A neat movie about the dirty politics of India (Rajneeti movie review)

“Katrina Kaif’ will win a national award for this film” – Prakash Jha. Can you imagine the expectations I would have had with her role after hearing that statement from such a sensible director? Well, after watching the movie I realized two things: If National Awards are given for such a weak performance, I will stop respecting them. Secondly, it was sensible of Prakash Jha to keep her role so limited (20 mins) as not to disappoint the audience.

Rajneeti is a tale of a family fighting for political powers. Two brothers Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) and Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) under the influence of their counsellor Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) do not support their cousin Veerenhdra’s (Manoj Bajpai) decisions and interference in their political party. Things go worse when a Dalit leader Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) joins Veerendra. Egos clash and what follows is an ugly war where lot of blood is shed and too many conspiracies are plotted. There is also Indu (Katrina Kaif) who loves Samar from childhod but is forced to marry Prithvi. Samar on other hand loves Sarah (Sara Thompson).

The story seems confusing initially with too many actors making the appearance on screen collectively, but as it progress the intent of the characters becomes obvious clearing out the confusions.

Thumbs up:

1. Intelligent plot – The dirty games of politics are woven in a neat tale and the thrill/twists/chases keep you gripped on your seat.

2. Amazing performances –

• Prakash Jha manages to get the best out of Ajay Devgan once again. He acts well, looks cool and makes you fall in love with his character. Very impressive!
• Manoj Bajpai has done a brilliant come back. We would like to see him more onscreen if he performs like this.
• Nana Patekar – When too many games are being played, there is one mind which controls all the moves but stays in the backdrop not to grab a lot of attention. Nana plays that role with such finesse that you feel no one else but only he could have done justice to it.
• Arjun Rampal has changed as an actor, for better of course. Though he still leaves some scope giving you the impression there is still more he could have done to do full justice with his role.
• Ranbir, what to say of this boy who has created another benchmark for himself in the industry. He not only looks good in the movie but totally electrifies with his performance. A good guy gone bad, but you still feel no hatred for him.
• Sarah Thompson – The American actor scores high marks for her first-class acting and performs her small role with elan.

3. Subtle direction – After directing prudent movies like Gangajal and Aparhan, Prakash Jha had already created hype for this movie, not only because of his past movies, but also because of the star-cast. I must say he lives up to the hype and manages to fit each star in their roles wisely, except Katrina and Nasserudin. He is also careful not to make the movie look like a circus full of stars.

Thumbs down:

1. Length: It’s a 3 hours long movie, and after two and a half hours, you do feel the movie is unnecessarily dragged. 30 minutes could have easily been edited.

2. Katrina Kaif: The girl has still not got her dialogue delivery right. She is totally uncool and does no justice to her character of a widow. 6 years in the industry and you can only pull off roles akin to Jenny’s? Not done, miss.

3. Nasserudin Shah: Such fine actor and such a miniscule role? Was Naseerudhin really required to do that role? We were left longing to see more of him in the movie. An actor of such caliber can easily pass on roles like these.

There is nothing to talk about music, as all the songs had been edited, keeping in mind the length of the movie. More Piya is a decent track though and I would have loved to see it on screen.

Though the movie has been compared to Mahabharata, I couldn’t help but put it side by side to Godfather (mind you, not Sarkar) In fact, there are few scenes which are a straight lift. While Godfather is beyond brilliance, Rajneeti doesn’t leave you disappointed either. This one is the paisa vasool!

Rating: 3.5/5

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