yadA yadA hi dharmasya gLAnirbhavati bhArata |
abhyutthAnamadharmasya tathAtmAnam s.rjAmyaham ||
abhyutthAnamadharmasya tathAtmAnam s.rjAmyaham ||
As most of you would be aware about above phrase from Geeta, which in fact summarizes the jist of Mahabharatha. Now the reason I put this here is not because it is what Rajneeti tries to forcefit into its script, the actual reason is coz this movie forced me out of my slumber. So basically pissed with the Kauravas (here the movie Rajneeti), I (Krishna, forgive me to brand myself a God) m here to kill a movie which has literally stolen my peace for 3 hours. Its fun to critique a movie which has been rated high by critics all over and has become the blockbuster of this year. I usually write reviews on movies which have moved me. Rajneeti moved me cause I saw the death of the potential of so many stars, complete slander of logic and many other things. Rajneeti was a big rollercoaster ride for me (3 hours of tight sequence of events, some of which were totally irrelevant).
The movie starts off with Naseeruddin Shah and the One Night Stand between the then CMs daughter with Nasseruddin Shah who s fighting against the government.Now just to show the parallel btw Surya bhagwaan and Kuntis love and their alleged offspring Karna, Prakash Jha has to insert this scene of ONS. WHAAAAT!! Naseeruddins role is lmtd to this only ONS common gmme a break. What follows after that is a series of I m CM, m marrying my daughter to the younger brother of another political family to increase my political career, the young brother has 2 sons, one goes to US the other takes care of the family politics (he s a true brat takin advantage of a woman- totally deranged who slips her saree every microsec for a party ticket), the elder brother who s head of the party has a son who acts deranged. U mst b wondering whr our dear Katrina is, wait for te moment ppl, m sorry to disappoint u but she s der only for sm few mins. Sad but its ok so moving to next important character of Nana. This entire family is supported by a smart modern age Krishna i.e. Nana Patekar. It took me approx half an hour to understand who's who and incase u think m a bit slow, there were others in te theatre who voiced te same, so every1 cant b tht dumb.
Uff the first half save the first 15 mins is good to watch, will keep u tied to ur seats, not boring without any songs, but falls horribly in its second half. The movie treats you to serious logic errors, I mean u r showing a political rivalry but no role of opposition party WTH (ok I understand its a family's political rivalry but no opposition party s totally blah), bomb blasts, killing a SP, CM candidate is all child's play, and upon that I ll marry u, no no wait I ll get u married to my brother because ur father wants his daughter to get married to the future CM, and then there s this scene whr a sad Nana gets into the Operation Theater where actually one s going on WHATTTT!!!!
The saving grace is the twits and turns (which are overdone a bit), Ranbir's acting, a cool Nana Patekar and the best acting by the paralyzed modern Drithrastra (kidding). There are a lot of negatives to this movie but I wish not to hurt my fingers writing it.
Rajneeti watch it (if u r too adventurous) expecting no logic. U can actually predict the plot and the subsequent scenes and would come out wondering whether u were too clever for the movie. With this I (future Krishna) sign off, I ve killed the movie, hopefully
11 comments:
This family tree is very complex.. I didn understand who is who :| .. Anyways now you know why I didn come for the movie ;)
yea fr me too twas quite confusing
I kept wondering what was going on. First half of the movie, i was lost in recognizing the characters. Who is who. The second half was full of political killings. Although murders and kidnap is common in places like MP (Jabalpur & Bhopal to be precise) during the elections but it does not happen as shown in the movie. Car bombs were going frequently, as if we are in Afganistan. Leaders getting killed in the public and no one getting arrested. Rajneeti was not even 1 % of Gangajal.
Hey buddy..agree with you on the wastage of talent part...havent seen the movie yet, but your review has given me enuff reasons to skip this one....I guess the problem with directors like PJ is that they sometimes make movies just for the heck of it or because some producer chases em with *&% loads of money. Eitherway they dont do justice to their talent by making such movies....great review...you have brought out the essence of the movie here...loved the punches too...:)
I am truly bewildered by your thoughts about this film. Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but considering your general good taste in films, I do not understand how you could completely dislike Rajneeti (as opposed to say finding it just okay). I feel Rajneeti is one of the better films made in the recent past. The cast is good, and all do well although their screen time may be less (except for Katrina maybe...)
Prakash Jha has done well in weaving the background of Mahabharath into a modern day story. I found the direction steady, the dialogues crisp and the performances satisfactory. It may not be a great film but is definitely a good film and sure as hell worth a watch...
@ bhaskar yes even i second ur thoughts
@ PJ thanks u te inspiration :)
@Minoy lol y so serious seems u ve taken it to heart
as i said earlier te obj of dis blog ws to trash it as opposed to all critics who gave it a highfive
seriously in todays context i cant c bombs going off in will, SP being killed by a politician just like tht, and tell me if u r te karna brain why in te earth wud u like to bomb a opposition family jst before te elections, n wudnt u rather try sm deep deceitful planning to kill ur enemies dan shoot em in open. dnt u knw te other party will get a sympathy wave.
i stand by my opinion tht Nasseruddin ws wsted i wud ve loved to c him as shakuni mama rather dan ONS man. Jha lost his mind horribly in te 2nd hlf, te script ws totally loose, Manoj and Ajay were limited to "Kucch to karo" "ok i ll kill te family" thots, n particularly Ajay got a meagre screen presence post te interval.
My version of modern Mahabharata in politics wud ve been okay jst bfre te killin of SP, te lady n te family hppns. An election wid lot of tactics being won by Arjun Rampaal wud ve been apt ending
Am not even close to serious... I am talking about relative comparison. In comparison to what Bollywood is generally capable of, this one is good. Yes, many happenings like the random bomb blasts are stupid, as we had once discussed. It is not a correct depiction of the political world, but a more fictional and fantasized one...
relative comparison yes given the likes of movies like Veer, Prince and many others which hit the box office recently, Rajneeti is beyond comparison. now tht even Raavan is scrap, Rajneeti scores on some brilliant holds
Wow! good one Minoy and Tangu! Joe's blog followed by ur discussions give me a good idea of what the movie is like although i havent watched it. Dont think would be willing now as although Minoy doesnt say it aloud, from what he writes, i can deduce that he is finding it ok only interms of the relative comparison... and that too with thrash!
all my dear friends who have watched Rajneeti do watch dis '70's movie called kalyug a sashi kapoor, ananth nag starrer directed by none other than great Shyam benegal...... its a movie derived from Mahabharatha but simply simply far better than RN.