Raajneeti

Welcome back to the world of Hindi cinema, where movies have a huge star cast, are 3 hour longs and actually have a good story line. Raajneeti is a good mix of modern-day Mahabharata and The Godfather, which turns out to be a pretty deadly combination. Its about a political family which has just lost its leader in the midst of the upcoming election. This in turn sets his family at war as the leader chooses his brother and his son Prithviraj Pratap(Arjun Rampal) as his heirs, rather than his own son Veerendra Pratap(Manoj Bajpai). This angers Veerendra Pratap and he decides to take matter into his own hand. To help him out in this scenario is the Dalit leader form the village Sooraj Kumar(Ajay Devgn). So begins the saga of murder, vengeance and the want to gain political power by any means. In this process gets stuck Samar Pratap(Ranbir Kapoor) who had just come for a leisurely visit to India from New York to attend his uncles birthday. Turning down a teaching job in New York he instead stays back in India to help out is family. In him we see shades of Michael Corleone as a young leader who at first was hesitant to join the dirty family business but reluctantly has become a major part of it, and has started taking all the major decisions. There's also the lovely and innocent India Pratap(Katrina Kaif), his childhood friend who gradually begins to see what kind of a person Samar has become. And to help Samar there's Brij Gopal(Nana Patekar), his mother's brother. He is the all wise, all knowing Mama who can be sweet and mean all at the same time.

This film in the beginning can get a little confusing to its viewers as there are way too many characters who are introduced, and who actually play an important part throughout the film. But as the movie progress the confusion diminishes and you start seeing the clear picture and you probably start taking sides. There is no pure good or evil here, everything's in a shade of Grey, like they all believe that the means justify the end. You take Ajay Devgn who is a local village fellow, a Dalit leader, in the beginning he seems all nice and right, but politics as we know it is not a nice guys game, at least in India. Ranbir turns from the innocent American student to a smart schemer who'll do anything to protect his brother. He even fakes it with his American girlfriend Sara(Sarah Jean Collins) when she decides to give him a surprise visit to India. Be it true or not but this movie shows you a pretty interesting insight of politics in India. Its a brother kill brother world out there.

Acting wise everyone has done a good job I must say but special credit goes to Ranbir Kapoor who has shown that he can actually act in films other than romantic comedies in which he plays a chocolate boy lover trying to woo a girl standing in the balcony. Nana Patekar is not his usual self hurling abuses and shouting dialogues at the top of his voice, he is a smiling, silent planner who is very subtle throughout the film and acts only when necessary. Ajay Devgn is also in the background throughout the film, which is very unlike Prakash Jha as we have seen in his previous films like Apharan and Gangajal. But it is nicely done on his part. Katrina Kaif has probably taken acting lessons and is very sober in this film, and looks amazing as always. Arjun Rampal in my opinion has 'acted' for the very first time and by the end of the movie you feel satisfied that he didn't ruin it by his dead, expressionless face. Manoj Bajpai has a typical role, so no surprises there.

Go watch this movie if you want to see a wholesome Hindi film with substance. Its got your abuses, gruesome action scenes, a couple of lovemaking scenes put in here and there, a few songs in the background, nasty cops, hot Indian summer, everything that you need to enjoy your 3 hours in an air conditioned theatre! 7/10

Mahabharat returns in Prakash Jha's 'Raajneeti'. This one is a Masterstroke! Jha makes a film about politics, it's players and it's history.

What works the most for 'Raajneeti' is it's inspiration. Jha and Anjum Rajabali's screenplay is water-tight, the first hour, especially, is fantastic. It's a winner, because it's a drama that creates an impact of it's own. Jha's direction is superb, and performances are award-worthy. Despite, a running time of over 2 Hours and 30 Minutes, this film is a must watch!

Jha and Rajabali's screenplay is water-tight, Jha's direction is superb. The Performances: Manoj Bajpayee is fantastic. He is sure to take away all the awards in the Supporting Actor category next year. Nana Patekar is, as always, flawless. Ranbir Kapoor is wonderfully restrained. Ajay is good, but he deserved more scope. Arjun Rampal is superb. Naseeruddin Shah in a cameo, is effective. Katrina speaks Hindi, and does a fair job. Nikhila Trikha is excellent. Shruti Seth is good. Others are perfect. The Camera-Work is killer.

'Raajneeti' is not to be missed. 2010 brings it's first power-packed venture! Two Thumbs Up!

First of all let me clear it out, I personally hate politics and am a novice in it but after watching this movie I concluded few things:

1) All politicians are murderers.

2) People switch their present or future life partners with others in order to gain votes or money to gain votes.

3) Police is just like dice for politicians. They throw and spin them against each other for their own benefits.

4) There is no term like family or sibling in politics. Anyone can turn against anyone or may be kill each other just for greed of votes.

5) Public is a complete moron; people vote for that person who gives them a cunning speech and not to that person who genuinely wants good for them.

6) There are no human beings in politics, just a bunch of 'escaped-from-hell' devils fighting against each other to attain powers not for using for benefit of public but for personal greediness.

I am not sure whether the things I concluded are correct but you will sense trueness in them once you watch this movie. Prakash Jha( Mrityudand, GangaJal and Apaharan), famous for making movies on serious topics and getting success for every film, fails this time. All his previous movies worked because he stuck to the main story till the end and the lead actor did justice with his role. But, in Raajneeti he did a different thing, he assembled a huge star cast with every actor having a potential of pulling of any movie well and a strong topic: politics, which was great but he didn't give preference to MAIN story this time which went wrong.

