Sarkar Raj

The sequel is chronologically set two years after the original film. Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), CEO of an international electrical power firm based in London, holds a meeting with Mike Rajan (Victor Banerjee), her father and boss and Hassan Qazi, as a seemingly shady adviser and facilitator; regarding an ambitious proposal to set up a multi-million dollar power plant in rural parts of the state of Maharashtra in India.Qazi states that this project will be impossible due to possible political entanglements. When Anita asks him for a solution, Qazi states that enlisting the support of Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) (commonly referred to by his title of Sarkar), who he describes as a criminal in the garb of a popular and influential political leader, might help their cause. The resulting socio-political drama forms the crux of the story.

The film mostly garnered a positive critical reception. Critic Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave the film four stars out of five and noted Besides its strong content, Sarkar Raj has been filmed exceptionally well with superb performances. Amitabh Bachchan, expectedly, comes up with a terrific performance. Hes as ferocious as a wounded tiger in the finale and takes the film to great heights. Abhishek Bachchan is cast opposite the finest actor of this country, yet he sparkles in every sequence.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is fabulous and delivers her career-best performance. Sify gave a two-star rating and said, The only reason you might want to catch this is the performance level and the relatively good ending. Amitabh Bachchan is dependably good. Abhishek holds his own, though with a more filled-out character, he could have taken it to another level. Aishwarya is superb in the emotional scenes, but again, is let down by the unforgivably simplistic character sketching.

Rediff which also gave a two-star rating noted This is a watchable. The Economic Times gave a three star rating out of five and said Sarkar Raj clearly gains major marks for its clever culmination, which was so much lacking from recent RGV products. The considerately and crisply penned dialogues by Prashant Pandey add a lot of insight to the scenes and depth to the characterizations. Anupama Chopra from NDTV stated What works here are the performances. The Bachchans-all three of them are in fine form.

Despite wonderful performances and nicely done dramatic moments, Sarkar Raj doesnt pack the visceral punch of Sarkar. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India rated the film with three and a half stars and applauded the lead performances saying This film carries the sequel forward without losing out on the gritty feel and retains the charisma of the central characters. Critic Nathan Southern of MSN gave four stars citing that Sarkar Raj thrives on its narrative cliffhangers, that the film never once fails to engage the audience; the premise and its characters are rock-solid, its dialogue convincing, and its suspense palpable. Varma and scriptwriter Prashant Pandey pack such unusual twists and double-crosses into the tale that even the most hardened and seasoned moviegoer will find the conclusion impossible to foresee.