Sarkar review: "Not quite matching the expectations like Modi Sarkar!!!”

The Festival of Lights is here as the nation celebrated Lord Rama’s return from exile & Krishna’s slaying of Narakasura apart from similar other mythologies. Despite a restriction of 2 h to the bursting of crackers, there hasn’t been any such restriction to the release of some cracking movies. The most prominent among them happens to be Vijay’s “Sarkar” & “Thugs of Hindostan” which had kept the audience wait with bated breaths ever since the trailers had hit the screens. With “Sarkar” having released earlier, I decided to check it out in the hope that it would be as exciting as their previous ventures together. The question is will it set the box office on fire???

Sundar Ramaswamy (Vijay), a NRI was the CEO of GL & known as the “corporate monster” in the business world for his style of decimating rival companies pretty much like Thanos. His visit to India was met with apprehension by the Indian corporates, though it turned out that he had flown down to Chennai to cast his vote in the assembly elections. Much to his dismay, an imposter had voted in his name & he decided to seek legal assistance to stay the election results in his constituency. Interestingly, there is a provision in the Conduct of Election Rules under Rule 49P where a voter can cast a “tendered vote” & Sundar obtains the permission for the same from the judiciary. He subsequently sets in motion an awareness campaign about the rule which eventually results in the elections being annulled. This irks Masilamani (Pala Karuppiah), the CM & his brother, Malarvannan (Radha Ravi) who were corrupted to the core & had clung onto power taking advantage of the hapless citizens. The stage was set for an all-out showdown between Sundar & Masilamani, both of whom had vanquished their opponents with disdain in the past. So, who will have the last laugh???

AR Murugadoss is a name that needs no introduction as his craft over the years has earned him an honourable position in the industry. This was his third venture with Vijay after “Thuppakki” & “Kaththi”, both of which had garnered huge numbers at the box office. His latest effort, looked classy in the trailer but can’t quite say the same about the movie. Scripted by Murugadoss himself (not exactly, as writer Varun Rajendran had to be compensated & credited after he launched complaints that it was plagiarized from his story “Sengoi”), it kicks off in an engaging manner giving us ample awareness as to what Rule 49P is about. However, once that stage is over then it proceeds into the ‘tried & tested’ territory of one guy taking on the whole system. It morphs into a political podium for Thalapathy as he speaks about capitalism, Jallikattu, government freebies, fishermen issues etc. to name a few. 

Interestingly, there were quite a few subtle references to real life characters as well such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai/ GL CEO Sundar Ramaswamy, top lawyer Jethmalani & Varalaxmi's Komalavalli which happens to be Jayalalitha's real name. It was kinda evident that the makers have tried to show AIADMK in poor light and rather than the script taking the movie forward, it’s Vijay’s charisma they have heavily relied upon & he pulls it off impressively for most parts. Another major disappointment was AR Rahman’s music which was strictly average though his BGM was catchy. However, Girish Gangadharan’s visuals were praise worthy while the other technical aspects were kinda ok.

As mentioned earlier, the film depends entirely on Vijay’s histrionics & he manages to carry his suave style with elan. At the same time, he was extremely over dramatic in many sequences with exaggerated body language be it with his hand gestures, laughs & even dialogue delivery. Keerthy Suresh was barely given anything substantial to perform except make wide eyed expressions despite sharing the screen with Vijay in numerous scenes. Varalaxmi did her part well but the character required someone more impactful & it should also have been introduced much earlier. As for the rest of the cast, Yogi Babu was fine while Pala Karuppiah lacked consistency as his character oscillated from being evil to comical.

Verdict: It has all the elements that will make the fans go wild & that in turn should facilitate its way to being a huge hit. As a person who had really looked forward to the magic of the Vijay-Murugadoss duo, this movie came across as a disappointment as it started off with a bang before meandering itself into the oft witnessed storyline. In short, it’s a decent time pass if you watch it without expectations!!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Regards…Ben