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!!

Raavanan (Tamil)-Music Review-A.R.Rahman

As promised earlier, here is a quick look at the Thamizh counterpart of Manirathnam's Raavan, Raavanan.

Its always tricky to score music for multilingual flicks (without considering dubbing here) especially if the balance has to be struck between a North Indian language and a South Indian language. If the tunes are composed keeping in mind, say, the film in Hindi, it may end up sounding alien to a South Indian listener.

1. Veera suffers from the aforementioned. It sounded much better in the Hindi soundtrack.

2. 'Behne De' is 'Usure Poguthey". Its a double whammy for Karthik as he handles the song brilliantly in both versions. Vairamuthu's lyrics are good. "Indha olagatthil idhu onnum pudhusilla, Onnu rendu thappi poghum ozhukkathula, Vidhi solli vazhi pottaan manusapulla, vidhivilakkillaadha vidhiyum illa". Nice!

3. Kodu Potta sounded better in Thamizh than the Hindi 'Thok do Khilli'. A rebellious song with words like "சோத்துல பங்கு கேட்டா, எலையப் போடு! சொத்துல பங்கு கேட்டா, தலையப் போடு!", still gives me a heard before feel.

4. Shankar Mahadevan and Anuradha Sriram sing Kaattu Chirukki (Ranjha Ranjha). Anuradha is irritatingly shrill at places. I still don't like it much.

5. KaLvare KaLvare (Khili re)sung by Shreya Ghosal is mellifluous and still my pick of this album with typical Rahman style arrangements. Shreya continues with her rollicking form in Thamizh with another surefire hit here.

6. Kedaakkari: I found it quite cacophonic even when I heard it in Hindi. This one obviously cannot be any better. The lyrics are also quite mundane.

Overall, though ARR has managed to balance most of the tracks between Hindi and Thamizh decently, as I mentioned in my Hindi Review, the album itself is, personally, quite a let down (especially after VTV) from whatever the Mani-ARR combo have offered before (I am not even talking about the music in Mani's films before ARR stepped in).

Raavan-Music Review

The most awaited album of the year is here. Raavan (Hindi) by A.R.Rahman, for his mentor Mani Rathnam. The Thamizh audio is yet to reach stores. I will take it up separately.

(I personally am quite excited about the movie for one reason. Actor Karthik is back with Mani Rathnam and I am curious to see how the master director has used him this time. They have come together twice before this. Once in Agni Natchathiram and before that in the probably the role of Karthik's career, in Mouna Ragam)

Now on to the music.

The album released on T-Series has six tracks.

1. Beera: The song is already catching up, thanks to the 40 sec teaser on air. The song begins with arrangements and rhythms that sound very african. Quite catchy and rendered well by Vijay Prakash and Mustafa Kutoane, its short by bollywood standards at 3.15 and ends ubruptly I thought. I am sure we are gonna listen to this a lot in the days to come.

2. Behene De: Sung by Karthik (not the actor), this song reminds one of a lot of ARR's past works, from Satrangi Re of Dil Se to Ni Main Samajh Gayi from Taal. Karthik does a good job. One for the charts this. Good listen despite the familiar tune.

3. Thok Di Killi: Have he heard something similar recently? Jai Ho? May be I am wrong. But quite a let down this one. Gulzar's lyrics are the only strong point of this racy number("Sadiyon se chalta aaya hai, Oonch neech ka lamba kissa, Ab ki baar hisaab chukaale, cheen ke le le apna hissa"). Sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Am'nico.

4. Ranjha Ranjha: Sung by Javed Ali and Rekha Bharadwaj (with additional vocals by Anuradha Sriram), this track begins well but meanders a lot towards the end and makes you feel may be its a tad too long (close to 6 mins). Again nothing really fresh about this song. Picturization save this.

5. Khili Re: Now, this song by Reena Bhardwaj (remember Baba.. Kichu Kichu Thaa?) is my pick of the album. A easy flowing track which is lilting all through. Simple arrangements (watch out for the melting flute, so reminiscent of ARR) and nice lyrics are the highlights of this one. Reena is brilliant.

6. Kata Kata: This song celebrates the "aakhri raat kunwara". Sung by Sapna Awasthi, Ila Arun and Kunal Ganjawala this again has nothing new to offer. Especially the rendering of "Kanya Ko Bulao" is quite irritating. Quite a placid track.

I would rate this right at the bottom of all his work for Mani Rathnam. I have heard people say that ARR's work catches up after a few listens (I personally do not agree. I liked everything about Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya right away, on first listen). If at all this sounds any better in the days to come (after the tamil audio also comes out) I will not hesitate to say so. But as of now I am not quite excited about the album except for Khili re.