Sarkar in a hotel room

Traveling a lot, I'm beginning to find, means going to sleep in different beds and at different times. One particularly disturbing feling is waking up in a hotel room and not knowing where -- what country, city, or room -- you are in. Its happened to me more than once.

Still, sometimes I have little problem with this, sleeping like a log wherever I happen to lay down. Other times, I toss and turn and experience insomnia. My first night in Hiroshima fit into category #2. As much as I tried, I just couldn't get to sleep.

Q: What do you do when you can't fall asleep in a Japanese hotel room?

A: You watch Sarkar, Ram Gopal Varma's Bollywood remake of The Godfather, on DVD.

For those who haven't seen it, the movie stars Amitabh as a Bal-Thakeray-esque self-acclaimed don who rules Mumbai behind the scenes, and Abhishek as his conflicted son. From a critic's point of view, the film was okay -- horrible writing, a mediocre adptation of an American film classic, sloppy in many places. But Amitabh wears a black dhoti, Abhishek reminds us why he's the guy that girls want and guys want to be like, and the film has a scene with pujaris shooting someone with guns hidden under the cloth that covers the offering plates. Enough said.



By the time I had finished the film it was already close to 2:00 am, and I was hardly any sleepier. But I did manage to take this picture of Amitabh on my screen:


Govinda. Govinda. Govinda.