Raajneeti

Director: Prakash Jha
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Ajay Devgn, Manoj Bajpai, Nana Patekar, Naseerudin Shah.

Prakash Jha, the only filmmaker to give the insight view of Indian Politics has hit the punch again. If the Indian myth epic "Mahabharata" has to happen again, Prakash Jha has shown the right way. The movie takes a complete cult of Mahabharata and Godfather, but keeps up its originality with its most perfect actors and dialogues.



The screenplay begins with the character of Bharti(played by Nikhila Trikha, and Kunti like figure from Mahabharata) who holds the flag of Rashtrawadi Party and follows Bhaskar Sanyal(the founder of the party, played by Naseerudin Shah), against her father Ramnath Rai's (Darshan Jariwala) party, the B.P.P. Bharti disobeys her religious belief with Bhaskar Sanyal(Surya Deva of the epic) and gives birth to a son like Karan of the epic(who later turns out to Ajay Devgn) to whom her brother, Brij Gopal(Nana Patekar) strays in the Ghats of Ganga. Naseerudin Shah, here leaves the screenplay. Bharti is then married to Chandra Pratap Singh(Chetan Pandit) to form an alliance between B.P.P. and Rashtrawadi.

The Rashtrawadi clan boasts of C.P. Singh, his elder brother Bhanu Pratap Singh(Bhishm Pitamah) and their sons Prithvi Pratap Singh( Bheem, played by Arjun Rampal) and Virendra Pratap Singh(Duryodhan,played by Manoj Bajpai) and the "Mama" (Krishna,played by Nana Patekar). The other son of C.P. Singh,Samar Pratap Singh(Arjun of the epic,Ranbir Kapoor) stays out of this in U.S. Sooraj(Ajay Devgn) was adopted by a Dalit Ram Charitar(Dayashankar Pandey) who works as a driver for Samar. Sooraj was elected as a Dalit representative by Viren, who wants the position of his uncle which was appointed by his father on being paralyzed. Then starts within-the-house dirty politics games which separates Viren and Sooraj to fight against all in their way to kill C.P. Singh.

This incident brought Samar to jump in the quicksand. Samar turns all the odds in his favour with his mastermind weapon. His revenge turns to a battle between the two parties Rashtrawadi and the Jan-Shakti(formed by Samar, Prithvi and Mama, with Prithvi as successor). Ranbir's performance all through the action was a masterpiece. Nana Patekar did a perfect justice to the character. Arjun Rampal was at his best in this ultimate new. Manoj Bajpai's anger could be felt off the screen. Ajay Devgn too did his perfect job.

Then happens another marriage alliance between Indu(Katrina Kaif) and Prithvi. Indu, dauther of a millionaire, loves Samar but compromises for the political game. Samar's girlfriend Sarah pays a visit to him in India to find him doing something fishy. All through these had unwanted romance scenes which was filled just within minutes of screenplay to make it awful. Katrina Kaif was just convincing in her role.

The battle continues which throws Prithvi and Sarah to death. Samar's aggression for revenge soars up and the movie takes the Mahabharata pathway. Nana's Lord Krishna like figure comes up here where he control the battle from the backroom. More like Mahabharata, Mama(Krishna) was the first one to know Sooraj(Karan) is the son of Bharti(Kunti.)Jan-Shakti wins the election and Indu takes the Chief Minister's throne.

The movie more of Mahabharata gives a complete "Raajneeti" view. The screenplay was adjusted to the level of perfection with its originality with some loopholes like unnecessary romance and pub scenes and not-so-perfect execution of too many characters. You may miss few characters off the screenplay midway for moments. The climax lost all the thrill and made a chilled atmosphere. Justified cinematography techniques, gripping dialogues, thrilling moves, excellent performances made the movie a worth watch and deserving high stars which makes it a special Bollywood flick.

Don't miss this!!!

Rating: * * * 1/2