Director Ram Gopal Varma’s latest Bollywood movie Sarkar 3 is a political crime thriller film and it is the third installment of the Sarkar film series which started in 2005. The crime thriller film revolves around the ill-effects of the corrupt political system prevailing in the country. Sarkar 3 introduces us to the power and charisma of Subhash Nagre. Sarkar 3 gives an insight into his wisdom and mindset. In the decade gone by, a lot has changed in the life of Sarkar. He now lives in a new and a bigger home with his ailing wife Pushpa (Supriya Pathak) and has a new set of enemies Despande (Manoj Bajpayee), Vallya (Jackie Shroff) and new body guards as well Gokul (Ronit Roy). A lot (almost everything), however, remains unchanged. His aura, his power over the public, his passionate and motivating speeches, everything remains the same. Subhash Nagre still peppers his meals with a dash of pickle and audibly relishes his tea in a saucer. Sarkar 3 is too dark and lacks a serious plot, this adds to the negative points of the movie. There is no placement of shots, locations and lighting which makes it even more flat and bland. The background is cacophonic and infuriating. But if you are Big B’s fan than it is worth watching for you because of his brilliant and relentless performance with his serious looks and furious face, as it adds flavor to the film. We would have been thankful enough if Ram Gopal Varma would have spent some time working on his directorial abilities instead of tweeting. RGV has completely lost the grip on Sarkar 3 and has disappointed us. We’re shocked as Ram Gopal Varma has gone wrong with his most celebrated ‘Sarkar’ franchise. All in all, it will be more exciting if you spend your weekend chilling with your friends rather than wasting your time and pocket as RGV will fail to bring curve on your face.

Real power is not about fear, it comes out of respect. Sarkar 3, the third film in the Sarkar (2005) franchise, opens with a typical Ram Gopal Varma punch line, giving us hopes of him returning to his comfort zone and top form. Soon all the important characters get so interlinked that it becomes difficult to figure out who’s on whose side. The only thing crystal clear is that Nagre’s life is under severe threat. It’s a familiar set-up. You can also foresee some of the twists, but deep down your heart, you still want Subhash Nagre to go back to his original shelf. The guy we loved as Bollywood’s Godfather in first two films was the perfect blend of emotional and detached. He didn’t believe in expressing his inner thoughts, but managed to portray a positive picture. Being verbose wasn’t his manner. Bachchan’s dialogue writers make a mistake here. They have given him very superficial lines. He keeps repeating lines such as ‘jaan se maar dunga’ and ‘main naatak kar raha tha’ which eventually dilutes the essence of him being a miser with words. It hampers his gravitas. Amol Rathod’s camera work seeks inspiration from Amit Roy, but lacks finesse. Oddly placed props make some of the scenes bizarre as you keep looking at them rather than focusing on the characters. Sarkar’s success relies on Amitabh Bachchan’s charisma, and he knows his character by heart. Most of Sarkar 3 is a remake of Sarkar. Nagre is still dealing with absolutely similar problems in absolutely similar manners. But there is one good thing about Sarkar 3. Ram Gopal Varma is a step closer to regain his touch. Sarkar 3 has enough moments to make you revisit the earlier films. That’s both good and bad. Good because you still love Sarkar, and bad because it won’t let you love Sarkar 3.

Style takes precedence over substance by a fair distance in Ram Gopal Varma's third entry in the Sarkar series. Despite riding on the broad shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, as impressively on the top of his game as ever, Sarkar 3 is a tedious trudge. Sarkar 3 is stylishly shot, elliptically edited and only 132 minutes long. That apart, Manoj Bajpayee, Ronit Roy and Amit Sadh do their bit to support Bachchan in the latter's all-out bid to shore up the film. But its worn-out under-wiring simply doesn't possess the strength to carry the weight of the film. Power, Sarkar 3 tells us at the very outset, does not stem from fear. It comes from respect. Sarkar 3 is a noir thriller that reduces politics to mere gunfights and bland verbal exchanges while the director of photography Amol Rathod goes to work with great gusto to offer us fractured frames in which nothing seems full and everything appears a tad tilted. He plumps for shadows and silhouettes and weaves geometric patterns with the way faces are aligned within the visual compositions. Sarkar 3 raises many a question, but it provokes no genuine thought that might lead to better comprehension of what is going on. The biggest question the film leaves us with is: what is Jackie Shroff doing here? His colourful suits are an assault on the senses and his utterances are all bull. Manoj Bajpayee, who dons the guise of a fearless politician who takes on the mighty Sarkar, has a marginally better written role. He pulls his weight as long as he is allowed to, which, unfortunately, isn't long enough. Sarkar 3 is after all an Amitabh Bachchan show all the way. He adopts comfortably familiar methods to prop up the most inane of lines and situations. But no matter what he does to liven up the pallid proceedings, Sarkar 3 remains a soul-deadening affair, flashy but flimsy.

When was the last time Ram Gopal Varma made a half decent film? Nine years back, with the sequel of Sarkar, called Sarkar Raj, which I liked better than the original. After that it’s been a steady slide downhill, with just the odd film that held out a glimmer of the old Ramu. You go into the third part of Sarkar in the hope that it will resurrect RGV. But that’s not to be. The best that can be said about Sarkar 3 is that it is not as terrible as Not A Love Story, and, no, nowhere as ghastly as Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. That’s small consolation for a film, though, which toplines a heavyweight cast, led by Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpyee, Jackie Shroff, and helmed by a director who redefined both the gangster and horror genre in Indian cinema.  The previous editions of Sarkar worked because Bachchan was given worthy opponents, and the semblance of a story. Here, RGV completely dispenses with such things as plot, as he goes about getting his characters to mouth long-winded dialogues minus punch. And just what is Yami Gautam doing in this film, other than displaying heavily kohled eyes, and some stray non-speaking scenes which don’t add up to anything? Of what point is her poorly-sketched bit part? Bachchan shows signs of the towering actor he can be, but is captive to the way his Sarkar has been conceptualized and played: he declaims rather than speaks. And there are moments where you can see flashes of the director RGV used to be, when he pulled off films full of creative leaps, and crazy flourishes. Can RGV be restored to factory settings? I hope so.

We have lived with the protagonist and premise of this franchise for 12 years now. That explains the sense of déjà vu while watching the third part. But it also accounts for the audience staying invested in Sarkar right from the start. Coming to the all-important question—is Ram Gopal Varma of Shiva, Satya, Company and the first part of Sarkar back in form? Well, you can see some flashes of the filmmaker’s intensity here. His Mahabharatha tale or palace politics as it is termed, plays out uninterruptedly. However there isn’t much intrigue because most of the twists are easy to guess. Some of the dialogue is pithy but then again, this accounts for little. The brooding palette of shadow and light that has been the trademark of this franchise is retained, as is the Govinda chant that works as a terrific background score. The Ganesh-aarti rendered by Bachchan is spellbinding; the iconic actor is also in top form, mesmerizing you with his grey shades and grey irises. For his legion of fans, this one is an important outing. Amit, Manoj, Jackie and Ronit lend weightage. However, the actresses--Yami, Supriya and Rohini are short-changed.