When I thought of Rajneeti, I had great expectations of an excellent story line, brilliant acting of the wide range of actors and overall entertainment. Reality, however, was much different. Yes, the movie shows the political battles which are true, but I would have wanted a little less murders. I am not sure how many of you who have seen the movie would agree to me, but for me not much of the expectations I had were fulfilled.
The movie starts with Naseruddin Shah who is the good person against the Indian political battle, raising his voice for the poor and asking difficult questions to the politicians. The politician’s daughter, Bharti, is his prime disciple, going against her father in this war. Then one day, they get together in a moment of passion and Naseruddin realizing his mistake goes out of her life. Bharti conceives a child who is dumped away on the ghats of Banaras by her brother – Nana Patekar. Bharti is then married off to the rival politican’s son and an alliance party is formed out of this new relationship. Now, the scene turns to current day where Bharati has two sons – Ranbir (screen name - Samar) who is doing his PHD outside India and Arjun Ranpal is handling the political party along with his father and uncle who is the leader. The political party leader has a paralysis attack and this triggers off the war to identify the leader of the party. Manoj Bajpai, who is the son of the political leader thinks that since his dad was the leader, in his absence he should get leadership. However, when Arjun and his dad are given the leadership of the party, sparks fly everywhere. Along comes, Bharti’s long lost son, Ajay Devgan, brought up as a Dalit by the driver of this family. He wants a ticket to stand up in the election and joins the party with Manoj. A war explodes to get hold of the party leadership. Arjun’s dad is murdered, and Arjun is arrested by police on various charges, all brought about by Ajay. A romance is sizzling on the other end between Ranbir and Kathirna (Indu) – a businesman’s daughter. However, Ranbir does not reciprocate Katty’s feelings, and his love is there in his college. With the death of Arjun’s father and arrest of Arjun, Ranbir moves to come into politics to save his brother’s future. Nana Patekar is the brain behind Arjun’s political decisions, with him hovering over all the meetings and subtly giving hints. A new party is formed by Arjun with his supporters. To obtain the money for elections, a pact is made between Katrina’s dad and Nana Patekar, with Katty to be married off to the chief minister – in this case Arjun. A typical case where the female is sacrificed for the “greater good”. Nana Patekar, with his great move, brings Ranbir’s girl friend, Sarah Thompson Kane, to India. The move was to bring Katty closer to Arjun. A wide hunt is made to identify the murderer by Ranbir, and this leads to some more murders. Somewhere along the line, Katty falls in love with Arjun, realizing that Arjun is a better man than Ranbir. However, the murders are still not over, and to bring things back to war front, a bomb is blasted which kills Sarah and Arjun. Again, with the question of who the leader would be for the new party, a new move is made and Arjun’s widow – Katty is brought into picture as the new leader and future chief minister on success of the elections. Nana Patekar who goes to avenge the death of Arjun at Ajay’s house, reaizes that Ajay is his nephew, and informs Bharti of the same. Bharti in turn tries to get him to join the party with Ranbir and forget Manoj Bajpai and the rivalry between the two parties. However, Ajay refuses to leave Manoj’s party. While the poll counting is ongoing, Manoj is called at a secluded place on a false pretence and Ajay follows him. Ranbir avenges the deaths of his father, brother and girlfriend by killing Manoj and Ajay. Katty wins the elections and is elected the chief minister. Ranbir flies off again to complete his PHD.
The movie as you see had a good plot, but look at it closely and you would find that it was a mixture of too many things. Scenes from Sarkar with car being blasted off killing Ranbir’s pregnant girl friend, Mahabharat with Ranbir as “Arjun”, Nana Patekar as “Krishna”, Ajay as “Karna”- Ranbir does not want to kill Ajay since he has no weapons but Nana Patekar tells him to complete the job and avenge the death. Also, I am not sure whether the script writer forgot about Naseruddin Shah completely, what was his role in the movie apart from fathering Ajay. And the dialogues are the best – who has heard these dialogues these days – Nana Patekar tells Bharti about Ajay – “wo tumhara pehla jana hain” and Bharti tells Ajay that he is her son – “tum mere jeshta putra ho”. They are hilarious and do not fit in the movie at all. There are however some dialogues that are very catching – “karara jawab milega” being one among them.
The acting is good, but you cant say that for all actors – of course Nana Patekar is always brilliant, Ranbir has done a good role as mature actor, Katty still cant get her hindi correct, Arjun needs a course in acting school and Manoj Bajpai is definitely good.
Overall, the movie is worth a once watch. Watch the official movie trailer at youtube
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