Comments on: Review: Sarkar Raj / Aamir

By: Anwar Puttarjee

Anwar Puttarjee — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:14:17 +0000

Malika is right. This film is not based on Cavite, but is completely ripping off that film. Unfortunately this otherwise well made film proves to be another embarrassment for Indian cinema. Shame on Anurag Kashyap and UTV for supporting this. And this Rajkumar Gupta should be put in jail for claiming he “wrote” Aamir.

By: Radhika

Radhika — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:51:27 +0000

“flinty overachiever”?? what has her character achieved in the movie? she flops around shifting her allegience from one powerful man to another – first daddy, then shankar, and then sarkar – what is her own “astitva”? what does she want out of life other than approval? i felt her character was quite weakly sketched and the end with her become la sarkar was beyond comprehension – what, she’s going to give up the 2 lakh crore project which gets profits of 20000 crore per annum (muffled giggles at the numbers) to be a sarkar-beti? though part of me was vastly amused at an Anita Rajan, (southie?) as the next maharashtrian power broker.

By: Vishal

Vishal — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:43:04 +0000

I think your comments about why RGV’s Aag didn’t work make a lot of sense to me. Nice review.

Regarding Aamir movie, (now, I might be reading too much into this BUT) I think the ending was, in a sense, positive. Everything that Aamir did earlier in the movie was what he was forced to do, but finally he did something that he *wanted* to do (however limited his options were in the given circumstances). I wrote about this on my blog, please read it if you get a chance and let me know what you think (not about my writing skill which, I know, is terrible but) about my interpretation of the ‘end of Aamir’.

By: Sagarika

Sagarika — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:36:46 +0000

Amrita: Hey, that sounds like a swell Plan B for when I get booted from the blog I now consider home, thanks. And if you’re that jealous of the term I coined, I’d recommend prostrating at the altar of the Proctologist who opened my eyes to a million such marvels.

By: SheWhoMustNotBeNamed

SheWhoMustNotBeNamed — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:24:40 +0000

really? Pray tell!

By: Amrita

Amrita — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:22:13 +0000

Hey Sagarika – dude, if you ever start blogging about the movies, you should title it Bollywood Colonoscope. I’m jealous I didn’t think of it.

I think RGV is basically like a tea kettle that’s been on the boil too long – the steam just wouldn’t stay in for another second!

“being a critic is simply a geekier extension of being a fan.” — kind of sums it up for me.

By: Sagarika

Sagarika — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:57:09 +0000

Ah Amrita. You just made my day! I’ve been way too busy lately, looking thru my own kaleidoscope, that I haven’t bothered to sneak a peek down the Bollywood colonoscope. (Seems like — for anyone who has the time and/or desire to look — there are certainly some interesting concepts coalescing there.) That was such an “I’ve found my mojo” rant-review combo over at your blog — a delightful read. “RGV sounding off loud and clear about the cretins who write about his movies.” I haven’t stopped laughing! I’ll have to go back and savor some of the more interesting bits you brought up though, for instance “…writer who doesn’t read…well, first of all I don’t know how they can deny themselves that kind of pleasure…” (Hey, you don’t seem to have heard of the word “masochism”… or “family,” for that matter!)

And I’m willing to bet that brangan loved this line of yours (too): “So why on earth would you think that a critic who spends all his or her time studying cinema would be or should be immune to the desire to be a part of it?” He’s alluded to that several times over here…that to him “being a critic is simply a geekier extension of being a fan.”

By: raj

raj — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:26:10 +0000

shewhomustnotbenamed – we know who you are

By: brangan

brangan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:24:51 +0000

anu: Thanks for the clarification. I’m not sure those were *spolers* as such, but maybe giving away too much atmosphere is just as much a crime? I don’t know.

Amrita: I love this line of yours: “I’ve always felt there was an elegance to what we might term RGV’s middle period, spanning from Satya to Company/Bhoot.” I’m not so much a fan of Rangeela and so on. And Sarkar 3, I thought, would be about Chikoo, no?

By: Amrita

Amrita — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:50:17 +0000

So RGV’s bitching made me go see the movie and I have to say, I liked it. I thought he was trying a bit too hard, esp in the beginning, to make me see how this was a !Drama! – it was all just this side of comical. But the central characters and the payoff were intriguing enough to keep me engaged.

I’ve always felt there was an elegance to what we might term RGV’s middle period, spanning from Satya to Company/Bhoot. It was the period where he let his material do the lifting. But now he’s back to his early tricks and laying it on with a trowel. Thankfully, at least this time it’s a bit tempered. Gives me hope for the future.

The thing that strikes me most about this movie though, is its end which leaves open so many possibilities. Now that everybody has paid the piper, what lies in store? Could we possibly be looking at our first RGV heroine who gets to *do* something? It’d be fascinating if he made Sarkar 3 on those lines.