Writer: Janak

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Watch this if you liked: “Mahabaratta”, “Sarkar Raj” & “The Godfather”

"Rajneeti" (meaning "Politics") is all about the gaining of political power within India. When the political leader of Pratap's family falls terribly ill, the power automatically is given to younger brother Chandra Pratap (Chetan Pandit). Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpayee) the eldest brother's son, was hoping to get the rights but unfortunately, the younger brother's two sons, Prithviraj Pratap (Arjun Rampal), an ambitious political leader and Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor), gets entangled in between. Samar, who does not believe in politics, also gets toggled between his girlfriend Sarah (Sarah Jean Thompson) and the Indu (Katrina Kaif), the daughter of an industrialist.

With no choice, Veerendra Pratap joins Sooraj Kumar (Ajay Devgan) an opposing party called Dalits, to take the revenge on his cousins. Thus, begins the dark and gripping story of Pratap's family towards the one thing that they desire most, the political power to control India.

"Rajneeti" is like when "Mahabharatha" meets "Godfather". One can really learn on how politics work, run and are managed by a group of people who are able to influence the minds of the public. Plot wise, director Prakesh Jha failed to showcase the society's intense emotions toward politics in India. The introduction of characters within the first half itself would have already confuse audiences and the second half was a dull and boring, reducing the film's pace dramatically. Thankfully, cinematographer (Sachin Krishn) did a good job with the backdrop which featured multi shades for each character that appeared throughout in the film. Above that, the surroundings looked very real as though a real political campaign was going on.

The must listen tracks are definitely 'Bheegi Si' composed by Pritam, 'Mora Piya' by Aadesh Srivastava and 'Dhan Dhan Dharti' composed by Wayne Sharp. For obvious reasons, the background score is much better than the songs as one really can sense the theme of dark politics.

Despite a rather dull plot, "Rajneeti" is somehow still an entertaining movie to watch with a huge Bollywood multi star cast. Overall, the multi star cast steals the attention from the plot and takes it away literally.

Cinema Online, 07 June 2010