My First Blast in Chennai

Past few days have been the best days in Chennai. Going out daily, enjoying life as if there is no tomorrow.

It all started on Tuesday(19th July) evening, when one of my close friends from TAPMI, Amitabh called me and told me that he would be arriving here the next day and he plans to be here till Sunday. Amitabh is currently in his training period. He had to make a trip to Chennai as part of his training.

Since he has come, I leave office early, at 5:45 pm and rush home. After getting ready, I meet him at his hotel and we go out. On 20th we went to Marina beach, chatted for a long time, and then we went to the pub in his hotel and had Vodka (After Fresher’s party in March, it was the first time I was having hot drinks!!!). We ordered dinner in the room. By the time it had started raining heavily outside (Rains are the least expected things in Chennai!!!). I stayed back with Amitabh for the night. We were chatting till 2 in the night and I was so tired that I slept off while he was talking!!! Got up early (After 4 hours of sleep) and left for home.

The next day again we met in the evening, and this time there was another friend from TAPMI, my roommate – Surya, who joined us for dinner and movie thereafter. We watched Sarkar, directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Shall get to the details of the movie later in the blog. After the movie, I went to drop Amitabh in his hotel. One the way, we were stopped by police. Without being asked, I told them that we had gone for a second show and showed my tickets. The policeman took a look at the tickets and then asked where we were working. I told him the name of the place where I work, for which he wanted proof. As luck would have it, I was not carrying my ID card (I was carrying it the other day!!!). But luckily I was carrying my vehicle papers with me, and I remembered that I had given my office address in the insurance letter. I produced the insurance letter and I must say that he was pretty much impressed by the fact that I was carrying all my papers neatly in a plastic cover, tucked in my pants. He verified the address, asked us if we had taken liquor and left us without troubling us any further. Amazingly he did not say anything about my Karnataka registration.

So past two days have been full of fun and little sleep – little over 9 and ½ hours. Still 3 more days to go………………

I’ll be discussing about the movie in the rest of the post, so people who have not seen it, don’t proceed any further. It’s worth a watch.

The story is about an extremely powerful politician Subhash Nagre, who is above law, police and government. He uses his power to do good to the common man. His house is a heavily guarded fortress, and people come to seek justice, which has been denied to them by the law and order of the state. Subhash is known as “Sarkar” by his followers and loyalists. Set in the backdrops of the Mumbai city, this film boasts of superb direction and some class acting by all the actors. The director acknowledges that his movie has been an inspiration from the 1972 Hollywood movie – Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In the original movie Amitabh Bachchan’s role is played by Marlon Brando and Abhishek Bachchan’s role is played by Al Pacino.

The movie starts with a man coming to Sarkar, to help him avenge the rape and death of this only daughter by a wealthy guy, who manages to escape the clutches of law. Sarkar is moved by the plight of the man; the wealthy man is killed by his lead henchman. Then we are introduced to his family – his wife, 2 sons, a daughter-in-law, a grandson and the wife and daughter of an old friend.

His eldest son is a film producer, Vishnu, and is a rebel. He tries to take things into his own hands without the approval of Sarkar and always ends up in trouble. He is extremely emotional and is easily influenced. He has a lot of friends who are his father’s enemy. He is married and has a kid. He is also attracted to the heroine of his latest movie. The role is played by Kay Kay.

The second son, Shankar, has returned from abroad after completing his studies. He is a devout son who feels that his father is “Outside the system, and helps people who are inside the system, unlike many who are within the system and help themselves.” The role is played by Abhishek Bachchan. He has a girlfriend, who is played by the glam girl Katrina Kaif. She trusts him, but not his family and wants to take him away from this life of crime.

Sarkar has many foes, and a few friends. His friends include Selvarmani, a south Indian, and an old ally of Sarkar. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra is also his friend. His foes include Vishram, who is Vishnu’s friend and Sarkar’s one time ally, and a gangster from Dubai – Rashid.

After the introduction of the family and other roles, we get to know that a highly respected politician Khurana, does not approve of Sarkar’s work and asks him to surrender. In the meantime, Rashid approaches Sarkar to seek permission to do business in Mumbai, to which Sarkar declines on moral grounds.

Things start to turn for the worse, when Vishram tells Vishnu that the heroine of the movie to whom he is attracted to is having an affair with the hero of his movie. Vishnu kills the hero, much to the ire of Sarkar, who throws the former out of his house and also helps the heroine of the movie in filing a case against Vishnu.

Vishnu gets refuge with his fathers’s enemies and goes hiding. With one of Sarkar’s son with them, the villains start plotting plans to kill Sarkar. The villains are guided by a swamiji.

The politician – Khurana- is killed and Sarkar is charged with the murder. Sarkar is arrested, while Shankar runs from post to post to prove his fathers innocence. He seeks the help of Selvarmani, only to find out that he has also joined the villains. Shankar also gets the information that his father is going to be attacked in the police station. Shankar escapes the clutches of the villains and reaches the police station just in time to save his father.

Sarkar comes out on bail and he also knows the identity of the people who have plotted against him. Fearing their lives the villains attempt a last ditch effort – use Vishnu to kill his father.

Shankar rescues his father again and this time he takes things into his hands to settle the matters once and for all. He kills his brother, and methodically kills Selvarmani, Vishram and Rashid. Shankar lets swamiji live in return for information on the main villain. Shankar restores peace, and becomes the new Sarkar.

The movie has excellent performances by the actors, great direction, camera work and background music. The director has focused one the emotions and body languages of his characters and scores here. The background music is typical of a Ram Gopal Varma’s gangster flick.

There are a lot of scenes which I liked in the movie – The rapist getting lynched by Sarkar’s men, the meeting between Sarkar and Rashid, the argument between Sarkar and Vishnu at the dining table, Shankar coming to his parents and telling them that he killed his elder brother. Rashid getting killed and many more.

It would be unfair to compare the movie with any of the Hollywood or Bollywood gangster movies that have come earlier. This one, even though inspired from Godfather, is different from the rest.