Raajneeti - The Board Game of Political Chess.

The much awaited release of Multi-starrer Raajneeti from Prakash Jha finally happened on June 4th. Despite all the Congress family clan, Sonia Gandhi resemblance, U/A certification controversies, it made it through. Man, I am glad it made it to the theatres !.

Prakash Jha can always be counted as one of the best film makers in India who can mix masala ingredients in the right proportion along with a strong storyline and powerful cast. Raajneeti is no different. The whole array of top stars from Indian cinema all have a powerful role to play. The story as mentioned in all the previews is inspired from Mahabharatha. A left-leaning principled Comrade Bharati daughter of the CM of a National Party person, has a fling with a communist leader Nasseruddin Shah and has an illegitimate Child. This child is wrapped in red cloth and sent over Ganges in Banares Ghats by brother Nana Patekar, who then promptly gets her married to a powerful clan of Bhanu Pratap Singh who run the Rashtravadhi Party. The elder brother is the CM and the public face and younger brother is the political driving force. Comrade Bharati is married to the younger brother. Bhanu pratap Singh has a power greedy son, Veerendra (played by Manoj Bajpai) and faces strong internal competition from Youth Wing Leader Pratap (played by Arjun Rampal) who is his cousin brother. Ranbir is Arjun's younger brother studying in America and in love with Sarah Peterson and prefers staying away from politics. Katrina is a daughter of a powerful local businessman who is head over heels in an one-way affair over Ranbir. Ajay Devgan (the karna) is being brought up in a Dalit family that have been serving the Singh family. Ajay is independent thinking, strategiest who hates top-command pushing decisions down and wants to acquire power. The sudden stroke attack on Bhanu Pratap singh triggers a series of events within the family. Veeru wants to take control of the party and Ajay Devgan joins him. Arjun Rampal & his dad opppose this, and things unfold one by one in a typical board game of political chess played between Gauravas and Pandavas, and Ranbir (Arjuna) is forced to enter the arena and gets to listen to some Political Gita from Nana (Krishna) in the climax.

The great things about the movie are :-

Powerful storyline, realistically told, wonderful screen play. First half is like a breeze and you don't realize it is already interval !.

Strong set of characters, a lot of them in every frame, and everyone does their part wonderfully well. No overacting, No traditional villainy. Everything is subtle and typically Prakash Jha.

No unnecessary songs to dampen the pace. There are a couple but they are bearable.

The not so great things about the movie :-

Very long, 2nd half is painfully long. 19 reels is way too much. I think he should have kept 2nd half to just 1 hour.

The side tracks of SP Sharma, the Mahila Activist, Sarah-Ranbir affair etc. are unnecessary given that the core story is already long enough.

I seriously did not feel any sense of support or sympathy for Pandavas (not that I have much when I read Mahabharatha) and I was infact hoping that Manoj and Ajay pull-off. This kind of misplaced loyalty gets created because the director has intentionally kept all the characters grey and left it to the audience to support either or neither. Not sure how the average film-goer is going to take this novel concept of whole set of dark characters. That is why when Ranbir has a philosophical discussion with Katrina in the end, you dont sympathize with him at all !.

The storyline defies logic in the 2nd half when they kill each other at will and police are not even in the picture. If you compare this against realistic narration in Apaharan, you will be ashamed with the higher dose of Masala, Prakash has dished out !.

Over-all, it is a good movie to watch for the powerful acting and racy story line. Gives you a good inside view of politics on what can go wrong within a family when the leader leaves the scene (anyone in TN taking notice?). It has got nothing to do with Congress or Sonia Gandhi, and more to do with Mahabharatha. Be prepared for an extra dose of masala in the 2nd half, compared to the usual Prakash Jha recipe.