Rajneeti - Modern Mahabharata, the bollywood way!

Yes. I watched the movie and I'm going to write about it. In one line. I'm wondering who in the world gave it 4 stars and why?

Just one look at the posters... woaah... what I star cast I must say. When my cousins asked me if I wanted to go, I said sure. After all, one can watch the movie only for the star cast. But now I realize that one can watch it only for the star cast. Not taking credit away from Prakash Jha. We all know he is a good director and makes serious films. But the story here really wasn't all that great. Bad politics it is but too many subplots. Too much confusion for a normal viewer. The pace of the movie was good. Another good thing was that none of the characters were larger than life in the sense that all characters were shown with both their good sides and their grey shades. It was never that this guy is good and the other bad. Much effort has gone into careful character sketching of all the main protagonists.

Weirdest scene: The one with Shruti Seth and Arjun Rampal right at the beginning where she is trying to get herself a party ticket. Well, this scene was a bit too explicit in a rather distasteful manner. One would have expected it to be handled a little more maturedly.

Weirdest dialogue: When contemporary Kunti meets the new Karna. 'Yeh satya hai. Tum mere jesht putra ho.' It might be my sheer ignorance that this is the hindi they still speak in Madhya Pradesh. But all said and done, with such bad acting from the lady in the scene and the surrounding drama this dialogue seemed right out of the classic mahabharat setting and sounded too over the top.

The Good Part: Undoubtedly, the acting. Nana Patekar and Manoj Bajpai, brilliant as usual. Ajay Devgan is as good as always. Arjun Rampal is for sure more an actor than a model. Ranbir Kapoor has done a very good job. He sure has acting in his blood. I was looking forward to watching the exceptional Naseeruddin Shah for more than just the three scenes. But what screen presence. Ah! Many scenes were very well made and I liked the cinematography. The movie in a whole had a very natural look when it came to art direction and the sorts.

The Bad part: I'm convinced now. Katrina Kaif is beautiful but cannot be an actor. I thought that a serious role would actually bring out some good acting from her. But I was wrong. She seems to be getting better at her hindi but it will be years before she speaks it properly. She was a misfit for the role. So also was Nikhila Trikha who plays the mother. When I initially saw a new face, I thought she would be a theatre actress or so. But in many scenes her acting was mediocre. Her hairdo was awful as the old lady. It looked like one of those old fashioned wigs they had in the seventies. There was also a song and dance rather absurdly thrown in with a nightclub setting and which ended abruptly. Could have been avoided.

The biggest let down was probably my expectations from the movie. With Prakash Jha at the helm and such a wonderful cast, I sure expected more.

Too many things happening, loads of sex and violence in a family drama it sure felt like a plot from a Sidney Sheldon novel in Indian mileu but not as good.