Rajneeti Reviewed

Rajneeti sets an ideal example of how-to-fool-an-audience-through-promos. When you see cotton sari clad Katrina Kaif moving amongst crowd, waving hands and delivering speeches on stage, looking almost like you-know-who. The first impression you get, oh! did Jha touched holy cows this time? With cast of Naseerudding Shah, Nana Patekar, Ajay Devan and Manoj Bajpai, you do expect performances of top notch.

So what's Rajneeti is about?...No It's not about the supposed first family of India (Jha did not touch the holy cow) it isn't about the new thinking lad in politics either. It's curry of Indian politics saute' with likes of Mahabharta & God-father. Jha is a director who knows his ground (though he lost it sometime back with movies like 'Dil Kya Kare' and 'Rahul') but then he returned to where he belongs to with 'Gangajal' and 'Apaharan'. Sadly 'Rajneeti' stands just in between his 'Gangajal' and 'Dil Kya Kare'. It isn't disappointment just because we have seen Kites recently. But for someone who are so fascinated with Indian Politics and it's dynamism it gives less full-filling experience.

It starts just the way Mahabharta did- Naseeruddin Shah in blink and miss (or in this case kiss and miss) role, disappears right after he realises that he has made one of his comrade pregnant, he goes into hiatus. And the job better left to Nana Patekar to get rid of the new born baby. The baby ofcorse turn out to be 'Karan' played by Ajay Devgan. Now Nana's role is bit confusing sometimes he looks like Bhishm and sometimes as Krishna, however all throughout movie he stands besides Rampal (mix of both Bheem & Yudhishtir) & Ranbir (Arjun) to guide them. And then we have Manoj Bajpai as Duryodhan and Katrina playing role of Draupadi and completing the circle.

The drama within Mahabharta itself is so gripping that Jha needless to borrow anything else.Still there is plot where Ranbir took charge of politics to set things right (???) is copy-pasted from Godfather. Now to all fairness the movie isn't bad at all. But with running time of almost 3 hours you need to carry a bit more patience with you.

Talking about the performances, I liked Nana and Manoj most, Ranbir again delivers an earnest performance and this is his 4th in a row. Wow!! this is like longest run for any new comer....Katrina tries her best to do whatever she has offered but frankly there isn't much for her to do. Ajay unfortunately got the really half-baked role to his credit, Devgan can do such roles even in his sleep. The case in note here is Arjun Rampal, boy... that guy falters and falters again. A total miscast by Jha, he neither seeks sympathy nor evokes any rage. Just as bland as tofu.

The movie promises more but delivers little less...however sure one time watch.