Sarkar And the Fine Art of Spin

"Sarkar," as movies go, is impressive. Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan in a Godfather-inspired tribute by Ram Gopal Varma does make your Sunday.
From the media point of view, however, some tricky issues remain.
We had newspapers reporting about a special screening for Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, apparently to convince him that he was not the "Sarkar" as some might have thought. Subsequently, Shiv Sena's notorious cadres had no problems with the movie, which was running to full houses on the last count.
But we are tempted to examine closely the obligatory line with which Varma starts the work: that its characters bear no resemblence to real persons, living or dead (as they say).

Really?
Amitabh is in black robes, but the long-kurta and the lungi are in classic Thackeray style, though the colour is not saffron. The Rudraksh beads on his hand, and the middle-class Maharashtrian backrop of women and children complete the picture.And that does clearly bear a resemblence to the leader hated by his critics as a champion of anti-minority vilence.
And the "sarkar" don has two sons, one estranged and one dear. Sounds familiar?
So where is the catch?
As we see, "Sarkar" is a good man, even if he breaks a law or two, not to speak of legs and heads.
He helps the poor, fights the goons, and unlike your New York mafiosi, does not seem to have a passion for gambling dens or babes...but his married son tries to seduce a starlet.
Subliminal impressions conveyed by this film to Bal Thackeray's famous followers, would, of course, be positive.
In the old age of hypocrisy, vice was packaged as virtue.
In the new era of spin, it seems, virtue is packaged as vice.