Love

Chasing a dream

relentlessly only to see it

turn into a nightmare

'Rajneeti' - A Review

Welcome to Azaadnagar, the imaginary city that reflects ‘India’ in Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti. It’s modern – has international airport, discos, malls and girls wearing miniskirts. It’s backward beyond belief too – oppressive leaders, slums and poverty plague it. It’s regressive. The daughters are traded for political mileage. It’s gruesome – pitched political battles result in copious bloodletting and gore.

‘Rajneeti’ traces the fortunes and upheavals that take place in a political family with elections around the corner. It boasts of one of the best ‘performers’ cast in recent times – Nana, Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgn, Atul Kulkarni and Ranbir Kapoor (and not to forget the glamour quotient in the form of the reigning diva Katrina and the latest ‘firang import’, Sara Thompson.

I had waited to watch a movie for a long time. After weeks and weeks of bad movies – including the much hyped Kites – I was almost certain I’d like watching Prakash Jha’s ‘Rajneeti’. I didn’t wait to read the reviews this time. I booked the tickets – along with three other friends - and expectantly went out to watch.

There was a huge publicity for the movie; I’d seen that NDTV too had aired a program featuring Prakash Jha, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif (interacting with a studio audience apart from the anchor of the show). There was much animated discussion about how Katrina’s role was based on Sonia Gandhi (foreign origin, political entry after husband’s death, etc). And about the influence and inspiration of the Mahabharata.

‘Rajneeti’ is not inspired by/from Mahabharata alone. It draws hugely from ‘The Godfather’ of Mario Puzo. The characters of Ranbir and Arjun Rampal are straight lifts out the novel – the outsider, erudite younger brother who gets ‘reluctantly’ sucked into the game of politics is clearly Michael Corleone and the hot-headed, blood-lusty elder brother is undoubtedly ‘Sunny’ Corleone and they don’t resemble either Bheem or Arjuna from the Mahabharata. And, surely neither the character of Katrina Kaif (‘Draupadi’ purportedly). Even the plot to begin with is a straight lift from the novel than anything original or Indian.

But Manoj Bajpai is ‘Duryodhan’ and the challenger to the more charismatic politician Rampal. Nana Patekar is the political think-tank a la Krishna. And, Ajay Devgn is ‘Suraj’, influenced by the character of Karna (sans all his attributes of sacrifice) – the half-brother of Arjun and Ranbir.

The movie largely is fast-paced and doesn’t allow you to get bored even when it is predictable in the first half at least. Some of the scenes are riveting. Especially the one where Arjun Rampal meets the corrupt SP for revenge. However the movie suffers because there is NO political intrigue. Each hurdle faced by the politicians has a single/simple solution: ‘Bump off’ the obstacle (nee person). So heads roll like nine-pins on a Chinese checker board. Post interval the proceedings become very predictable. The climax tries out the epic battle of the Mahabharata where all the tormentors are vanquished but it leaves the viewer wondering if it’s really possible – even with the kind of connivance we see in our politics! Also it is difficult to accept the ‘Arjun Rampal-Ranbir’ duo as the Pandavas who are wronged. They are as sinful, dark and cold as their rivals. One can’t sympathise with them. The biggest weak-link of the movie are its lead stars – Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Both do not suit their roles and have little to contribute in the form of well-oiled performances. They are a huge disappointment together. Katrina is a disaster especially after she becomes the politician.

What saves the movie are the performances by Nana Patekar (ultra restrained and turns out one of his best ever performances), Manoj Bajpai – who converts a uni-dimensional role to his advantage and Ajay Devgn (dependable as usual). The editing is crisp, the background score adds urgency to the atmosphere and the movie is largely devoid of romantic interludes in the form of songs (which is a huge saving grace as the movie time runs almost to 3 hours).

In his efforts to make the movie resemble the Mahabharata Prakash Jha loses grip over the proceedings. The stereotypes in the movie make you cringe too. Like the woman politician who’s willing to do anything (read, sleep with anyone) for a ticket to contest. That politics is in blood (entry of Ranbir and Ajay Devgn’s rise as the leader despite from a Dalit background), the oh-so-servile-and-happy backward classes (working for the political families). Watch it, only because it’s much, much better that what’s been dished out over the past 10 odd weeks.

P.S. The movie easily qualifies to have been titled, ‘Love, Sex aur Dhokha’. There’s lots of it. And, each time a couple has sex the woman invariably becomes pregnant. The strike rate!