Raajneeti is supposedly based on the epic Mahabharata in which brothers went for a long brutal war against each other because of their personal differences. Thus, with so many characters in the movie it was impossible for any director to present two stories simultaneously: Politics and a family war. Prakash Jha had so much scope of showing the inside story of the dirty politics going on in the country, people would have been satisfied with that but we all know there very few politicians who come from the same family or may be there is no one. So, instead of showing the movie on politics Prakash Jha ended up making a movie in which a group of brothers play conspiracies against each other to become the group leader.

I am not indicating that Raajneeti was a complete failure. It made huge impacts many times. The positives were fine performances by the actors. Ranbir Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai, Katrina Kaif and Arjun Rampal deserve special accolades for their performances. Naseeruddin Shah had nothing to do in the movie. Ajay Devgn too had little scope in comparison to others but he did his job well. Nana Patekar was OK. Sarah Thomson was good.

As I told storyline would have been much better if Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali stuck only to the politics. Music by Wayne Sharpe went unnoticed except for the song Mora Piya which was played a few times in the background. Editing was poor, the movie could easily have been cut short by thirty minutes which didn't happen the movie so gave the audiences many chances of yawning and checking their watches.

To conclude I would say the difference lies in Prakash Jha's earlier successful movies and Raajneeti is that the previous movies were made with an intention of presenting the audiences with reality and Raajneeti was only made with intention of scoring big at the box office. The film had so many brilliant actors that Prakash Jha didn't do full justice with everyone, he wanted to include everything in his movie: romance, suspense, and some scenes which were completely unexpected and unwanted.

I know you will watch this film, so there is no point of saying anything on this but yeah this film has its moments which will remind you of old Prakash Jha. That's why I say he didn't go for politics, he went for polymorphism!

My Rating: 6/10

Thanks & Regards

I watched this movie last night. it was not planned but somehow i just went as some of my friends are big Prakash Jha fan. the movie started with some promise and it looked OK to me and my friends were more than happy the way it turned out. BUT i had my fears as it was turning out to be pretty much like godfather and the moment ranbir kapoor is slapped by the policemen that was the moment i was completely put off - HOW many times we see the same things. it was with sarkar too. abhisek bachchan in sarkar and ranbir kappor in rajneeti is all the same to me - trying to do a Al pacino. If that was not enough they brought in complete Mahabharata which was still good.

over all the movie is good, better than other releases but what was the point of bringing in Mahabharata and godfather in it. it could have been lot better in its own way but it didn't.

To say that the film has influence from Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather is not without merit. After all, it has references such as the bloody bed scene (without involving a horse head), deaths of similar characters, and of course, the story of the rise of the youngest, most promising child of the household, here played by Ranbir Kapoor, into the bitter orchestrator of his political party's campaign for the Chief Ministership, complete with an overpowering vendetta of revenge and honour. Ranbir's Samar Pratap role is perhaps the juiciest of the lot here, given his transformation into someone cold and calculated, who will not hesitate to give up his emotions in order to manipulate others into doing his bidding, all moves played out like a chess game in order to advance his cause.

And the other persona in the film given a transformation at that level, is Katrina Kaif's Indu, an impetuous girl deeply in love with Samar, who also has to give up feelings more as a matter of instruction by her industrialist father, who sees donations to political campaigns and marriages as a sealing of alliances for favours and benefits, highlighting the clout that campaign donators wield over the politicians they support. Katrina's role is something you'll notice right away, as she disappears into a mature woman taking on seasoned politicians riding on her wave of sympathy, and in a way resembles through her demeanour, very much like Sonia Gandhi. A pity though that this interesting turn only takes place in the last act, having to disappear very much in the middle of the film.

Which is probably why it was reported that one of the stars felt disappointed with the film being billed as a Kapoor-Kaif starrer, with posters having these the two characters taking centerstage. But who can blame the marketers, as they had starred in the highly successful and popular Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani in 2009, and most certainly the filmmakers will want to tap on that same crowd to come into and experience a thematically heavier film. What more, these are the two characters that experience change, much unlike the others who play seasoned politicians who are entrenched into the way they work and operate, leaving room for schemes to enter through the blind side, in a game of threats and counterthreats that you can easily see looming, to gain the upper hand leading to ballots being cast.

Prakash Jha crafts a web of character relationships that you'll need to mind-map as the film moves along, introducing key characters and influencers in this family dynasty politics, where the early generation of alliance between brothers, break out into a power struggle for party leadership amongst the next generation between cousins. It's very much dirty business, and Jha, a one time politician, provides plenty for the audience as he goes into sub plots and elements involving corruption across ranks, the ineptness of the police force, tactics in getting mass support, and how through the greasing of the right palms, one gets ballots by the village-load. And if all else fails, there's always the nod toward the enforcer type to flex some muscles, and political assassinations too fall into fair play. It's an extremely dirty business, and it's somehow a sneak peek into how Indian politics get played.

The ensemble cast shouldn't be overlooked as well, with Arjun Rampal's Prithviraj the hot- headed brother of Samar who on one hand is being propelled to lead his breakaway party and yet having a character that's less than noble, and Manoj Bajpai is excellent as Veerendra Pratap who's constantly finding himself not in the driver's seat of events, and have to rely on heavy muscle to keep the competition away. The villains here seem more sympathetic as they cannot find viable solutions to their predicament, and have to boil everything down to violence. Nana Patekar's Brij Gopal also shined as the unfailing mentor who has experience to count on in his repertoire of tricks up his sleeve, and has a key role to play in the falling out of the established dynasty.

I suppose a film like this cannot possibly be made here until our state of industry and politics mature to a stage where filmmakers can tell a story without the innate fear of harassment, though Jha did get requests by the censors to tone down some scenes and change some dialogues, which was complied with. The film turned out as an average epic much to my disappointment as I expected a lot, but it did have moments which stood out from the usual cookie cutter. It's not great, but it did enough to share a glimpse into the shady world of politics and the less than angelic politicians who struggle with each other for the vote of the populace.