After facing a lot of controversies and censorships, Jha finally won the battle and released his power-packed political thriller worldwide Friday.[break]
Influenced largely by the epic Mahabharata and Godfather, Rajneeti is a fresh presentation that reflects the true Indian political structure in less than three hours.
Taking cues from Mahabharata, Jha has set his canvas against the political backdrop of India. It is often believed that Mahabharata is the only epic that depicts all the realities of life – lies, deceit, battle, victory and lust of power. Jha’s Rajneeti is a brilliant reflection of the epic that resembles India’s current political situation.
The screenplay reciprocates well with the cinematography by Sachin Kumar Kishan and the director’s execution needs a special mention. Despite the movie stretches to almost three hours, nothing feels exaggerated and boring.
Nephews Veerendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpai) and Prithivi Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal) are successors of a powerful political party. When the supreme power is handed over to Prithivi, Veerendra befriends Suraj (Ajay Devgan), a leader of a backward community to take the power back in his hands. Samar (Ranbir Kapoor), the younger brother of Prithivi, is studying abroad and wants to keep himself away from the family politics. Despite trying to keep himself clean, Samar gets sucked into politics due to family rivalry.
Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), senior member of the party and a family member, mentors Samar to connive the way to win the political rivalry in the family and Samar arranges funds to help Prithivi stand for an election. The battle between the brothers to win the election unfolds next throughout the film.
Jha, who has adapted most of the elements from Mahabharata, has creatively justified the characters of his film with the epic. He has picked up the prime characters of the saga to relate it with the political backdrop of India in Rajneeti.
Nana Patekar play the Krishna who pushes Ranbir Kapoor as Arjun to face the battle with pride, overlooking the blood relation at the cost of duty and responsibility. Manoj Bajpayi is put into the place of Duryodhan, constantly in lust of power and can go beyond any extreme to win something that he never owned. Ajay Devgan plays Karna, a true warrior but in wrong hands. And Ranbir’s mom in Rajneeti portrays Kunti. However, Arjun Rampal does not resemble Yudhisthir but Katina Kaif somehow goes close to the character of Dropadi. In the meantime, Kaif is also portrayed as India’s Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the second half of the film.
Aided by super script and a neat screenplay, Jha proves him once again a master storyteller and is on his grounds with his unique narrative style. The narration of the film is exactly what makes this film very engaging throughout its duration. Thankfully, unlike in other Bollywood films, the soundtracks of Rajneeti are not clichéd and they help the narration go closer to reality while being played mostly as background scores.
Needless to say that to expect a good acting from Nana Patekar can hardly prove wrong. Patekar is at his best like always. Ajay Devgan is as good as he was in Gangajal while Arjun Rampal’s attempt is above average. Katrina Kaif still needs to work out on her diction. Nonetheless, her efforts are quite evident in the film and need a special mention. Hollywood’s actress Sarah Thompson appears briefly in the film, but she makes her character worth appreciating. The true show stealers is the movie are undoubtedly Manoj Bajpai and Ranbir Kapoor.
Bjapayi stands out with dialogue delivery and expressions, very suitable to play Duryodhan while Ranbir Kapoor is much better than what he was like in Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani and Rocket Singh. He has matured a lot with Rajneeti.
For those who believe that they have not been able to see any good Bollywood film after 3 Idiots, Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti is a must-see.
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