Rajneeti : Is it hyped?

I saw Rajneeti yesterday. Before watching it, the only review i read was that of Taran Adarsh, which he tweeted as ‘World’s first review of Rajneeti’. He rated it 4/5 and said one have to take brain into theatre for watching this film.  well, reading that, i became a little suspicious. Because Taran adarsh is a guy who’s bestowed with a tiny brain and he asking us to take brain to theatre…!!! usually I read his star rating from right to left or multiply it with a –1 and he’s bloody reliable, rarely disappoints. (i also read him just to LMAO). But Twitter was full of positive reviews, from my friends, from celebrities, even sardesai rajdeep of CNNIBN said its one hindi film he liked in last many years. So i decided keep aside my sceptism and watch it. I was a little disturbed before entering the theatre because of the shitty customer service of Airtel. Its important to mention that because the state of mind with which one watch a movie definitely affects one’s movie experience. But after 5-10 minutes i was fully into the film. Airtel was outta my mind and i could immerse in Rajneeti. But i decided to keep a buffer before writing anything about it, because i needed a clearer head.

In my opinion movies have different enjoyment span. There are movies which can be enjoyed only when we are watching it and will fall apart once we start thinking about it, also called as ‘no brainers’. The second are those movies which we like while watching it as well as thinking about it. The third type is, the films which we don’t understand fully while watching, but irresistible to take eyes off and all the meaning & other stuffs will be revealed only when we think more about it or on multiple viewing. And ofcourse the last type, the movies which can’t be enjoyed at all, at any time.

So, the general vibe about Rajneeti was, it belonged to 2nd type. But let me tell you i was rather disturbed than enjoying it, while watching and while thinking about it. Its supposed to be mix of two great classics Mahabharatha+The Godfather. Both Mahabharatha and The Godfather has black side and white side. So when both mixed and made Rajneeti, the white side was left out and its all black.

Being started with Kunthi’s illegitimate child’s story, i thought the mother will have some important role to play. But unlike Mahabharatha, where she is a powerful character, here she’s sidelined as chappathy making, whining mom. Even her discovery & visit to her first child ‘Karna’, before the great war, bares no fruit. Remember, in Mahabharatha it was THE key point. So after titles, came puppy faced, devil inside Ranbir Kapoor. His puppy face and later transformation to BIG devil by a slap was so natural that it reminded me of the infamous Malayalam film ‘Puthiyamugham’ where the boy-next-door hero becomes Violent-Super-Hero with a blow on his head. And even the famous kroorsingh of chandrakaantha. And following that incident he’s met with an excess blood flow into his brain and becomes the Power house of the age old political party, which amazingly has no other big politician and still the biggest party in the state. He also do not forget to keep the stone face because that’s what Micheal Corleone did when he became wiser and darker.

“But who said he ‘was’ good? are we supposed to think that he’s a good guy because he was so in ‘Wake up sid’ & ‘Rocket singh’? Or The watch presenting scene? oh come on… he’s a devil and cheater with absolute no value attached to him throughout the film. Right from the beginning to the end. Samar Prathap’s(Ranbir) family is the most powerful family in Madhya Pradesh. They have been enjoying it since eternity. But no where in the film it is said that they are good rulers or good people (though one can easily guess it by the humungous house they have). The whole family is full of stereotypical power hungry politicians. A big brother who doesn’t know basic lessons of politics, a blood thirst devil who smashes people’s skull simply for allegations against him. Well from my own experience a good politician is a smooth operator/talker. But here nobody seems to be a good politician. Nana Patekar makes an attempt though.

The family enjoys absolute power over party ,pretty devilishly, without considering anybody else’s opinion. So when the camera was lingering around this family, through extreme close ups of their emotional face and senti music, i couldn’t connect with it. I couldn’t feel it. I wanted to shout out “They are showing the emotions of wrong people”.  All the characters looked Aliens. No one had any human quality (irony is that in the latest Alien flick Avatar, Aliens were more human than humans themselves). This is the BIGGEST flaw of Rajneeti. It forgets to add human touch to any characters. All are ruthless, violent, power hungry, blood thirsty animals. And this is exactly the stronghold of Mahabharatha and The Godfather. In both, the main characters’ human side is shown clearly and the transformation is perfectly visible. Don Vito Corleone has a good heart. So do Micheal Corleone. Many scenes shows this. In Rajneeti this(important point) was totally missed.

Ajay Devgan and his party seems comparatively good, because they are at least the voice of suppressed common people. But i don’t know if he’s a good guy, because director didn’t show any good about him either. So i was lost. Now what was i supposed to do? watch filthy violent animals fight and die? I’m not that violent, so i was bored.

Secondly, the logic of the film. It seems the director forgot the ruling system of our country is Democracy. He considers people and media as ass. In this country, where there are the most number of 24x7 news channels, how can the media be so stupid. And a family forming a new party with new candidates and winning election with Katrina as chief minister!!!!! come on. No words for this absurd logic. Both party has blood on their hands. Atleast Manoj Bajpai’s party has some tradition to it and strong old party members too. Not to forget the finance. Then how come they lost? In any country, in any state its impossible. after all this bombing, shootouts, murders. Many many illogical things, and flaws, i want to write it all down, but why? :P But they spent 5 years writing this script???? ya, may be 5 minutes per day for 5 years.

But i was not actually all bored, the movie had excellent technical quality. The director have looked into details, there’s even sweat under Katrina’s armpits while she’s campaigning, like Sonia gandhi. O, u haven’t noticed? Film actresses usually donot have sweaty armpits, but real women do. ;) Btw she was looking too much like Sonia Ji. And as usual, couldn’t take my eyes off from her. Looks stunning in Sari too.

The overall performance of actors were good. Ranbir’s girlfriend from America was extremely good. She was beautiful, even though i didn’t like her when i saw the trailer and did a very earnest performance. she’s my favourite character. The cinematography was good, DI was good. But Mr.Prakash Jha, news cameras don’t use crane. just keep it in mind. Also what was that Shruthi Seth scene? It was better to add a comic bubble pointed to her and reading “She’s a slut”   and Arjun Rampal, what was he trying to do? Was it S-E-X? ha ha… she seemed polymorphously perverse (courtesy: Annie Hall, 1977) AKA super sensitive.

So all the fuss about Rajneeti, yes it is hyped. But its good that this film is winning at box office, coz it handled pretty dry subject with almost no songs and winning audiences. So if this trends goes on, we will get a moksha from two syllable named heroines falling blindly in love with kkkk… rajs, rohiths, rohans, and their preceding stupid group dance and songs and their Mogembo fathers and uncles. jai cinema… :)