Sarkar

Sarkar (2005)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432047/]

The Gist:
I have a time tested rant about film adaptations and the fact that you must deviate from the original source and continue the process of creating new moments or else the story will stagnate. Well Sarkar does so and does so well and it still kind of sucks (not the most academic term I know). Anyway, you know you might be in trouble when you watch an Indian "remake" of Godfather produced through Bollywood but sans all the dancing and singing (because this is a serious film). Note that if there was bollywood singing and dancing this movie could have been awesome in a really weird and strange way. As it is, it almost seems good until you realize it isn't. Why? Part of it is how pervasive the Hollywood style of filmmaking is with this film, the camera is constantly moving, they're trying interesting little compositions, they have a quicker pace of editing. And yet the camera seems to move and frame its subjects without motivation save perhaps that of looking cool. In fact, the whole film felt like it was posturing for stylized greatness, it was indulgent and tried to move so quickly that plot holes plagued every other scene. Also, the film as a whole seemed to be joined together in a clumsy and crass fashion. It just wasn't very good, but the ending re-envisioning of the revenge crescendo of Godfather was still kind of cool.