan). His son Shankar Nagre has carried forward his baton and has endeared himself to the masses as a new age hero. A foreign firm comes up to build a power plant in a remote village called Thackarwadi, which will solve the power problems of the cities but will result in the displacement of 40,000 villagers. The daughter of the firm’s owner, Anita (Aishwarya Rai), tries to get Sarkar’s help. He rejects the idea initially but relents when Shankar convinces him of the benefit this power project will bring to Maharashtra. To persuade himself, Sarkar visits his Gandhian mentor Rao Sahab (Dilip Prabhavalkar) whose peevish and hot-headed nephew Sanjay Somji (who carries an uncanny resemblance to Raj Thackeray), a farmers’ leader opposes the idea completely. Shankar, along with Anita visits village after village, explaining the benefits of the power plant to the villagers. But all his attempts are foiled by Sanjay, who mobilises popular opinion against the power plant and sets the Political canon afire, resulting in riots athwart Maharashtra. The movie thereafter captures the battle that ensues, which ultimately forces Sarkar, the ultimate patriarch, to step in.

The movie has nearly all of the elements of an RGV movie – crime, mafia, Politics and people who are killed like mosquitoes. The fact that a powerful persona is created in Sarkar helps the most. Amitabh, as Sarkar, conveys every idea and emotion, be it through his deep voice, or threatening silence. Abhishek and Aishwarya, with a short love story, also put up a good performance. The background score of Saam-daam-dhand-bhed captures the depths of the dark world of Politics in just four words. The strongest point of Sarkar Raj, as the promos suggest, is its hair-raising climax, done in a typical Sherlock Holmes style.

But that’s it. Sarkar Raj mainly benefits from the strength of the characters that were created in Sarkar. Without Subash Nagre (who suspiciously looks like Bal Thackeray), Sarkar seems to be nothing. Moreover, it justifies all means, no matter how bad and horrifying they are, if the ends are acceptable. The camerawork suggests that it is like any other RGV movie and is drenched in sepiatone, like a period film.

But at the end of it all, it showcases a very relevant theme – Industrial Projects, displacements and politicisation of those projects. Moreover, RGV moves beyond the pro or anti industries stand of the newspaper editors and shows the dark nexus that exists behind all this. In short, it is worth watching even if you are not an RGV fan. And for the RGV fans, the movie ends with a proposal of a Sarkar 3!

Reconstruction ustaad Priyadarshan once again brings up a comedy movie Mere Baap Pehle Aap, does not justify the promos in any means and is also at responsibility of dragging the film for two and a half hours. Initial first half is laughter ride but the second half takes you to a dramatic topography, surely Priyan needs to do something more than this for sure.

It’s about a widower Janardhan Rane (Paresh Rawal) who spends his life in the upbringing of his sons Chirag (Manoj Joshi) and Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna). Now the sons take on the responsibility of managing business and household activities. But it is the younger Gaurav who takes care of his father as if he were his son, to the degree of shouting, fighting and locking the father up in room only to keep him away from his friend Madhav Mathur (Om Puri). Madhav is fraught to get married and seeks Janardhans help always, ending up into trouble, only to be bailed out by Gaurav time and again. Gaurav starts receiving calls from a girl Shikha (Genelia D’souza) who happens to be his old college friend whos back from the US and stays with her guardian Anuradha Joshi(Shobana).

Janardhan happens to meet Anuradha only to recognize she is his lost love. Gaurav and Shikha get to know of it and are determined to get them married and in the process take a liking for each other.

Akshaye has developed the penchant for such roles and rendered the right poise. Paresh is at is usual best and the director surely knows how to use him. Genelia does leave her mark. But there is a gross under utilization of performers like Om Puri and Shobana knowing their caliber. Archana Puransingh is fantastic. Naseeruddin is effective in his cameo. Rajpal Yadav is yet another talent wasted out here. Manoj Joshi seems okay.

The music (Vidyasagar), editing and scripting are simply disappointing. The cinematography (Piyush Shah) is a worth mention. This is what we do not expect of Priyadarshan movie and is just enough to make you say “ Bas kar Baap Re Baap”