Review by pshyams-59489

This is a 2010 release from Ram Gopal Varma (RGV). After being premiered at the Toronto film festival it gat a normal release in India in January. Commercially it did not make waves and got a rather quiet burial having grossed only Rs 12 Crores. A deeper look at the plot of the film and its treatment will perhaps throw some light into the reasons thereof. Rann deals with the often talked about theme of the politician media nexus. We have Ashok Malik, the upright owner of the struggling news channel India 24X7 who holds all the tenets of an ethical media close to his heart. His US educated son Jai returns and in true dynastic tradition moves in to inherit the doting father's business. His bête noire is the owner of the rival channel run by Amrish Kakkar, himself an ex-employee of India 24X7. In his ambition to turn around his channel and win the race to be number one, Jai sells his soul to the devil - Mohan Pandey the ruthless politician who will stop at nothing to achieve his ambition of becoming the Prime Minister. In this mission Jai is egged on by his businessman brother in law Naveen. The twists and turns show the dirty tricks politicians indulge in, fake news and even created news being reported by the media, emotional manipulation of a doting father by his ambitious son, and the final denouement through an expose by a greenhorn reporter, Purab. The casting is superb - we need not say anything about the acting prowess of the established stars Amitabh Bachhan (Ashok Malik), Paresh Rawal (Mohan Pandey), and Rajpal Yadav (who does a cameo as a TV anchor with a flair for dramatics). They live their roles with effortless ease. The ladies in the film are there purely for decorative purposes - including an accomplished actress like Gul Panag who looks pretty, dimples and all. The surprise packages are Mohnish Behl who is very convincing as the ruthless rival media baron and Sudeep who effectively portrays the mental trauma of the ambitious but morally ambivalent Jai. It unfortunate that a talented actor like Mohnish has had so few opportunities to exhibit his talent. Riteish Deshmukh as the young idealist who sees Ashok Malik as a role model brings the right balance of eagerness and disillusionment to his role of Purab. However, the director does go overboard by caricaturing him as a sweater wearing and motorbike riding common man's reporter; his stylish flat gives the lie to his 'modest' pretentions! Also the scenes of his tailing Jai in full view of his rear view mirror are rather amateurish. Having said that, one should take nothing away from the tight editing which keeps you interested right through the 137 minutes of the movie. Rann is right down the alley of RGVs iconoclastic movies questioning and even perhaps subtly justifying today's politician's morals - which would perhaps put even alley cats to shame. While talk of paid media, fake news and media politician nexus is passé in today's context, when we consider that this movie was released in early 2010, it is eerily prescient. It is so easy to relate to the events of today and even believe that the riots, scams and exposes, and the empty rhetoric of voluble politicians which we hear of on a daily basis are the paid handiwork of one party of the other - there are no saints in the business of politics - ably aided and abetted by a self-seeking and greedy media. No surprises here that this movie would not have found too many friends among the political class or the media houses who very often 'create' the success or failure of movies. I would go with three and a half stars out of five for this wakeup call from RGV.