Political Vendetta. Review on Raajneeti

If you mix the theme of Mahabharata with Elected Imperial regime in a democratic environment that ruled to maxim post independence and add glimpse of Godfather, you will have the latest Prakash Jha remake “Raajneeti”. Now before I go ahead, I accept as being the late entrant always, I delayed the watch and review of the movie since I wanted the Ramayana depiction Mani Ratnam’s Raavan to release for me to compare the characterizations together.

However, coming back to the film, although uni-dimensional the theme of Mahabharata was pretty much kept. Of course you can’t have Dushyant and Drona as the rest of the Pandav characters were also not present.

The story is based on the backdrop of the imperialistic political family and the triumph for the rightful heir to the throne, well rightful here implies being politically correct. Pratap family is on the verge to re-acquire the victory when its leader hits bottom with a paraplegic attack. The leader’s son Veerendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpai) and his nephew Prithvi Pratap (Arjun Rampal) begin their quest to replace him as the future leader.

While the nephew gets the center support and becomes the appointed leader of the party, the son feels cornered and in attempt to fight back gets an ally in Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) who belongs to backward class however has a quality of a leader. Sooraj on the other hand has his own cause and it is to put his people in main political arena. Veerendra and Sooraj team up to sideline Prithvi and put him behind bars to oust him from the political game.

Meanwhile, Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) who draws simile to Arjun flows with a PhD only to leave it all behind and must descramble the situation. He soon takes charge under his father’s alibi Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) and what follows after is already seen and heard the game of politics. Prakash Jha accomplishes the task of pulling the resemblance to India’s existing political history with panache as he takes us up close in to the internal and personal matters of political dynasties. Also he brings out the known secret of media usage to stage political gimmicks and of course the vote bank politics.

However the movie comes with its own flaws wherein the rivalry is lopsided and victims face execution in similar fashion. The film gets the act of political dramatics right however is not tempting when it comes to show case other emotional facets of the characters. The screenplay by Praksh Jha and Anjum Rajabali is spot on. As far as the characterization goes, it could have been more rounded. Arjun Rampal‘s character bears resemblance with Yudishtir and some what Sonny Corleone from Godfather. At times it gets him shaky when the combination of dialogues and body language fail to sync. Ajay Devgan’s character of course inspired by Karna comes natural as he had played similar characters prior and you cannot call this one exceptional. Indu Pratap’s(Katrina Kaif)character seems underdeveloped being Ranbir her love interest and later Arjun her husband.It lacks luster in the main moments where it goes blunt.

Probably some better dialogues in her kitty would have worked more in her favor. Ranbir Kapoor comes out as a performer in his single dimensional on screen avatar as Samar, the politician’s child. However the fact that he designs political strategies even before he accepts his role as a politician somewhat doesn’t add up. His body language though as an effective manipulator who could turn the tables goes well noticed. There is also a small role of Sarah (Sarah Thompson Kane) who is Ranbir’s love interest however it does not have the width to mention something noteworthy about her performance.

The show stealers however are Manoj Bajpai and Nana Patekar. Nana Patekar’s character of course draws simile to Krishna, who is crafty with a calculative undertone keeps providing his men the feed to conquer and do what is apt for the situation. And we all know the immense potential Manoj Bajpai has, this film again gives him a platform to showcase it. Even though his character too has an undertone of Sonny Corleone, he pulls it off convincingly. The cinematography is commendable and assures quality while the handling of Technicalities is skillful. Although Music is not the biggest offering however the background score by Wayne Sharpe mends well with screenplay and is impressive giving it a dramatic influence.

Overall you can savor Raajneeti as it keeps you glued to your seats with excellent editing and follow ups. Watch this movie to get the feel of what goes behind the parliamentary curtains. And watch this space as the review of Raavan would come next.