Movie review - Rajneeti

It is a stupid movie -- I dont stand by this review any more.



It is a drama. Paints a contemporary Indian political scenario taking plots from Mahabharat, Congress and Nehru-Gandhi family and - people who've seen Godfather say - Godfather. Overall, good. Go watch it.

Let me map the characters and rate the performances:

Arjun Rampal (Sanjay Gandhi, Yudhishthir) - awesome: has a well written complete role. Dresses well, looks good.

Ranbir Kapoor (Rajeev Gandhi, Arjun) - very good: never off the line.

Katrina Kaif (Panchali, Menaka Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi) - good: different role. Speaks Hindi with 'hum' replacing 'main' to tint a UP-Bihar tone.

Naseeruddin shah (Kunti's Surya dev) - 5 mins role

Ajay Devgan (Karna) - awesome: but has a sidelined role. Him you can relate to, but his character is not the lead in any sequence. Does not have scenes that only he dominates.

Nana Patekar (Krishna) - very good: has a role toned-down compared to the power he is capable of delivering.

Manoj Bajpai (Duryodhan) - has been made to act unrealistically. He plays the drama but you don't connect with him. That is probably because his character is stupid and has not even a single intelligent plan or sincere positive emotion to deliver.

Sara (foreign Sonia Gandhi) - plays her role well.

Story - awesome.

Dialogues - mostly good, restraint as they should be. One sequence is very badly done though - the Kunti-Karna tryst: they didn't have to pull lines straight out of Rashmirathi and put them into Kunti's mouth in archaic Hindi ("jyestha putra", she calls Ajay Devgan!).

Yes, again, overall good. Go watch it.