Exausting Rajneeti

Few days back watched exhausting ‘Rajneeti’. I wonder what is happening with Hindi cinema. A director like Prakash Jha is making such a non-sense? It’s very disappointing for viewers like me who want some real cinema. We don’t have so many really talented movie makers, few businessmen are creating hype about themselves and some crap actors and they are running the industry. No wonder that a serious movie maker like Jha also gets influenced by these businessmen and compromises for market sake otherwise where does Katrina Kaif fits in a performance oriented movie, She can do anything but acting. How can one rely on Ranbir Kapoor for a mature character? Yeah he is a hot property today and enjoying a good fan following but that doesn’t make him a great actor. In fact he has to learn a lot, he is having only two facial expressions one he uses for any kind of good situation and another for any kind of bad situation.
Coming to the story part, film is a strange mixture of Mahabharat, Godfather and few real life politicians. Everybody talks about the ‘Sankalp’ in the film but I am still in search of that sankalp. There is no moral in the story. Screenplay is written by Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali, I feel that it is written in parts and with different mindset by both the writers. The essential and most important part of any story is character establishment but writers didn’t bother for that here. Viewer doesn’t know who is good, who is bad and why they are doing whatever they are doing? Everybody in the film is saying good things about the character of Arjun Rampal but I still do not feel so. Story starts with a politician who is ruling the state since long but his daughter is having some ideologies to follow in life so she joins a party which works for poor people and opposes her father. The party head, an old fellow Sanyal (Naseeruddin Shah) is a mass leader who fights against the injustice. In his first scene we see him addressing a crowd and in next scene we see the girl in his home when he is cooking the ‘Khichdi’. Suddenly there is rain and girl is taking the shower, she pulls the leader too and then…smoooooch and sex, what a ridiculous sequence. And film is full of such ridiculous sequences. Aage…our leader feels guilty and makes one more blunder by leaving everything and go away not to come back ever. An actor like Naseer has been wasted pathetically. The girl gets pregnant and gives birth to a child (Kunti angle). Wait…why am I telling whole story?? Let me tell you in short. There are two brothers who have established a political party. Elder one has one son and younger one has two. Besides younger brother’s wife has another son from her lover(Naseer) before marriage. You can refer kunti and karn from Mahabharata here. When elder brother falls seriously ill, there is a bloody war in the family for power. The story had a scope to be converted into a good movie but Jha got lost in the crowd of stars. Whole movie revolves around one election and it’s preparation.
This is an example of worst characterization. Except the character of Manoj Bajpayee no character could take any shape. All the characters look lifeless. At some point they do a certain thing with conviction and at some other point they themselves contradict it. For example, when Suraj (Ajay Devgan) gets introduced, we get a feeling that he is a leader with principles and a strong character but as movie progresses he does things which doesn’t at all match this image. He commits crimes without any hesitation and talks about right and wrong at the same time. He starts as a revolutionary and becomes a chamcha of Bajpayee. Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) wants to take teaching as his carrier but stucks in family war where he gets involved in the conspiracies. He plays with the life of people, kills them without a second thought and still they want us to believe that he is a pure hearted boy. He conspires to kill people but in the climax when his rivals are in front of him and his mama tells him to kill them he denies saying – “wo nihatthe hain” and when his mama try a little to convince him he shoots them. What should we think about this character?
Let’s look at acting part – among all the big names only one actor comes out with a powerful performance. Manoj Vaajpayee, It’s always good to see him. Though his character didn’t have much scope, he did well and managed to be on top of the lot. Ajay Devgan is wasted, his character was the weakest of all so he didn’t have much to do. Nana Patekar also didn’t have much space. Arjun Rampal has proved one thing for sure that he is best suited for the movies where he has to speak few lines only. It was a good chance for him to prove himself and he did, in negative sense though, he proved that he can’t act. He cannot carry even simple emotions. watch Manoj Vajpayee addressing the public and then watch Arjun doing same, you will die of irritation. Ranbir Kapoor is ok but definitely not a good choice for this role. Katrina Kaif and acting is most invalid pairing, she can win all the awards for worst acting….hey wait I am wrong, there is one more character in the movie who can give her a tough competition in this regard, it’s the mother of rampal and kapoor. I don’t understand how she managed to get the chance in a movie. I will not even select her for a street play even. She is the worst actress I have ever seen.
Dialogues are not up to the mark, sometimes pathetic. Would like to mention one scene where Rampal’s mother goes to meet Devgan when she comes to know that he is her son. She tells him – “tum mere jyeshth putra ho”. Ek pal ke liye laga main B R Chopra ki Mahabharat dekh raha hoon. At that moment writer was also lost in Mahabharata.
As film reach near climax you start getting irritated. Second half is dragged unnecessarily. It seems Jha also got irritated and ended the movie without thinking much.
Nowadays it’s being a trend to release Bollywood movies in other countries but unfortunately our real talent does not get to reach there. what is representing India there is worst products made by businessmen like Karan Johar, chopra etc. Kites was a big disaster and now I have heard that Rajneeti has also got good opening. We ourselves are spoiling our reputation with these movies and building a perception that India doesn’t have real talent who can make good cinema.