subject: Raajneeti Bollywood Movie Review [print this page] A political partys chief gets a heart attack on the eve of state elections. His son Veerendra (Manoj Bajpai) is all set to take over the mantle when senior leader Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) convinces the chief to name Veerendras uncle as the successor. This throws Veerendras plan into a tailspin as his cousin Prithvi (Arjun Rampal), now the secretary of the party would eventually inherit the legacy.
Veerendra befriends Suraj (Ajay Devgan), an upstart who got off on the wrong foot with Prithvi. The son of Prithvis driver, Suraj in fact, happens to be Prithvis elder brother who was discarded at birth for he was born out of wedlock. Suraj orders a hit on Veerndras Uncle and also gets Prithvi arrested in a sex scandal. Seeing his familys plight Samar (Ranbir Kapoor), Prithvis younger brother plots his revenge. An outsider who isnt interested in politics, Samar chooses to remain in the background while projecting his brother as the Chief Ministerial candidate. In the midst of all this stands Indu, the daughter of a rich businessman, who loves Samar but ends up marrying Prithvi. Things become murkier when boundaries cease to exist in the dirty game of politics where people stop at nothing.
The biggest film of Prakash Jhas career, Raajneeti tries to make a sweeping statement on Indian politics but suffers from many predispositions that end up making the film look largely outdated and partly stupid. Sample this: Every time someone gets shot and is fighting for life in the hospital, Nana Patekar just waltzes into the emergency room no questions asked or the scene where his simple talk is enough to revive a sedated character. Based on the epic of Mahabharat, Raajneetis screenplay borrows liberally from The Godfather. Anjum Rajabali and Prakash Jha, who co-wrote the screenplay, make no bones about blatantly transporting iconic moments from the Coppola classic all through the film.
Raajneeti starts very well as it sets up the characters establishing the stage for the dirty dance of Indian politics but once it shows us the menu and takes the order, the food just doesnt turn up. Jha takes a huge step up from Gangajal and Apharan but even with a huge star cast and a pretty decent premise Raajneeti just doesnt take off. The film has enough for everyone cast and while Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgan as well as Nana Patekar duly deliver its not as if we havent seen this stuff before. Given their previous films surprisingly both Katrina Kaif and Arjun Rampal are pretty decent in the film and Ranbir Kapoor at the center of it all manages to hold his own.
One wishes that Prakash Jha would have given a little more thought to the content of the film as opposed to the execution. His chaste Hindi dialogues makes Raajneeti resemble a bad college play at most parts; his local Indu sounds more firang than the foreigner returned Samar and some scenes like Indus father asking Samars mother to make Samar the Chief Ministerial candidate for hed would the best for his daughter and Samar telling his brother to marry Indu for he cant even think of being the CM and Indu being told by Samar to marry his brother for if she doesnt then her father will marry her off to Veerendra who would become the CM if her father didnt bankroll Prithvi- is so asinine that one wonders if this really is Jhas serious take on Indian politics.
At almost three hours of playtime Raajneeti long enough to entwine you as well as bore you. As someone mentioned while viewing the film that the entire thing looks like one long trailer, Raajneeti at best, looks like one of those television news channel shows where they relentlessly follow a candidates election campaign trail!
