Raajneeti - Politics and more....

Rating - 3.5/5

With a star-studded cast including the likes of Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai etc. and a fine story-teller in Prakash Jha, Raajneeti was undoubtedly one of the most awaited movies of the year. As the title suggests, the film is about politics, and the sacrifices and immorality that supposedly go with it. Through his tale of treachery and deceit within a family that has been in power in the unnamed state for years together, Jha portrays the ugly face of Indian politics and leaves you with one simple message: Politics is a dirty game, and reality bites!

The movie revolves around 3 brothers - Virendra (Bajpai), Prithvi (Rampal) and Samar (Ranbir) whose father, after suffering a heart attack, hands over his post of President of the Rashtravadi Party to his brother. Confused?? Well, one spends the first 15 minutes of the movie simply trying to catch up with who exactly each character is, as they are all hastily introduced in the narrative. While Virendra and Prithvi are well-established in the political scene, Samar, who's about to complete his Ph.D in "(something) (something) (something) in Victorian poetry", returns from the U.S and soon gets embroiled in his murky family affairs. As the movie progresses, the inferences to the Mahabharata and the Hollywood masterpiece The Godfather become evident. Virendra plays the quintessential Duryodhana and believes he is the rightful heir to his father's throne in the Party. Assisted by Dalit leader Sooraj Kumar (Devgn), he manages to grab control of the Party, and we now have two rival factions - one headed by Virendra, and one by Prithvi. Virendra grossly under-estimates the shrewd and cunning Samar, who leaves his life and the girl he loves in the U.S behind and stands by his brother Prithvi. Somehow, he goes from a Literature student-about-to-turn-teacher to a scheming, sly aide to Prithvi. What follows is a political bloodbath on the election trail, as each faction tries to outdo the other to grab the highest seat of power in the State. Mayhem ensues, as the battle becomes personal and vengeance takes centre-stage. Relationships are compromised in the greater interest of politics, money and power. Eventually, as the dust settles after 3 hours, one wonders - was there a "hero" at all in this movie?

The movie works - through its story and its performances. Though, I must admit I was very disappointed with Ranbir Kapoor. The more I saw him in this movie, the more I was reminded of Abhishek Bachchan in Sarkar - expressionless, emotionless and monotonous. For example, even as the people dearest to him are dying, he looks confused rather than distraught. His character is pretty obviously built based on a combination of Arjuna from Mahabharata and Michael Coreleone from The Godfather. While I'm sure many people will go on to rave about his acting, I feel this was the dullest and most disappointing performance of his career so far. By far, the stand-out actor in this movie has to be Arjun Rampal. After Rock On, big things were expected of him, and he finally delivers a stellar performance again. He plays the role of the young, hot-headed politician with ease. Manoj Bajpai has the "more-negative" role in this movie, and he does complete justice to his selection for the role. Nana Patekar plays the Krishna-like Brij Gopal, who pulls the strings in the background and allows the brothers to bathe in the limelight of the political scene. The veteran rarely disappoints in such movies, and he does not here either. Katrina Kaif clearly shows that she has worked on her Hindi tremendously. As Indu, the daughter of a rich industrialist who is later forced to join politics ala a certain Mrs. G, Katrina shows that she ain't just hot - she's one of the better actresses in our film industry today as well, displaying all the requisite emotions with grace. Rest of the cast performs extremely well too. Songs are thankfully interspersed in the background in certain scenes, or else the already lengthy movie would've been unbearably long!

Now, coming to what I did not like about the movie - the message it conveys. Raajneeti clearly shows Indian politics to be a corrupt, murky, dirty and treacherous affair with people involved in betrayal, backstabbing and would go as far as murder to grab power. While this may be the ugly truth to an extent, I do not feel it needs to be shown so blatantly. Today, Indian politics is in a period of transition, with young leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, Sachin Pilot etc. stepping up to galvanize the Indian youth and try and get them to join politics and attempt to clean up the system. In such a scenario, a movie like Raajneeti will only serve to discourage people from joining political parties. Prakash Jha could easily have put a more positive spin on this movie by focussing more on Indu's eventual rise as a leader, or Sooraj's role as a Dalit leader, instead of the family feud and all the bloodshed. All in all, Raajneeti is indeed a powerful movie with a compelling story, but unlike the Rang De Basantis and the Taare Zameen Pars we have encountered in the past, you do not leave the cinema hall with a message you would wanna take home and be inspired by.