~~~Continued injustice~~~. Review on Raajneeti

Raajneeti is an example of a film where a director need to tell a lot of things but cannot tell it for obvious reasons. This confusion, dilemma and frustration are visible in Raajneeti. The director is not to be blamed but it is not a product which it could have been.

There is no hero or heroes, only villains in this film, in other words, in politics. Thankfully, there is a heroine in it but her role was limited and her area of expertise was something else than politics.

Katrina Kaif gives out another 'charming' performance. This beautiful lady is yet to be explored by experts in cinematography. For lead actors, it is a kind of difficult fight. Manoj Bajpai, Ranbir Kapur, Arjun Rampal & Ajay Devgan compete one another in their roles and if the film is to be watched that is only for the brilliant performance by these 4 'ACTORS'. Surprisingly the director didn't use the best arrows available, i.e. Nana Patekar & Nassaruddin Shah. Looks like 'N' is not a lucky letter for Prakash Jha. Other actors did their roles well. Performance is one area where the film and the director excel.

The story is filmed in a large canvas involving thousands of people in many frames and doing so the director has undertaken a Herculean task which the director shown he is capable of. However, I wish the director took some initiative to attach a simple message to the entire episode. To avoid resemblance to any living politicians the identity and deeds of characters (whose origins everybody knows are from reality) are twisted and sabotaged mercilessly. Bringing angels out of demons and turning angels to demons needs basic time/work to do which the film refused. Also, it looks like the screen play conveniently changed colours to suite the casts. This undoubtedly diluted the central theme and made the 'larger than life fort' a foot step ploy and the barricade meant for children.

The writer or director it seems that not sure of with which sword they want to fight. This confusion in making decision made them mixing up all. Even the climax lacks preparation and didn't establish a point like in many other important areas of the film. Weak characters (characters without character and reason and many are undeveloped too), mixed feel of situations (Some excellent, some good, some poor), not successful symbols and lack of message (whatsoever) made this mega venture like not fully boiled chicken curry (Vegetarians may pardon me here).

Violence and romance are the best of genres, treated well by Prakash Jha. Then, politics is more of tactics than violence. The director succeeds in bringing tactics in violence but was not successful in creating ploys matching to the current politicians which we watch in every day basis.

Cinematography is good. Editing good to average to weak. In important scenes like climax, the editor failed the film with expressive mistakes.

The film best can be watched for its excellent performance and some excellent violence. The film is a failure for a viewer who goes to theater for entertainment. However, political stands can make the film an entertaining affair with or without our ability to give too much of cinematic freedom and or ignorance. The film is recommended for people who have some kind of political interest or even hatred. This film could have been made better.

My rating: 2.5 stars