12 June 2010

Raajneeti-Movie Review

Any average Indian (Aam aadmi?!) is quite familiar with 2 stories.

One, a story of good and evil, in which cousins vied for power and the evil cousin invited the other party to a game of dice.Familiar? Then there was this adopted son of a charioteer who was the friend of the evil cousin and will stand by him at any cost, even if the opponents were his own siblings.

And then, there is another story of a powerful political family, the charismatic leader of which is assasinated in a blast and his foreigner wife takes over the party reins and powered by a overwhelming wave of sympathy steers the party to a landslide win.

You can also add a touch of Godfather if you want!

Now, when you take these 2 (or more) stories and its characters, fuse them in a political wrap, swap the chariot for a car, exchange bow and arrow for kabaddi, trim the number of siblings, turn the political leader to a son and the wife to a bhabhi (without sacrificing the foreigner girlfriend angle), throw in some cinematic moments (like the mom pleading to the long lost son to come back home to be with her and ditch the friend), a few kisses here and there and a climax befitting a gangster film, what you get is Raajneethi!

Wow! Sounds straight out of a 'Crazy Mohan-written-Priyadarshan-directed' script isn't it?!

Yeah! But the difference is, this movie is not intended to be a comedy and for the most part Prakash Jha's intentions come across pretty well.

Raajneethi begins decently well and the first hour of the movie is its most engaging. Prakash Jha's characters are easily identifiable for the aforementioned '2 story' reasons, which in itself is both a boon and a flaw. A boon coz it helps further the story without much ado and a flaw coz at the most critical junctures it ends up giving away the plot and the supposed-to-be twist in the script.

The films script goes haywire after the first hour and one gets the feeling, the director in an attempt to strike a balance between commercial and critical acclaim, ends up throwing in way too many complications in the characters and (the already known) plot, they in turn result in some real slack moments. The romantic angle between the lead couple is another weak link.

Especially the second half, towards the end, is riddled with some seriously funny scenes (unintentional ofcourse!). Take for instance the scene (and the ones that follow) where the uncle and mentor (Nana Patekar) gets to know Suraj's (Ajay Devgn) past when he is about to settle scores with him. Ridiculous!

The aforementioned 'mom-meeting-long abandoned son' scene reminds one of a similar scene in Mani Rathnam's cult Tamil classic, "Dalapathi (dubbed Dal-pati in Hindi) and one wonders how brilliantly the same scene (featuring Amrish Puri and Rajnikanth) was handled by Mani. You even get to see the uncle (Nana Patekar) driving the car, when the nephew (Ranbir Kapoor) is out to get rid of his evil cousins and mouth a new version of Gita.

But, this film has its moments. The altercation Arjun Rampal has with the police, the scene where Virendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpayee) inducts Suraj into the party, the blast scene and a few more. But what stays with you long after the movie ends, are the ones that take the sheen away from what could otherwise have been a riveting drama.

Coming to the other aspects of the film, credit should be given for the way this ensemble cast has been handled. Each actor has a well defined role. Ranbir Kapoor is brilliant as Samar.Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee and Ajay Devgn are good. Katrina Kaif is decent and her screen prescence takes care of her lack of expression at times. And yes, there is Naseeruddin Shah also and I dunno for what!

Cinematography is brilliant, specially because of the large crowds involved in almost every scene. The background score by Wayne Sharpe suits the mood of the movie.

Overall, it is a decent watch, just for the heightened political drama it is soaked in and some good performances.It seems a little better than the other films showcased over the last few months.But do not have high expectations.

As usual, this Raajneeti too, leaves a lot to be desired!!

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