RAAJNEETI MOVIE REVIEW

RAAJNEETI MOVIE REVIEW

RAAJNEETI MOVIE CAST & CREW

Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Manoj Bajpai, Sarah Thompson, Darshan Jariwala, Shruti Seth, Nikhila Tirkha, Chetan Pandit, Vinay Apte, Kiran Karmarkar, Daya Shankar Pandey, Jahangir Khan, Ravi Khemu and others.


DIRECTION : Prakash Jha

STORY

The plot of the flick has a very large canvas involving a large number of characters much like epic ‘Mahabharata’, and if you want you can easily compare them with contemporary personalities shown in the movie. This all begins with Bhasker Sanyal(Naseeruddin Shah), who is a fiery left leader with a clear conscience and impeccable political integrity.

However, one mistake forces him into self- exile as well as birth of Sooraj(Ajay Devgn). Sooraj grows up in a backward community home and gradually rises to become a fiery political leader much like Bhaskar.

But the problem with Sooraj is the same as was with Karna in ‘Mahabharata’. Sooraj’s loyalty to his friend Veerendra Pratap(Manoj Bajpai)goes against his own real family, and the man is torn between two divided loyalties and continues to fight whole of life with it.

Then there is another character of Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), who never ran after power in politics and left everything. However, he did not run away from his familial responsibilities and continues to mentor the younger political leaders—Prithvi(Arjun Rampal) and Samar(Ranbir).

Another character in this political drama is that of Prithvi Pratap (Arjun Rampal), who is heir to a powerful political family, but his passions are uncontrollable. Though he has a very good heart but his method is all brawn and this creates problems for him as well as others.

On the other hand, Veerendra Paratap (Manoj Bajpai) is Prithvi’s cousin but overambitious and wants power to rule at all cost. However, he is being prevented from realization of his dreams by unfavorable circumstances, but refuses to accept defeat.

Then there is a sweet lady Indu Sakseria(Katrina Kaif), being daughter of a rich industrialist she is naturally gorgeous and wants to love her beau for ever. However, circumstances force her to come out of hibernation and take the plunge into politics. She does it successfully and wrests power after defeating several seasoned war horses.

One person from these warring families is Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor), younger brother of Prithvi Pratap who is completely apolitical and steers clear of bloody dirty politics. Sarah Jean Collins (Sarah Thompson) loves him, and both of them hate violent way of politics.

But soon Samar Pratap is sucked into his family political tradition, and seeing no other way out, decides to indulge in the game fully. Gradually, he emerges as the master of this political warfare and successfully protects his family from the rival’s assault.

How Samar Pratap handles the electoral politics in the face of fierce rivals, treachery, deception etc and what happens afterwards to the main characters of this political thriller forms the rest of the story.

PERFORMANCE

Ranbir Kapoor, the handsome hunk of bollywood who plays the character of Samar Pratap in the film, comes out with a brilliant performance. Even before such veterans as Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan, etc, Ranbir is able to hold his own and comes out a winner. His transformation from apolitical to master of the political warfare is praiseworthy. He enacts the whole thing so smoothly that it’s unbelievable.

Arjun Rampal, who plays the elder brother of Ranbir Kapoor, comes out with a winning performance and the filmmakers should give him more meaty roles now onwards. After his superb performance in Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ (though negative), here once again Arjun excels.

Manoj Bajpai, who plays the negative character of Veerendra Pratap and cousin to Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun, has come out with rare performance. Every nuance of his character has come out perfectly in his acting.

Nana Patekar, who plays the character of Brij Gopal, looks perfect in the mentoring role of Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. He is sharp and curt in his dialogues. He lives up to expectations of the audiences. Naseeruddin Shah, as usual, is brilliant in his small appearance in the film.

Ajay Devgn, who plays the character of Sooraj, is good in the first half. In the second hour of the film, Ajay’s character seems to have been forced to go on the backburner by the director Prakash Jha despite of their excellent working relationship.

Katrina Kaif, the sizzling hot sexy siren of bollywood, is a surprise packet in the film by adopting a deglamorised avatar. However, the beautiful lass has come out with an honest performance in the film and lives her role well. Others provide able support to the main cast of the film.

The direction of Prakash Jha is superb. The director has handled a large number of biggies with ease and extracted out of them the best for the flick. His expert knowledge on the electoral polities of Bihar and other north Indian states must have helped him in this venture.

The unpredictability and constant twist and turn in the story line are its USP and Prakash Jha must be credited for it. In fact, the long movie of three hours does not bore due to these twists and turns and the audience remain interested till the last.

The number ‘Mora Piya’ is already popular with the audiences. Dialogues, especially those delivered by Nana Patekar, are superb. The cinematography tries to capture every important moment of this political drama efficiently. Other production values are also good.

VERDICT

Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif have given superb performances in the flick. However, the USP of the flick remain the constant twists and turns of the plot line and its realistic treatment by filmmaker. The film truly mirrors the electoral democracy as practiced in most of our states by our so called political leaders. However, the film is more inclined towards intelligentsia than hoi polloi. A brilliant realistic flick.