Good political drama. Review on Raajneeti

Rajneeti which is one of the most anticipated movies to be released in 2010 does not disappoint the viewers in the least. The latest political drama which borrows heavily from the great epic Mahabharat, Godfather and the Gandhi family, unleashes a political drama on a grand scale with good characterization, plot, storyline and direction by prakash jha. The movie which is inspired from the above mentioned sources is a honest and good attempt at adapting the storyline to match the current political scenario of this country.

The movie has many protagonists which is rare to be seen in these days in a serious movie until and unless its a mindless comedy. The story has many similarities to the characters from the epic, which I shall reveal later.

To begin with the story starts with a lady social activist called bharathi who falls in love with the honest social activist/politician(Naseer) who is fighting for the rights of the ppl in the 70s. Bharathi is the daughter of ramakant rai(darshan jariwala), who is a famous politician and the front-runner for the PMs post.

Bharathi and Naseer are idealists who fight against Ramakant rai for ppl rights etc. and the two in a moment of passion conceive a child. But being true to his ideals etc. Naseer abandons everything and wanders into the woods. Bharathi who faces intense social stigma for being a wedless mother much to her dislike has to abandon the child owing family/social pressure.

Bharathis father ramakanth rai marries her to another upcoming popular political family(Rashtriya party, which is lead by Banupratap and his younger bro chandra pratap) and secures his daughters future life as well as his sagging political career by striking a political alliance with them. Hence in this way he achieves 2 goals with a single bullet and also manages to be in the center for a long time with their political support.

Cut to the current age when chandrapratap(bharathis husband) and chandraprataps elder brother(banupratap) are the most powerful and influential political family like the Gandhi family in Indian politics.

All seems to be going well until Banupratap, the party president and the PM candidate, suddenly has a heart attack which leaves him paralyzed for the rest of his life. This turn of events starts the slug fest for his political successor when banu pratap instead of making his son virendrapratap(Manoj bajpai) chooses chandrapratap(banus younger bro) and chandras elder son Prithvi(Arjun rampal) for the post of party president and general secretary. The fact that banu ignores virendra is bcoz of  his inexperience and hot blooded temper which does not suit politics.

This incident starts a bitter rivalry mainly between virendrapratap(Manoj bajpai) and prithvi(Arjun rampal) the two cousins like the great indian epic and thus starts a series of mind games between the two who are hell bent to outdo each other in the winner takes all sort of a contest. Rest of the characters start taking sides in the political battle war.

The first one to be taken is sooraj(ajay devgan), who is a dalit champion and a very popular dalit leader. When prithvi humiliates sooraj, virendra sees his chance and immediately adopts sooraj as his best friend and companion(parallel with mahabharata when duryodhan takes over karana to his side when he is humilated by Arjun).

Nana patekar initially neutral chooses prithvi like lord krishna choosing the pandavas in mahabharat.

Samar pratap(Ranbir) who is the younger bro of Prithvi is nowhere involved in this political slugfest and is busy completing his Phd in U.S, but how the turn of events pulls him in to this political saga should be experienced by the viewers.

Much of the storyline as I mentioned before has a strong parallel with the epic and here is the list. I am starting with character names in the movie with the parallels in the epic

Chandrapratap(Dhritarashtra, the blind king), Bharathi, Prithvi and samars mom(Kunti):

Prithvi( yudhistir): Samar(Arjun): Manoj(Duryodhan): Karna(Ajay devgan, the good guy on the wrong side) and Nana patekar(Lord krishna). Rest of the characters have been adapted with the indian political scenario especially reinforced by the later storyline of the movie. The events in the last half an hour of the movie is more or less similar to the gandhi family scenario and katrina is portrayed as sonia gandhi.

The movie has a gripping first half when the manipulations in our political scenario is clearly shown and is as real as it can get. The second half is a bit more filmy and over the top storyline which could have been avoided or handled in a better way. Agreed that politics is a no holds barred dirty game but the blood and violence that is shown is not something that happens in real life. This could have been portrayed in a better way. Especially the climax scene cud have been done much better since senior political leaders in our country do not indulge in shootout. also the fact that ranbir walks away scot-free with no consequences is a bit hard to digest in these times.

Just to mention that the climax scene is a direct adaptation of a scene from the epic where the Lord preaches Arjuna to keep doing his duty and not get bogged down by morality issues. To do what is right in itself is dharma and to follow ones dharma is the best path in a individuals life or so says the Lord.

The performances from the star cast is phenomenal. Naseerudin shah is having a cameo and hence nothing to talk about. One can expect some power-packed performances frm manoj, arjun and ranbir. Nana as usual is good and katrina is not bad at all for once she has shown that she too can act. Music is something which is not of much importance in a serious drama like this.

Hence the storyline, plot and characterization is good, the adaptation  cud have been better which could have made this movie a 5 star one. Nevertheless Rajneeti is  a must watch for those who love to see intense drama and action.

My rating  - 3.75/5.