RAAJNEETI
A studiously sincere drama with a convincing cast but somehow lacks the involving sweep.
by Vishal Verma

A UTV Motion Pictures release(2100 screens worldwide) of a Walk Water Media and UTV Motion Pictures presentation of a Prakash Jha production.

Producer: Prakash Jha and Ronnie Screwvala
Writers: Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali
Director: Prakash Jha
Genre: Drama- Action
Target Audience: General







Starring

Nana Patekar...... Brij Gopal
Ajay Devgn...... Sooraj Kumar
Ranbir Kapoor...... Samar Pratap
Katrina Kaif...... Indu Pratap
Manoj Bajpai...... Veerendra Pratap
Arjun Rampal...... Prithviraj Pratap
Naseruddin Shah...... Bhaskar Sanyal
Sarah Thompson Kane...... Sarah Jean Collins
Darshan Jariwala…………….Senior leader
Shruti Seth…………………. Youth leader 
Kiran Karmarkar……………………Superintendent of police 
Daya Shanker Pandey
Shereveer Vakil
Vinay Apte
Nikhila Tirkha...... Samar Pratap's Mother



Technical Analysis

With all the hype and two bollywood hotties Ranbir and Katrina on board, ‘Raajneeti’ on paper appears as ‘ an offer nobody could have refused’….hmmmm sounds like the ultimate drama classic ‘The Godfather’. From the late Feroz Khan to RGV, many are fascinated by this marvelous masterpiece and the latest addition to ‘The Godfather fanatic club’ is our desi political yarner Mr. Prakash Jha who mixes the elements of the greatest epic in the world the ‘Mahabharata’ with the a mighty superior on screen drama ‘The God Father’ and gives us a studiously sincere film in which the human drama increasingly gets lost in the political twist and turns though its lead by a convincing cast where Ranbir Kapoor holds the key and it lacks the involving sweep of Jha’s previous political yarns like ‘ Apaharan’ (2005) and ‘Gangaajal’ (2003).

The movie has an impressive intensity to the opening reels with occasional assist from its music score and the picture moves forward even while the viewer is still trying to work out the exact relationships between the main characters.

After the exit of Nasser who is for tow scenes, the introduction of Arjun and Ajay along with Manoj Bajpai, enters Ranbir and within a short span of time this political drama takes a gangster mode.

Completely fictional with very loose resemblance to characters from Mahabharata like Ajay is Karna, Manoj Bajpai Duryodhan, Nana as Lord Krishna and Nikhila Tirkha as Kunti, the absorbing first half suddenly post interval moves away from contempo parallels and starts to take on the gangster lane. With conspiracy and everything happening for state elections, issues are sidelined and personal enmity and rivalry takes over where the characters are fighting to settle their personal scores… how will the audience draw any identifications?. The climax is ridiculous where the script writers allowing the main characters who are shown as smart, cunning politicians taking guns to settle scores.

Jha paints ‘Raajneeti’ on a much bigger canvas then his previous films and assembles a mammoth cast and that’s really commendable but the characters get lost in the plot-heavy predictable script.

The movie has some great pluses. First of all each and every performance is noteworthy but Ranbir Kapoor holds the screen excellently and is destined to go places, he is well supported by Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgan who always has something special for Jha and of course Arjun Rampal who is very effective indeed and is a welcome surprise. Nana adds maturity to his role Katrina is a revelation, the girl just transforms herself from the glam doll to desi mode with ease and improves her hindi dictation as well. Rest of the cast that includes Dayashanker Pandey, Chetan Pandit, Darshan Jariwala, Shruti Seth, Kiran Karmarkar and Vinay Apte, and Nikhila Trikha, as Arjun and Ranbir's mother add valuable support.

Sachin Kumar Krishnan’s textured photography, stressing the interiors of Madhya Pradesh convincingly conjures up the mood. Art by Jayant Deshmukh and costuming by Priyanka Mundada looks equally natural. Editing by Santosh Mandal is sharp.

Jha shottakings are brilliant and helms the film like a master but is marred by his own script.
As often in the case of Bollywood adaptations of ‘The Godfather’, ‘Raajneeti’ also somewhat fails to deliver what it promised in the story part.

The movie scores 3 out of 5

One for the super strong performance

One for the technicalities

One for direction.



The Story

Bhaskar Sanyal (Naseruddin Shah), the fire-brand leftist leader, is feared for his single-handed ability to challenge the most powerful of leaders. Until one private mistake of his hurtled him into a self-imposed exile.

Cut to the present day. Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) is the heir to a powerful political legacy and impatient to seize the top position. But his cousin, Veerendra (Manoj Bajpayee), proves his biggest political opponent. He's a man who believes he was born to rule and who will now stop at absolutely nothing to claw his way back to the top.

Cornered by family and political colleagues, Veerendra plays a new game: He picks up Sooraj (Ajay Devgn), a youngster with anger in his heart and leadership on his mind. Sooraj doesn't know the secret behind his identity, which, of course, is revealed much, much later.

Prithvi's brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) is an 'outsider', with no political aspirations, but he gets sucked into the battle-ravaged arena of family rivalry. Only to turn into a master of the craft of political warfare. Indu (Katrina Kaif), daughter of a wealthy industrialist, is also caught in this web. Last but not the least, there's Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), who plays the role of mentor and guide to Prithvi and Samar as the battle gets bloodier by the day.



Promotions

Right from the day of its announcement, the movie is in news everywhere. The marketing and promotional team deserves a pat on their back. Even though Katrina’s political face appears late in the movie but it was brilliantly used by the makers and planners to generate the maximum buzz. With Ranbir steeping in during the last phase it has given the promotion much needed boost.

The two hottties where the best option available to create maximum impact and it has succeeded to quite an extant which will attract young legs to the theatres.

Media promotions by Parull Gossain has been spot on and the indoor/outdoor publicity campaign has been smartly designed to attract the young with Ranbir and Katrina in one posters and the rest in others.
All the above promotional activities including the tie ups will do the intial ‘click’ trick for the film.



Business Analysis

‘Rajneeti’ is a studiously sincere film by Prakash Jha in which the human drama increasingly gets lost in the political. Painted on a huge canvas, Raajneeti’ is led by a strong convincing cast but the pic lacks the involving sweep of Jha’s previous political yarns like ‘Apaharan’ (2005) and ‘Gangaajal’ (2003). Which inspite of its strong sweeping moments where ‘reasonable’ and not overwhelming success.
The presence of Katrina and Ranbir, promotion, curiosity, hype, fans will bring in initials which will be the best for films helmed by Jha so far but its predictability, jaw-jawing, length in the end will force the flick to reap only modest returns in general arenas.



Other Credits

Cassettes and CD's on Sony Music. Lyricist: Irshad Kamil, Sameer, Swanand Kirkire and Gulzar. Music Director: Pritam Chakraborty, Aadesh Shrivastav, Shantanu Moitra and Wayne Sharp. Cinematography: Sachin Kumar Krishnan. Action: Shyam Kaushal. Art: Jayant Deshmukh. Editor: Santosh Mandal. Costume: Priyanka Mundada. Media Awareness: Parull Gossain. Reviewed at Fimcity, Adlabs, Mumbai on June 03, 2010.

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